Author: <span>Dave Hamel</span>

Something rotten in the state of Newmarket

My taxes have gone up again this year.  Which isn’t too surprising there are only two guarantees in life: death and taxes. What really grinds my gears though is when that money isn’t spent appropriately.  Take a look at the salaries various mayors I got from this Toronto Star article. …

Some old photos

I came across some old photos while looking for something on my computer. Zuimei and I in Xian,  Zuimei in Shanghai, Me (25 years old) in Dort Kalesei in Turkey, My friend Neil and I standing in the Mediterranean, Me with hemp growing in Pakistan, and me playing a very serious …

A year in review

Every December I like to take stock of the year that just passed.  Normally I would read through my blog posts and remind myself of what I had done but this year there were not a lot of posts.  I am not entirely sure why though. Perhaps I was busy, I …

The French Canadian

Have you ever had a London fog? It’s a drink at Starbucks which is English Breakfast tea, steamed milk and vanilla syrup.  At Balzac’s they offer a Parisian mist, which is essentially the same thing but with French Breakfast tea. Well I came up with my own I call “the …

Lessons from pottery

I am learning some very important life lessons since I started throwing pots.  The most obvious to me is patience. Patience is everything in pottery. First in throwing.  If you try to rush a piece and pull to hard your piece will end up lop-sided and uneven.  Since “there is …

Thanks Matt!

  As I continue in my creation of my own glazes I look to other potters as a source of information.  Matt Fiske’s Blog was one of the first sites I hooked into and in short order I read every post.  I highly recommend you check it out.  You can …