Goodbye & Thank You, Ghana

I will miss Ghana and all of the incredible people I have met there who were so welcoming and friendly beyond compare. A special thanks to the following people for making my trip so exceptional:

Francis Boateng – a fun, upbeat, politically-minded, and talented artist who has great hopes and dreams for Ghana. I was lucky to have Francis along with me during most of my travel from Accra, and he introduced me to potters and friends all over the country. He taught me so much about Ghana beyond pottery and art. I will miss our conversations on just about everything.

James Kafui Ahiave – It was an honor to work with such a gifted, humble, and patient person. Special thanks to James for befriending me and teaching me cement sculpting and ceramic firing methods. One of the nicest, most genuine people I have ever met.

Aba (Ellie Schimelman) – A former teacher from Boston, Aba lives an important and unconventional life, dedicating the past 20 years to helping the children of Nungua. She was the bridge that connected me to everything in Ghana. I owe her a debt of gratitude for helping me plan my trip to Ghana, arranging for me to meet potters and artists. 

Talk True – (Chef from Aba House) I already miss his food, and even more I miss his friendly and honest personality. Talk True, I hope you write a cookbook so I can try to reproduce your ginger hibiscus iced tea, red red, cabbage stew, fried plantains, banana bread, and African pizza.

Rally Debrah – represents something I found often in Ghana – people juggling a way to pursue their careers while simultaneously dedicating themselves to some kind of public service for the community. Aside from being a professor at NKUST and other ambitious projects, she has started a non-profit to help children go to school, and women from Northern Ghana to learn artistic skills to make clothes. I hope we can stay in touch.

Ben Kwao Adipah – art education consultant and former Ghanaian art teacher - your kindness, conversations with me about Ghana and art education, and your generosity were greatly appreciated. I wish I had much more time to learn from your ideas and experience.

To all the potters and artists who invited me into their homes and studios, and spent countless hours sharing their knowledge and techniques with me, I am forever grateful.

Barrel Firing

James & I teamed up again today to do a barrel kiln firing with the Aba students. We stacked their dry clay works with layers of sawdust and wood chips, and then topped off the barrel with hot coals, which burned slowly toward the bottom in a matter of about ten hours. It was definitely the quickest, easiest method I’ve ever used to turn clay into ceramics. We sent out some of the Aba kids to a local woodworker to ask for his sawdust scraps. The kids came back with three giant bags.

The final layer is on - time to start the fire!

A couple hours after we added some hot coals, the sawdust was burning slow and steady.

The kiln burned all night, which was surprising considering we only used sawdust and wood shavings. It was still too hot to unload this morning, so we used sticks & shovels and rags to start grabbing work to see the results.

Ghanaian Handshake

The Ghanaians greet everyone with this fun handshake that ends with a snap.

Step 1: Start by grabbing each other's fists.

Step 2: Shake hands.

Step 3: As you release the handshake, your middle fingers and thumbs grab each other to snap.

Step 4: Finish the snap.

James Ahiave Sculptures

James Ahiave is an artist from Nungua whose work is all over town. He sculpts free forms from sand and cement such as the alligators below, and he decorates columns and sculpts panel reliefs on local architecture. Today he came to Aba House to demonstrate his techniques for mixing clay sand with cement to use as a sculpting medium. As it slowly dries, it is not much different than carving clay. Thanks, James, for being such a great teacher and friend while I was in Ghana.