This is a small creamer that I made on new year's eve, maybe. Tiny little pitchers have always reminded me of birds- even more so when they are short and plump. Early on I made a green pitcher with a long, curving spout that reminded me of an emperor penguin. This one was inspired by the early-evening trilling of a wren perched on my empty garden teuters. It's still rough, full of fingerprints and clay boogers (ahem, there has to be a better term for these, right? help me out, potters), but just looking at it makes me happy. Most of my pottery is more serious than this, but I'm feeling pulled towards a series of more whimsical wares.
When I was in graduate school at the University of Mississippi Center for the Study of Southern Culture , studying self-taught art and traditional crafts, I fell in love with face jugs. Scary ones, devil ones, funny ones- never could afford them, but loved them. I visited Jerry Brown Pottery in rural Hamilton, AL in 1997 and fell in love with them, but unable to afford them on my teeny graduate stipend, I bought a birdhouse, which was an extravagantly expensive purchase at $25. I still have that birdhouse, which now seems like a bargain. Now they're up to $30, which is still a bargain (look under decorative pottery).
As a beginning potter in 2000, I made a few face jugs (I'll dig them up and photograph them later) and figured out how to make them out of pinch pots for teaching with the former Greater Memphis Arts Council's Center for Arts Education in the Memphis City Schools. This is the first thing I've made with a face since, oh, 2003. And it felt good.
Happy Friday!
2 comments:
it does look like a bird! ha. how cute! what kind of clay are you using there? I need to change. i am using b-mix with grog. any suggestions?
Julie, I've been using Continental Clay's 181, a smooth white stoneware, for years. I used to ues b-mix without grog, which I'm considering going back to. I love it, but it's like throwing cream cheese. Both are similar to porcelain, but not as difficult to reclaim. Grog tears up my fingers too much, and I like to throw really thin, which is harder with groggy clay.
Post a Comment