With the carpeting project in the Visitor's Center now complete, the maintenance and renovations came to a close ... on the inside.

However, work continued outdoors. The wooden helix sculpture, formerly a faded red color, underwent a shift this week - from a bright white primer to the amarillo yellow it is now.

Continuing with our report on the Gallery refinements ...

Nick Bortel and Melissa Soluski spent the past week removing the grey carpeting that adorned the floor of the Visitor's Center. After some heavy lifting and rearrangement of Quaderno booklets, they got to work pulling out the old carpet roll, and sanding out the floor.




This cleared the way for the new rouge carpeting squares. Trimming an edge to fit, Bortel arranges the tiles in place beneath a ceramics display area.











Wrapping up the job: the two enter the homestretch, with a bright new trail beneath them. As well, the Maintenance Crew was active in the Gallery last week. In the picture on the right, Manager Randall Schultz represents his department. Harness-clad, he poses before the background of the summer screen, put in place in the ceiling of the Crafts III building.

Annually welcoming 50,000 tourists to Arcosanti means it is important to keep our Visitor's Centre maintained. About a year ago, this meant acquiring a television to play a DVD created by Arcosanti alumni Julian Lauzzana. Assembled from excerpts of David S. Mayne's recording, Lauzzana crafted a tour video that depicts the history of Arcosanti and Paolo Soleri. Interviews with scholars on urban design and sociology fill out the shots of the site and the remarks by Dr. Soleri.

More recently, a construction team has been focusing on the floor of the Gallery. Stripping and sanding the hardwood entryway took nightly commitments. Melissa Soluski, David Ledbetter, and Patrick Doyle were the nighthawks responsible for the transformation process.







Now, a treated floor greets visitors to the site. The Gallery is the pivot point for most visitors at Arcosanti, so a new floor is a welcome change.

The May Workshop at Arcosanti has begun! Earlier this month, six new individuals came to participate in this work-in-progress we call a prototype arcology. Among their cohort, the stays vary - some for a short while at only two weeks, and others as long as a three month internship. Welcome!







(back row) Mike Schroeder, Alex West, Jessica Weninger
(front row) Spencer Todd, Starlyn Cag, Alex Dixon

In the hot summer month, here at Arcosanti, the wonderful pool is so very important. With temperatures around 100 degrees for month on end, it is such a relief to be able to jump into a nice cool pool.
The pool was emptied at the end of last year for some overdue deep cleaning and maintenance.

The maintenance department, with some help from crewmembers of other departments, spent some month scraping and power washing, to get rid of lots of calcium deposits.
The under water light fixtures were fixed, cavities around the fixtures received some attention, and some of the plumbing had to be re-done.

And just in time the pool is ready for another season.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you" to the maintenance department, construction and utilities crew, and volunteers.

Earlier this week, the Soleri Archives received a package from Jaye George, Arcosanti's Ambassador to Nepal. Ms. George, of Paradise Valley, Arizona, took a trip to the Himalayas in October 2007. With her, she took the gift of a bronze Soleri bell named "Temple of Understanding." Here she is with Paolo Soleri at Cosanti prior to her departure.

"We made it!" Jaye George stands proudly, with a group of Sherpa guides at "The School in the Clouds". On her right is the Head Master, Ang Rita, who was only too excited to receive the bell.

In 1953, Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay made worldwide headlines as the first people to reach the summit of earth's highest peak, Mount Everest. After that event, Sir Edmund Hillary continued to work closely with the people of Everest, enabling the construction of the first schools and hospitals for the people there. Here, Hillary poses with a younger Ang Rita (far left) and others in front of one of the schools built via Hillary's fundraising efforts.


Dear Paolo,

I want to tell you about your very special bell's journey - first to India, then 4 days in Khatmandu waiting for the weather to clear, then in a Russian helicopter to Lukla, the shortest runway in the world.

The Lukla Airport is where we picked up the trail. This was the start of an eight-day Trek, which included several high swinging rope bridges, high altitude villages, and the sound of yak bells echoing through the mountains.

There were many difficult days of challenging breathing and physical exhaustion while being treated to the most beautiful visions I have ever seen, on the way to the "School in the clouds" at 13,000 feet.

As we approached the school with our Sherpa guides, the Head Master came to greet us. He was the only one there as the school children were on vacation. Several members of my trekking group took a turn at carrying the bell as it became heavier and heavier above 10,000 feet.

Ang Rita Sherpa, 3rd from the right, was overwhelmed with the gift as were the other Sherpas. One had summitted Everest 9 times and the other 11 times. You should know that your gift truly gave joy to many people. It was a great joy for everyone to see it for the first time when the School Master unwrapped it. The bell facilitated everyone's connection with the Sherpa people and the importance of Sir Edmund Hillary's work.

Mission Accomplished, Jaye George

Arcosanti was bustling with activity for Saturday's annual Sounds and Tastes of India festival. Beginning in early afternoon, residents and visitors alike were treated to a classical Indian dance workshop with Prachi Dixit of Nupur Dance Academy. A full body workout, participants had fun learning to curve and sweep themselves in the traditional elegance of the Indian style.

As the afternoon drew on, musicians gathered for a more sonorous workshop. Here again, residents and guests found themselves charmed by the santoor master Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya, a former student of Ravi Shankar; and an accompanying tabla player, Abhishek Basu. The gentlemen shared their musical knowledge with their audience of students, serving as an enticing warm-up for the evening's performance.

After tours of Arcosanti and a delicious Indian dinner served in the Cafe, guests moved to Colly Soleri Music Center. Here, taking in the mesmerizing traditional Indian dancers, the audience was captivated by the talents of Bhattacharya and Basu on their unique instruments. A beautiful starlit night was only enhanced by such an enchanting day's events.

Congratulations to the April 6. workshop participants upon their graduation
on Friday, May 9. 2008:
[from left]
Shane Hayden, Gregg Elliott, Daniel Copperman, Yong Su Park and Antonio De Biase.

More on the ceramic bell casting method at Arcosanti: here, the Silt-Cast bells have been removed from the silt counter, and are drying on the deck of the Ceramics Apse. They must reach a stage of hardness where the artists can handle them without malforming them.

Here, Ceramics Manager Edward Werman performs Quality Control, ensuring that the bells are uniform in size and thickness.

Pressing a hole into the top of the bell prepares them to be hung. And then, a light dusting with talc provides a coating for the Silt-Cast bells, acting as a color-contrast to the carving.

Of course, the bells are not complete at this point. As such, we will continue our report on the Silt-Cast process ... in the anticipated past.

Continuing with our report on the Silt-Cast bell technique from Monday, we follow the bells through to their next stage of creation.

Here, you see the bells in an early phase. The moisture content of the air and the amount of sunlight on the day that the bells are poured affects their drying rate. At this particular point, the excess slip has been removed with a ladel and suction device to ensure a uniform thickness around the edges of the bell.

At the next stage, you see that Ceramics Manager Edward Werman carefully plucks the bells from their silt molds and lines them on the front counter. The bells are not completely hardened at this point. Instead, they have dried to the point that the Ceramics artists can handle them without misshaping the bells. On the Ceramics webpage, Edward notes a unique aspect of the Silt-Cast method: "Since the walls are firm but not solid, it is possible to make indentations directly into the silt mold walls which also get filled with slip. These negative impressions translate into positive relief patterns on the surface of the bell when it is removed from the mold. This feature cannot be duplicated with the plaster molds since they are solid structures."

Finally, the Silt-Cast bells are lightly doused with water, to remove the residual silt from their outer edges. Edward points out some more of the variations between Plaster-Cast and Silt-Cast bells: "Another difference concerns the surface of the silt mold which has a rough texture reflecting the characteristic of the sand and this feature is picked up by the surface of the bell. The plaster molds have smooth interior surfaces and its bells also pick up and reflect a smooth surface."

This report continues on 5/9/08.

As the weather gets warmer, Ceramics Studio staff prepares the silt bed for a pour of silt-cast bells.
The silt comes from the Agua Fria river-bed and is pre-moistened and then sifted into a concrete trough.
[from left] Ceramics manager Ed Werman sifts the silt through a screen while staff Joelle McTigue shovels the very fine silt onto the screen.
Ed uses a master made of plaster, that is shaped exactly like the bell to be produced. This plaster master is carefully plunged into the silt, forming a conical cavity in that silt. When the master is removed it leaves behind a mold in the silt, shaped exactly like the master.

Raw clay is mixed with water until the clay dissolves and forms a thick milk-shake-like consistency known as slip.
This slip is poured into the silt molds and then allowed to set.
Silt acts like a sponge drawing out the water molecules from the slip. The clay molecules are too large to pass into the silt, so they get deposited along the inside walls of the silt molds. [Joelle and Rebecca pour slip into the silt molds].

As this process continues a clay shell begins to form inside the mold which increases over time. When the ceramicist decides that the thickness of the shell is correct for that particular style, a suction device is used to extract the remaining liquid slip from the center of the mold leaving the shell behind. This shell is the bell in its early stage of production.
[Ceramics staff Joelle, Rebecca, Colleen and Ed from the roof of the Ceramics Apse].
This report continues on 5/7/08.

While Paolo Soleri was in Rome for the conference on sustainability in April 2008, he also went to Naples to attend a special conference organized for him by Professor Luigi Fusco Girard at Naples’ prestigious School of Architecture.

The conference was attended by about 200 students and professors. Architect Iolanda Lima, author of the book “Soleri, Architecture as Human Ecology” also attended the event.
Paolo Soleri’s presentation included a complete slide show of his most recent projects, including SOLARE and the SUN DIAL BRIDGE designed for the Arizona Canal in Scottsdale, AZ.