I went to visit a ceramist friend who had moved to a semi-rural area to begin construction on his dream house. The design theme would center on his hand-made terracotta tiles and décor. It had been in progress for more than a year (and will always be, he says, while he lives) and several of us had made our individual trips to visit and lend our skills and manual labor.

That weekend, we, his friends, were all out there in force: his fellow-ceramists, painters, sculptors, weavers and carvers; even the musicians were there – only to entertain the peons, they said, as their hands were too delicate for such common work (for which they had to dodge banana peels).

The first thing our friend had had built on his property, even before the foundations of his house, was a huge kiln. Our particular program that weekend was to help him load for firing all the pieces we had made and shade dried over the last two weeks.

The ceramists had made a large batch of one-of-a-kind terracotta floor and wall tiles, dozens of slip cast platters, and three terracotta jackets (with holes for the electricals) to dress up his crock pots.

The rest of us had made free standing terracotta sculpture, vases, ash trays, free form plates, mugs, masks and other wall décor.

It was hot and back-breaking work (even the musicians helped) but at the end of the day, singing around the bonfire, occasionally adding wood to the kiln, bellies full, we were as excited as our friend and looking forward to eventually seeing our finished work installed in his house.