Some of the American Out-West _ Bryce Canyon

This August (2024) it will be nine years living in Logan UT USA. I came to this continent for going to school, and life had plans for me, I have continued to stay. I am learning the ways of life in this culture, society and land. The experience of this land is exquisite. I would not have imagined in my wildest dreams the kind of beauty the natural parks, landscape and surrounding has....

In any case, this was the first time when my husband and I ventured out to explore five different national parks, and not only visited the look out point but hiked into the valleys and canyons to really feel the space, and breathe its air, learn about its history and understand its value. 

The trip was about two weeks, and this is the area we covered - 

Our first stop was Bryce Canyon National Park. We did two hikes during our stay, and heres image of one of the hikes we did - 

The following images are when we were in the canyon, and admiring the absolutely stunning beauty of the red earth. Well it was not all red, and not only red. There were many different hues of the color, warm and energetic. The weathering, wind and water have sculpted these land forms in such a stunning fashion that it is overwhelmingly inspiring. The pioneers call them 'hoodoos' It is a clay artists marvel. These rocks were formed underwater, called sedimentary rocks. Some layers are harder to erode than the other softer layers. Hence they look like these congregation of anthropomorphic shapes. Throughly amazing... and seeing them from different levels, and we hiked was mind blowing amazing. 

The intense blue sky with spread of fluffy clouds was the perfect backdrop for this inspiring sight. 

The scale and expanse of it was also hugely inspiring!

The return climb to the top was very steep. The trail had many switchbacks, and we stopped every couple of those to catch our breathe and hydrate before taking on further climb. It was intense yet rewarding. 

We ran into some lovely people who took our picture against the red canyon. 

We ate some amazing food at the restaurant at the lodge, It was in the heart of the park, and served delicious food. There was not a lot of choice, but enough for us to be satisfied and excited to return. 

The national park is spread across thirteen miles, which is pitch road. We drove and stopped at the various look out points to get more overwhelmed and inspired!

We did try to get to the theatre to watch the sunlight slowly lightening up the hoodoos. The clouds played a role in the drama being subtle. 

The hike we did on the second day brought to us different perspective of the canyon. We also came across the tiny little glimpse of snow, which remained unmelted only to our surprize. We were there in mid May. The temperatures were thankfully not very hot, and it was pleasant for Robert, and cool for me in the shadows of the mountains and trees!

It was rare to see flowers, but they were there, a few and far in between. These yellow ones on cactus caught my eye and I absolutely loved them.

Our stay was exciting and wonderful, and we left with plans of returning to the park with a longer time duration to simply stay and go do other small and big hikes in the canyon. 

I will share about our next stop - Antelope Canyon in my next post. 

Thanks for reading!

Beehive kilns - my surprising discovery

In India,

click for detail

In the summer of 2012, I started to explore the possibility of setting up a ceramic studio at my ancestral home. My ancestors lived in a small village of nearly 50 families at the time, called Asthua. The closest town (Laheriasarai) with any markets or household goods was 30kms away, and travel to it required almost an hour of tiring drive on very rough roads. This area is rich in alluvial soil, and agriculture is the dominant industry. 

During an earlier trip to Japan, I learned that potters would use clay from the agricultural lands as part of the composition for stoneware clay body. In this area, then, I had direct access to largest part of material required in producing stoneware clay. Within a radius of 500kms were several coal mines, which indicated deposits of kaolin, a refractory material, and other minerals that would become part of the remaining raw material for my work.

480km away from Asthua is the industrial township of Bokaro Steel City, where I lived for a good portion of my youth.  With many large furnaces used in steel production, refractory bricks were ubiquitous throughout the area.  This was a perfect setting for me to further my research of refractory materials, and I made a revelatory visit to the area called Ramgarh where they made refractory bricks for the steel factories.

click for detail

My first surprise was the discovery that beehive kilns were being used for this purpose. 

I had read that Jun Kaneko, the famous Japanese-American artist made monumental ceramic work and fired them in beehive kilns. How could they possibly be found in India as well, I wondered? 

Have a look:

10 meter diameter beehive kiln chamber. One can see the tall entrance, through which women would carry tall piles of bricks on their heads to load the kiln. The door would be bricked up and the shorter opening with grate that you see are the ports for burning fuel (coal). 

Notice the thick wall, the stacks of fired bricks for structure and raw brick stacks, and the flue on the ground, indicating that this is a downdraft kiln. The metal structure bracing the wall in place is in itself very intriguing.

One of the women worker seen here loading up the kiln. 

A closer look at the opening on the floor, flue hole, which formed a circle nearly six inches inside the wall. The bricks to be fired were stacked within the circle of the flue. 

A closer look at the firebox! The brick pile to the side would be used to shut this opening during the firing. Notice the grate and the colour of the metal reinforcement.

Approximately 30meter tall chimney for four such domes. Like many such operations, they would have one chamber loading up, one firing, one cooling, and one unloading on any given day. 

In this image, one sees the chimney to the left, another chamber straight ahead and one to the right. Do you see the round disk-like object leaning against the right chamber?  Thats an old damper! Under the ground is the channel which connects the flue to the chimney. A disk-like damper is used for monitoring the draft during firing. 

Needless to say, the chimney is never allowed to cool down!

The factory manager shared information about the sources for kaolin, ball clay and feldspar that was most needed for my quest. I returned home with a bunch of notes that are still sitting in a box at my family home, as yet untapped.  Since then, my life has brought me to Utah State University, where I continue to work.  I had not thought of this strange coincidence again until the recent Archie Bray Instagram post reminded me of this amazing discovery and inspired me to share!

I still wonder how it is possible that these kilns, with such similar designs, are found on opposite sides of the world?  Could the fact that both America and India were British colonies have something to do with it? My mind was, and still is, pondering this mystery...


Thanks for visiting!  Please feel free to comment, I would love to hear from you!