Porcelain and Wool.

I am almost finished with my proposal for the scholarship to go and study in Japan. At the moment I am gathering the last of the materials to finalize my project idea. The porcelain fragments you see were collected over a period of a few years from the river shore in Lisbon, between Cais do Sodré and Cais da Colunas. Those more familiar with this area of Lisbon, Ribeira da Naus, know it has been recently redeveloped and what remained of what I called "my beach" has been buried under concrete.

The beach is gone and with it all those treasures that ranged from marbles to glass beads, chinese porcelain (perhaps Japanese too) and portuguese faience and tiles to name a few, from a time long long ago, with many of these artifacts predating the great earthquake of 1755. Well, actually, there are even some fragments of Roman amphora, like those found at the Millennium Foundation´s Archeological Nucleus in Lisbon, and even a nice example of terra sigillata… and so on.

But for now I am just interested in the Oriental Porcelain and the wool.

The wool was given to me by a friend. I am not sure of its origin, but I think it came from the Tavares Mill in Guarda. It smells like sheep, so there is no denying that it really came from one, but what kind of sheep is hard to say.