Stories
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I was mostly involved with the pottery shop, although I was taking night classes at the Art Institute on Chestnut, some sort of scholarship that I had gotten from a
program that Wherebe's wife Whobe had been involved with. That is when I began to use the Art Institute bulletin boards to advertise the pottery studio, and later to sell potter's wheels. If I was going to make money teaching pottery I should learn how to do it and I developed my own technique.
I had come to San Francisco with the intention of learning how to use my hands.
The German guy directed me to Wherebe and Whobe's shop in Bernal Heights. I learned to throw pots from various tips from different people, mostly from people in Whobe's shop, but also from one woman of a shop in North Beach.
Working and controlling the clay on the wheel-head could be a difficult thing. If the clay was really soft it was easy to work, but would be too soft to hold a shape. If it was hard enough to hold a shape it could be difficult to control. The way I was taught and the prevalent technique at the time was to brace the elbows against the waist for stability of both hands. Because of the distance between the elbows and hands I found this a difficult thing until one built up the strength and dexterity, which of course was assumed as it should be.
The technique I developed was in conjunction with the wheel I designed, and came about from the foot brace I designed into my wheel, being high enough that one found one could brace one's wrists and lower forearms directly on the knees and lower thighs in conjunction with upper body weight.
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