Year Two

The great painters had to-think about this stuff. I made it for the buyers. No buyers there although I did take one generous donation for one of my pots. Always appreciated that. If they were going to come anyway, a lot of people coming the pottery shop, why not do comparative tests, with what ? sculpture koans.

Actually these became character-studies for watchers. I would watch myself from what I had learned of them. The learning period was very short, as little as three minutes; so I created an elaborate, actually from Whobe I inherited the shop from, work of art in itself; a walk-in as a constant; the same for everybody, and I learned to read-people.

I liked throwing on the wheel, and I liked piecing-together the throwings into sculpture. But this was high-fire 2,000 degrees, and I used iron-red clay, for its impurities of versatility in its strength, consistency and slow-dry. But it was a lot of shrinkage, and I learned structural engineering of complicated pieces of eight or ten parts, with sometimes significant shrinkage. I found that thrown items were structurally far-superior to slabs.

I wanted a lamp. The first one failed, a ceiling-high tall-phallus, the lamp-light at the top, in twelve-protruding tubulars under a hood. Another in stained African design dark brown and yellow, on scorched-earth earthenware, of which I have already detailed some-wheres else. It was bulbous, double-decked with a large lampshade crown on top, with even sliding in and out drawers, five inches deep; which had to have two clay-constructed sliders, connecting the hollow outer-shell, to the center eight inch diameter core. All fired out great.

(9 of 46) Next Page