Volcano Pottery

Poole Pottery have launched a volcano range, which is supposed to be erupting with red and orange hues. It really doesn't suggest a volcano to me I think that a red inside and black outside would be far more volcanic but what do I know.

 This is the metropolitan vase. Here are the other items in the volcano range if you think they are gross then check out the African Sky or Sunrise range.

. I like this effort far more. 

I have also found out about the volcano art centre which has an annual pottery sale, it's in the village of Volcano on Big Island, Hawaii. I think I know where I want to live when I grow up. 

I also went to the semiconductor exhibition in Liverpool which I'll write about when I have more energy.

Volcano of the Week #20 - Whakaari

This is a tiny volcano island in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand and is also known as the White Island, but that's not as fun. Its about 2km in diameter and the volcano rises about 300m out of the sea. It is an active stratovolcano which last erupted in 2001. While the volcano had obviously previously been known to Maori who named it Whakaari, which means 'that which can be made visible' which is an accurate name as much of the volcano lies underwater, it was 'discovered' in 1769 by Captain Cook who called it White Island. This was because it was immersed in a cloud of smoke so it looked white, but the didn't realise it was a volcano, I know I'm no explorer but I could have probably told you that the large mountain spewing fire and smoke was probably a volcano. I'm glad I was never in Cook at St Peters- to explain this reference my junior school houses were divided into explorers, I was in Scott which totally ruled, the others were Cook, Raleigh and Drake- they sucked. The Maori used the sulphur from the volcano as garden fertiliser and ate the muttonbirds that lived on the island, the later sold the island to the Dutch for 2 barrels of rum - sounds like a great deal.

Later they tried to use the island to mine sulphur, which may sound like an incredibly stupid thing to do but there are volcanoes in the world where they still mine sulphur. The stopped doing it on Whakaari after a mudflow from the volcano killed all 10 workers- according to wikipedia the camp cat survived- I hope by this they mean he was a bit hammy. The sulphur was used for an anitbacterial aid to sterilise corks and stuff. The island is a scenic reserve and you cannot land without permission so take this into consideration when visiting all volcanoes of the world. There is a drama school called Toi Whakaari which looks pretty cool if you like that sort of thing.

Finally I strongly recommend looking at this on googlemaps- but I say that about everything. 

Volcano leaflets

I was given two amazing leaflets at the weekend; the first of which is from Scotland. My aunt went to the Shetland Islands recently- she sent me that picture of the odd volcano monument thing on a beach. Part of the Shetlands were formed by a volcano (Eshraness) - back in the old times when the UK was part of pangaea and close to the equator. This has given the islands amazing and dramatic landscapes, although I've never actually been there so I'm just guessing from the leaflet which guide you through some volcano trails taking you to a magma chamber and beaches where you can find volcanic rock. Even though it's highly illegal Kate stole me some of the volcanic rock which is very light and aerated, you can see it in the photo below. So in addition to wanting to go to all Hebridean islands I now also want to go to the Shetlands.

If you're thinking that all this seems a bit implausible then the second volcano leaflet is far more accurate. My brother is a TEFL teacher- which means he teaches English as a foreign language as opposed to teaching frying pans how to be non-stick. For a lesson his students had to create an island (if this seems like an odd task, he has also made them play Bargain Hunt) and the centre of one of the islands had a volcano. I think it was perhaps bad town planning that the mall was positioned next to a volcano; but it is amazing how much the map looks like a map of Hawaii's volcanoes.

Finally in Volcano news people have decided that volcanoes are so fantastic that they will create artificial ones to solve all the worlds problems. And I'm also finally going to go to this exhibition in Liverpool. I'm sure it'll be fantastic and I will write a full review.

Stamps and Not Stamps.

This time last year I wrote a post about all the volcano related things at Green Man Festival, after my return this year I only saw one volcano related thing at the entire festival- WTF? This was during the singalongwickerman screening, which is where you watch The Wicker Man but you get hymn books, sweets and learn the dance to the maypole song. So anyway Lord Summerisle says his grandfather settled on the Scottish island because of its rich volcanic soils, he then set up a lifestyle of paganism and debauchery (which has always looked like a lot of fun). I'll stop writing about The Wicker Man as it's not really relevant but I have also received more evidence of Scottish volcanoes; which are from my mother and her sister- too freaky to be a coincidence?! 

My Mummy's Stamp Design. I now have England and Scotland so it would be great if someone wants to make a Wales or Ireland stamp or wants to contribute any other stamps. Please email me some, I'm too lazy to make my own zines.

My Aunt found this on a beach on Shetland Islands.

In non Scottish Volcano news - I know it's hard to believe there could be some. 

Here is Isaac's volcano stamp- it's based on a book cover apparently.

I have also been asked if this scenario is possible. While it is not something that one would find in the wild, I say that it would be possible to create using a towel, lots of petals and a very powerful hair dryer. Alternatively you could use photoshop, although as we know - Photoshopping adverts is bad!

I think that's all my volcanic news for now, but there's exciting stuff in the magma chamber (or pipeline for non-volcano geeks). I have read this through but I'm very tired so would like to apologise in advance to my editor and readers. 

First Volcano Stamp

The creator says 

'Volcanic activity in England 
No. 1 Bradgate Park, Leicestershire'. The Precambrian rocks there are 
over 500 million years old.

 Isaac is still pissing about with his but it looks like that'll be ready soon too.

Design a Volcano Stamp!

For the new zine which will be travel based I am going to include some volcano stamps. I have previously written about real volcano stamps here. But I thought it would be cool for people to design volcano stamps. I would put this out as a competition and offer to make the best one but the royal mail ones are shit as you have to have a real stamp next to it and they are all gross so that seems a bit pointless but if you do want to make stamps  here is how. Also doing a competition would promote elitism which at Volcano Club we are against.
Here are my first two stamp designs.

Hopefully you will be suitably inspired to make a volcano stamp if so email to me at augusta.ward@hotmail.co.uk. Just remember that stamps are only about 2.5cm tall so don't write really tiny text on it or anything. If you have anything else to contribute to the travel based issue then email that to me. 

Girls + Zines

As I live in Manchester, I'm not really a big fan of promoting London based things but my friend is putting on an exhibition at Tatty Devine called Girls + Zines. Which rather obviously is full of zines made by girls, being a girl who makes zines, Volcano Club is in the exhibition well anyway I think it is but I haven't been yet, I hope I can make it as it looks pretty great. In an interview with Dazed Digital Barbara said Volcano Club is ace too – it's a really nerdy zine about everything volcano related. This may not sound like amazing praise but I think until this point VCs best feedback was "it looks like the type of thing a serial killer would do in Morse" I might start collecting all these quotes, maybe that'll be the zine I make when I really run out of ideas. 

From Barbara via Hastings, who knew there was such volcanicity in East Sussex.