Dancing water

Visiting granddaughters prompted me to get out the dancing water bowl again. We took turns, with varying degrees of success, but I did get the water dancing at two of the four focal points, these last seemingly provided by the crests of the four dragons occupying the bottom of the bowl.

The lady in the shop from which I bought the bowl, a lady from Hong Kong, managed without any fuss, but we tried every combination of slab, tile and cloth, in the end deciding that we needed all three. But one layer of cloth rather than two, which last was too damping. And it seemed to work best with the edge of the bowl projecting an inch or so beyond the edge of the tile, invisible under the cloth but right in the snap above.

To work the bowl, one sat on the six by two right. A contraption which started life as a table, made from scrap timber from a new art college in Croydon (possibly now demolished), more than fifty years ago. That is to say, before we were married. Subsequently repurposed to double as a low-rise carpenter's bench. Which served its turn, if not very good for the back, it being near a foot too low for comfort.

The top of the northwestern crest should be visible in the snap above if you click to enlarge.

We concentrated on lowering the water level, thinking the less the better, with the water not much more than half an inch deep. But after the girls left, just before packing up, I gave it a go with the bowl more or less full, water well over an inch deep. And on this occasion at least, this worked much better. Dancing at all four points, if not quite in the same league as some of the clips I have seen on YouTube.

Perhaps I will have another go today, Tuesday.

PS: while I was reviewing this post on Tuesday afternoon, Bing took it into his head to look around for something similar, coming up with more or less the same bowl (from reference 2), plus a couple of other offerings. His suggested use is as a wash basin, while my thoughts were more sacred. I think that the story I was told was that these bowls used to be placed outside temples so that devotees could check whether the spirits were with them before going in. Nothing so mundane as washing your hands, never mind your coffee cups. To be fair to Bing, I think my fingers slipped - but on the other hand, he does make full use of such opportunities to interfere.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/04/easter-celebrations.html. The last effort looks to have been more than two years ago.

Reference 2: https://www.made-in-china.com/.