The Potter, the Work (so far)

...failure with clay was more complete and more spectacular 

than with other forms of art. 

You are subject to the elements... 

Any one of the old four - earth, air, fire, water - can betray you 

and melt, or burst, or shatter - 

months of work into dust and ashes and spitting steam. 

You need to be a precise scientist, 

and you need to know how to play with what chance will do 

to your lovingly constructed surfaces in the heat of the kiln. 

~ A. S. Byatt, The Children's Book

I've wanted to throw pots since I was about 5 years old. I was the "Play-doh kid." I made all kinds of things from it.

See this little girl? She is focused on that beautiful brown mug. The mug is Iroquois Casual China by Russell Wright. Daddy eventually dropped all these mugs, but I have since found two. There will never be a better mug, but I still try.*

After my grandmother died I found a Western Stoneware jug in her garage. It was the start of a stoneware collection that continues to inspire me. [I think I have written about the collection. I have started culling it and donating some pieces to museums.]

In 2010 I talked the ceramics instructor to teach a night class so that I could finally learn to throw pots (I was working full time plus - long story and so the class had to be at night).

Since that time I have hand built and learned to throw. I now work in earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain.  And I'm finally starting to feel comfortable in the clay. I have entered student shows and one regional show (with real ceramic artists!).

Package #4  - hand built from earthernware slip, burlap, and cardboard. Glazed with lowfire glazes and glass.

I try to take home very little because I need no more things. Most of the work is given away, often for charity fundraisers.

Here are some photos (and dates if I can figure them out). I suppose I will keep updating as I (hopefully) continue to progress

THE WORK:

Covered Containers:

First covered container - The God Spot

This is what it looked like without glaze

Different view. I threw this alone one weekend.

This is my second covered container. It's the same glaze - Vainy. The first container is more interesting, but this one is much lighter.

These just sit on the shelf. I'm not sure what they are for - hide stuff?

This is an example of my efforts to incorporate driftwood. I'm still working on it.

Mugs and cups:

A whiskey cup

Another whiskey cup

Tea cup and coffee mug made for some friends. I worked a long time on handles and I like those in the mugs below much better.

Assortment of black mugs.

Early work. These are all VERY HEAVY (we call them "bombs" when they are overly heavy). I still throw a bit bottom heavy to add stability - so kids and cats don't tip things over too easily. I loved watching how the glazes worked together, but my instructor said these just looked like I was testing the glazes.

Here I was practicing trimming.

Mugs, cups and vases. I usually like these handles.

These little cups were for candles. I am pretty fond of the blue and red glazing on the left.

I hope to find the right glaze for these dragonfly mugs. 2017

Mug and cup  - playing with glazes (These were to be purple and red, but the red glaze was empty).

Vases:

I have a talent for the "frumpy pot." I'm still working on that.

Yeah, I know there is a mug in the front, but look at that vase in the back.

One of my larger vases in porcelain. Glaze tends to slide or drip a bit on this smooth clay. I wasn't happy with the glaze on this piece, but I was glad to be throwing larger. "Collaring in" the neck has been challenging for me. I think I have the hang of it now.

Two tiny vases with a shino glaze. These are the vases I've been wanting to perfect.

Raku vase. My best so far.

This was a lovely pot, but the rim chipped badly. We use it as an example now. The bowl is also Raku, but unglazed with applied horse hair.

Love this glaze.

Throwing a vase for a Sinton friend, LH.  I love this shape. It took a purple glaze and was gorgeous with wildflowers. These tiny vases are hard to overfill.

Preparing to dip in glaze bucket.

Pouring out the extra glaze.

Nice little periwinkle blue glaze. Love this little guy.

Picked a bunch of wildflower to show how  it would look for my friend. She will be able to pick wildflowers for herself this year!

Candle cups and vases 2017

Vases waiting. The should be ordered the other direction. Three on the left are 2018. The little one is a 2017 waiting for an experimental glaze fire. The darker vase second from left is just thrown and waiting for bisque fire.

Baskets:

Another attempt to incorporate driftwood resulted in experiments with these "baskets." Some have turned out better than others. I've also tried deer antler handles.

Drying baskets.

Sizing antlers

I'm not sure any of these actually worked well.

Other stuff:

I make a face every semester. I'll add photos when I find them.

Test for retablo - Nave Museum fundraiser - words from Requiem by Eliza Gilkyson, used with permission.***

Some of the 2017 flight of Salvation of Doves project****

 NOTES:

* I found one mug in an antique shop outside of Seattle. The other I found online, I think. So I have them in the cabinet. I take them out and look at them, but I don't let anyone use them. Maybe I will start using them. [Also on the table are that fabulous napkin holder, a bottle of pepper sauce, a jar of fig preserves I bet, a cinnamon-sugar shaker, and a maraca. I guess we needed some music at breakfast - even though we were not allowed to read or sing at the table. When I got to make the rules singing and reading at the table was approved.] How could anyone grow up with Russell Wright china (Mom and Dad) and an Eva Zeisel sugar bowl (Grandma Grace) and not become a potter?

**Package #4 was in the Regional Ceramic Exhibition at the University of Dallas in 2011. Cynthia Bringle was the juror selecting 65 works from the 600+ entries and making 2 top awards and 10 Awards of Merit. I was stunned to receive an Award of Merit - almost danced home. [I only entered because my instructor made me. Thanks MM!]
https://udallas.edu/constantin/academics/programs/art/ceramics/regionalexhibitions.php
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138686818@N02/24356714552/in/album-72157663551128822/

***https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blaXoIwznVQ

****My 10 year project to raise money for Children's Outreach (CASA). It was designed to take me well into retirement. It has. [100 doves for 10 years] http://www.artofpeacefestival.com/13.html

Unending thanks to all my art teachers over the years especially MM, SP, and TH who patiently nudge me in the right direction(s) and don't laugh at the mud on my face.

Three Teapots

Making a teapot is considered a milestone for many people learning pottery, 

and it’s often presented as an intellectual challenge. 

While some get intimidated 

and struggle to complete their first one, 

making a teapot becomes easier 

and more fun 

the more you make.

~Yoko Sekino Bove

I've been doing clay for a while now - off and on since January 2010.* Somehow, during 8 years of ceramics classes, I've managed to avoid making a teapot. I didn't need a teapot. There are multiple parts (so they are harder). I could list a number of reasons NOT to make a teapot.

At the end of last semester my instructor, TH (the new guy), asked what my goals would be for spring. "Well," I confessed, "I have never made a teapot" (thinking I'd make one). TH suggested I make three. "They don't have to work."

My brain exploded a little - three teapots! How much time would that take away from my fumbling around and goofing off? I was going to have to pay attention.

Break ended and I came back with my goals (three teapots, throw bigger) in the back of my mind. I fumbled around and goofed off for a week or two. Getting back in the groove of throwing (centering and wedging are basic and still issues for me). I was surprised to find it all so easy. It's always magic to me. Maybe it's muscle memory. Maybe I just got out of my way. I don't know, but I felt confident and at ease. I've actually been helping students without that "you're a fraud" feeling.

One day I threw the pieces for a teapot. They looked okay. I made 3 spouts since I was not sure what I was doing. I made two lids as well. The one pictured fit the best. I think I let the pieces dry a little too much, but I built the pot anyway and it survived the bisque fire.

It's a teapot-ish. I like the rounded edges.

I'm not too crazy about the way the spout attaches to the body of the pot. It is an adequate, if heavy, teapot. I'm struggling with the glazing right now as some parts need to have glaze while other parts need to be glaze free (the lid and body must fit unglazed ring to unglazed ring or else the lid will fuse shut.

In the meantime, I started researching teapots online and discovered the one-minute-teapot challenge.** I watched a few hours of potters making one-minute-teapots. I watched success and failure. I watched 4-minute-teapot makers.

This is going to be fun...a challenge and a "performance" teapot. I've completed a few practice runs and I have videotaped myself making two 2-minute-teapots. I cannot seem to throw any faster.

I've never figured out how to post videos here. This is a "still" taken off the computer. One way these "timed" pots move fast is that the correct-ish balls of clay are waiting in order nearby as are all the necessary tools (mostly sponges, water, and wire tool - which I choose to think of as a garrote. [It's the coolest tool I have according to DH. I think he is.]

They all look alike...rather obscene and clunky.  They aren't meant to be saved. This one went back in the clay bag right away.

These teapots aren't pretty, but they are fun. At the end they must "pour." I've destroyed most of the practice pots, but one friend asked for one "glazed in bright colors." Sure.

It's not a pretty pot, but it pours - it's mostly a colorful paperweight.

I continue to practice quick throwing (is that like a "quick-draw"?) and hope to knock a full minute off my time before the end of the semester. We will see.

The final teapot is about two inches high.

Proof the lid works.

I'll add some kind of braided handle on top. I thought the handles should be different.

My love of clay began in childhood - first making mud pies and then a little later when I made everything I could think of out of Play-Doh.*** I made colorful turtles as well as food and dishes for my Barbie doll.**** I can still see the tiny yellow cup I formed around the end of my pinkie.

To honor these beginnings, I made a teapot that was a somewhat appropriate size for Barbie (maybe if she was serving a large crowd at tea).

There! Three teapots!


[Disclaimer: I'm posting while I can find the photos. I am trying to de-clutter my computer. I'll post the final products in a final note here at some point.]

NOTES:

*My transcript shows I've taken this course 16 times. I dropped once when my work was just not allowing me any time to get into the studio. I made 2 Bs - probably because I didn't listen to my professor. I have had 3 instructors and have learned different skills from each of them. Each has pushed me in different and correct/necessary directions. It's been amazing, therapeutic, satisfying work/play.

**I believe master potter/comedian, Johnny Vegas, is responsible for this madness. His one-minute pot is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Mine actually looks a little neater.

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O35096/teapot-vegas-johnny/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItVqHciGtqw

***https://playdoh.hasbro.com/en-us?kid=43700024813482448&gclid=CjwKCAiA_c7UBRAjEiwApCZi8aBJEdnRWBc0aXQNT080c7s7NS2mxj1GAIzIhAv1PoiQas31AnE0SBoC9ioQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

****https://barbie.mattel.com/shop [I am old enough to have had some of the earliest dolls - Midge and bubble coiffured Barbie. My sister may have had the original Barbie.]

French Doesn't Count

I AM the current curator of the black trunk 

and the stories it holds within. 

~ Hope Barrett, Discovering Oscar

"Why do you come to the theater?" we were asked when the play was over. Why indeed? But I am getting ahead of myself.

I let DH sleep late on Saturday. We had worn ourselves out the day before and we had nothing scheduled until the matinee. Once he woke, we breakfasted and wandered towards the theater. We had noticed the Morgan Library and Museum the day before and thought we should take a look. It is one (of the many) museums we have never visited.

There are a handful that we haunt - The Met, MOMA, the American Folk Art Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, the Guggenheim, and the Whitney. We skipped them all, because we were tired or had another place that ranked higher on the to do list when we were nearby this trip. I suppose, had I done my research and known what exhibits would be on offer, we might have made different decisions. But I had not. So we took our ease and skipped them (avoiding lines and coat checks and crowds.

I don't know much about J. P. Morgan. I suspect he would have critics and fans. But the museum and library were fascinating. We wandered through the study and library - past the letters written by Alexander and Elizabeth Hamilton and their son (I did not know that Elizabeth lost both a son and a husband to dueling), past the Gutenberg Bible, and other wonders. We admired the cylinder seals* and other artifacts** in cases around the walls.

Then we headed upstairs for a current exhibit: Tennessee Williams: No Refuge but Writing. *** It was wonderful. As I read some of his story and his letters, I so so many parallels in David Sedaris' recent book, Theft by Finding**** - this driving force to create and edit and rewrite. Both drew from their lives and family members in their work. And life is laid out before us in all its sadness and glory...but mostly sadness.

We grabbed a quick bowl of soup. I don't think the restaurant staff was impressed by our layers and layers of clothing. We were not in our Sunday best (as we would usually wear to the theater), but rather more in our "mistaken for homeless" attire. It was cold. [Really. I think I had on 5 layers.]

And then it was time.

We walked to the last few blocks to the American Airlines Theatre where the Roundabout Theatre Company*****  was presenting Stories by Heart, John Lithgow's one man show. We were surrounded by New Yorkers. [One couldn't get his hearing aid adjusted, so he and his wife left. One commented that "this isn't New York fare" after she missed the point of the first story entirely.]

DH and I loved it. Lithgow was everything you would expect and more. He explained why he chose these stories and then acted them out - Ring Lardner's "Haircut" in the first act and "Uncle Fred Flits By," a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, in the second. He was spellbinding.

If you ever get the chance, go.

After the performance, there was a "talk back" session and about 100 members of the audience stayed, probably just to see what it was about. The fellow leading the discussion and answering questions shared that this was Lithgow's "trunk piece," a work one can "pull out" and perform. It is something worked on over time. And Lithgow has performed the work before, ultimately switching the order of the stories as one is very dark and the other comedic. He learned it was best to end on a light note.

We were asked to talk to each other (really, in NY?) about why we go to the theater. DH and I talked to a sign language interpreter who would be interpreting for Lithgow later in the week. People shared their reasons. It was worth the extra time for an experience one does not generally have in NY.

Then, after so many reprises of past visits, we decided to do something completely different. It is not often that I can find a new experience for DH in New York. He has gone into subway tunnels, jumped into the reservoir in Central Park and many other things I probably don't need to know about. But he had never ridden on the Roosevelt Island Tram.****** It wasn't built when he lived there and I suppose none of us have had any reason to go to Roosevelt Island. While I am not a fan of heights,  I figured it was a big car and a short trip. And the fare was included in our subway pass.

It was a nice ride and beautiful - the sun was setting and we had great views of the East River and the city. I wish I could share them with you, however they disappeared when I switched out phones today. I am sharing what I have of the day.

The Queensboro Bridge Crosses the East River here and you get a great view of it.

It wasn't crowded. I suspect most of the folks were like us - just taking a ride.

We headed back to the hotel and rode the elevator up with another couple. Inspired by the experience of the afternoon I commented about it being a "full day" or "good day" or something. They returned an acknowledgement and then, in French, mentioned that they were French. DH proceeded to respond in French and the couple was so pleased. They asked him a question and he explained he had lived in La Rochelle as a child and they replied that they lived in a town near there. Then we reached their floor and we all said goodbye.

"Au revoir" "Au revoir" And the door closed.

Dumbfounded, I stared at DH. My lovely introverted DH had made small talk. "You spoke to strangers on an elevator!" I exclaimed. "It was French," he replied. "French doesn't count."

And that night we found PI New York pizza. The expression is "we got a slice," but we each got two.

Now that's the way you eat a slice!

Then we headed back to pack our bags. We had a late flight on Sunday, but we would need to leave our things with the porter and grab them in time to head out to JFK. And we managed to time everything well.

We gave ourselves a little over an hour to walk in Central Park. We went to see the playground with the granite slide and found it fully under construction. We stopped at familiar statues. We once again admired the chiming of the Delacorte Clock.

One of DH's high school classmates was  a descendant of George Delacorte who donated this amazing clock and would comment when he passed by, "there is my inheritance."

We took some photos of birds in the one spot we found where the water wasn't frozen solid. There were more House Sparrows, a couple of Wood Ducks, many Mallards, and a good number of Canadian Geese. We heard and then saw a few crows in the distance. Squirrels were everywhere - big, fat, and sassy. Some chased each other around and others came almost to where we stood.

On the left is a Wood Duck. The rest of the fowl are Mallards. I was excited to be able to identify them.

Eastern Grey Squirrels were everywhere taking advantage of the best weather in the four days we were there.

Local families were out in the park - many with scooters. There were more than a few tourists about. Runners, dog walkers, bicyclists and more moved along the paths.  And we wandered a bit with them before heading to 5th Avenue for a pretzel and then the ride back to grab our bags.

From our daughters I learned that one should never waste a perfectly good subway pass. As we reached the small station on the hotel block, I glanced around to see if anyone was heading to the ticket machines. The place was empty. I began to follow DH up the stairs to the street when I saw two men heading down. I KNEW they were going to need tickets. Don't ask me how, but I knew. I stood back against the wall and watched them. They headed over to the ticket machine and I walked up to them, arm extended with passes in-hand. "These have 3 or 4 good days left on them. Please take them." They seemed a little confused at first. "Really?" they asked. "Please."

I am reminded more and more these days that while we think we are sharing our world with our children, they are busy sharing their world with us. We see the world with different eyes because of them. And while they are no longer traveling with us physically, we carry them - and the lessons we have learned from them - with us.

And that's the way we ended our trip. The rest was just coming home - plenty of room and a good rest on another half-full plane.

"Au revoir, New York!  Bon chance!"


NOTES:

* Take a look: http://www.themorgan.org/collection/ancient-near-eastern-seals-and-tablets/84234

**There was a particularly lovely pair of garnet earrings and an inspiring four paneled work that spoke to me (something for the retablo project?). http://www.themorgan.org/collection/paintings-and-art-objects/object/158704

***http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/tennessee-williams

****https://www.npr.org/2017/06/04/529749117/theft-by-finding-is-as-mesmerizing-as-a-spinning-chicken-trust-us I read an excerpt on Amazon and now have been listening to the audio book in the car, thanks to DH.

***** https://www.roundabouttheatre.org/Shows-Events.aspx

******https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_Island_Tramway

******* https://www.centralpark.com/things-to-do/attractions/delacorte-music-clock/


Miscellaneous stuff:

Heartbreak! My favorite bead store - for many, many years - had become a tourist trap. Do not worry. I found another. It wasn't as good, but I never met a bead shop I didn't like.