amjamin

Phillip Supersad playing a tune on a ceramic drum Sporting the aura of a dreadlocked ascetic of India transcending from the Himalayas ... just that this particular art ascetic descended from the hills of Manchester, clad in denim, engrossed in the drums, Phillip Supersad’s fingers rhythmically hit a tune.  The ceramist, teacher and drummer is living several creative traits. Surrounded by his tools of trade, Supersad manufactures drums and ceramics in his studio, nestled in a bylane of Fletcher’s Land in downtown Kingston. “The Jamaica School of Arts was in this compound,” he said. A crumbling great house surrounded by ramshackle structures and a rusting wrought-iron staircase standing testimony to its former glory. Supersad is a self-taught drum maker, “The materials that I use are 100 per cent recyclable,” he informed. “I use palette board, which is white and yellow pine used for packing; it is recyclable material. I get goat skin from the butcher or abattoirs....

Norma Rodney Harrack transforms clay into a work of art  Norma Rodney Harrack takes a lump of clay, kneads it into a ball and throws it on the top of a spinning wheel, with a flick of a button the spin is set in motion as her nimble yet firm hand movements start transforming that lump of clay into a vessel. “The potter’s wheel was a synchronization of feet hand and brain,” Rodney Harrack said, working like a drummer in harmony - tapping the pedal with his foot to play the bass drum as the hands work the drum sticks on the cymbals to produce beats.  Pottery, Rodney Harrack says, is a very meticulous process requiring patience and hard work.  Like cooking, the prepping of the ingredients is a time consuming task. It starts with choosing the right clay, which is soaked for around two weeks to get the sediments settle down, then passed through a sieve. “The clay is in a consistency of thick ice cream, it is then kept to dry, when it becomes a leather hard...