getting ready for spring

It is the last day of January, my Jan term is over, and I believe that I've met my goals. Blogging regularly-check. Etsy store open-check. A good jump start on making pottery for spring shows- check.
I have been making pottery almost every day this month- my standard goal is 5 pieces per throwing session. I also learned how to replace the elements in my kiln with the help of my co-worker, Dierdre. I've even sold a few pieces this month, which was encouraging after a slow holiday season.
These herb markers are my festival bread-and-butter. Last year I sold 500 on a single day. Gary was freelancing, and I was teaching a lot, but these little gems paid our mortgage that month. I have several hundred on hand, but it is time to break out the slabroller and make several hundred more before planting season begins.

flutes in progress

These are two fluted bud vases I threw and carved this week, both much more precise than my first flute piece. These photos are more blurred than I'd like but I've had a case of nerves and this is my focusing-on-something-else activity. The rear vase was fluted with a ribbon tool, the kind that comes with the beginner's 13-piece pottery tool kit. I love thise ribbon tools- there is a curved end that I use for trimming- that end typically wears so thin that it is no longer a loop- and a squared end, shown below, that makes a nice sharp line. The vase in the foreground was fluted with a Pampered Chef citrus zester. I tend to use it when the clay is wet and it leaves hundreds of rolly-polly strips of mud all over the vase. Works much better if I can make myself wait until the vase is leather hard to use the tool.

Here is my fluting set up. After trimming a foot and using a metal rib to compress the bottom and make it perfectly smooth, I prop the bowl up on nubbins of clay, or if it is a larger piece, I'll use my banding wheel. Since this is a small sauce-sized bowl, I just used a couple of coils of clay. I slice through the outer surface of the clay with the trimming tool, usually going from top to bottom in one breath. If I stop to breathe I wind up with little jags in the flute, so I have to cut a deeper, second cut, like I am here.


I flute my cafe au lait bowls the same way, except I use a tool that's made for making handles- one for mug handles, which I use for small bowls, and one for pitchers or jugs, about 3/4 of an inch wide. With these handlemakers I have to be careful to make shallow cuts or I will cut through the side of the bowl. This is especially a problem for those potters who throw a bit too thin rather than too thickly. Yesterday I cut through three of seven bowls because the walls were a mite too thin to flute- back to the reclaim bucket they go. I try to do these cuts in a single breath as well, or I find that the depth of the cut changes and looks clunky. Yesterday's trimming session was a short one, but I spent twice the time fluting the dozen or so pieces as I did trimming their bottoms.

first fluting

I made this little cache pot in 2003, I think, before my son was born. It was the first piece that I made with fluting, which I have always been crazy about. I think I'm much better at it now- lots of practice between 2003 and 2008- but this piece still sings to me. It was for sale, once, at a festival and judged "not suitable" by a customer. I agreed that it was rather rustic; she bought something else, and little yellow rough-flutey-pot came back home. It has hosted this small rabbit's foot fern ever since. I'll show some better, more traditional and polished fluted wares in the coming days.

why I make pottery, II

There is a debate among fine artists and fine craftspeople about what to call work that has a function. Is it art, because it is creative? Or is it craft, because of its function? I'll admit it, I am one of those potters who fall firmly on the side of craft vs art. First, I have no degree- I am largely self-taught. I have an extensive background in art history, and while in college, I took several courses in painting, then explored the field of art education through museum internships. Art education takes up more room on my resume than pottery- it takes more of my time, as well. I have been known to make art, but my pottery is meant to be used, so that, combined with the lack of my formal training leads me to call it craft.

When I was in graduate school, I sat through a grueling review in which a friend, Ky Johnston (scroll down to see some of his beautiful, functional pottery), now a professor at Delta State University in Cleveland, MS , was thoroughly raked over the coals. Ky was working towards an MFA and brought one of his beautiful, simple mugs to the review. The thing that most stood out to me from that review, other than the professor's seeming rancor, was Ky's statement that he "wanted to make beautiful things for people to use everyday." Every time I'm at the wheel, every time I am at a sale talking with a customer, I remember that statement. That's my goal: to provide beautiful things for people to enjoy using on a daily basis.

There are a very few pieces that I make that I'd call art. This is one of them, but they are few and far between. I think that I prefer function in my own work. I am privileged to work with a true artist, Deirdre Daw, at the Brooks Museum. Her work is mind-bogglingly fabulous (and famous!) and she is a gracious mentor, generous with her time and knowledge. Perhaps someday I'll be able to pick up her gift for combining art with craft, or I will pursue art as ardently as I do my craftsmanship. For now, I'll continue to call my pottery craft and hope that people will use it as it was meant to be used, daily.

why I make pottery

This sweet little pitcher was a Christmas gift from my friend Katherine. It came with 7 small bowls and may well be one of the nicest gifts I've every been given. The set was made by Lee and Pup McCarty, famous Mississippi Delta potters, sometime in the late 1960s. Dr. and Mrs. McCarty are unfailingly gracious- I see them a half-dozen or so times a year in Memphis at the library, the museum, and at the farmer's market. Every time I see them I feel quite a bit like I've just met Brad Pitt- I gush, am flustered, and generally act starstruck. And, because they are so gracious, they always seem to remember who I am.

Most Mississippians know McCarty pottery. Many Mississippi brides (though I am not a native of the state, my husband and I met and married in Oxford, so I feel as though the state, with all of its faults and glories, is a part of me) receive at least a piece or two of McCarty pottery as gifts. Gary and I were fortunate to receive quite a lot of it. The simple, sculptural forms, bold cobalt (also jade or nutmeg, as seen here) matte glaze, and useful nature of this pottery inspired me to try my hand at the wheel after we left Oxford and I was between jobs. I never dreamed that I would make my living from pottery when I began in 2000, nor did I imagine I would be able to tell Dr. and Mrs. McCarty how much they influenced me.

My personal pottery style changed rapidly from mimicking other potters to finding my own expression in mud, but I can clearly see their influence- especially in this tiny bird-like form. I do enjoy using my McCarty every day- our sugar bowl, tea cannister, and ramekins are all theirs. This pitcher is filed with a few short twigs of winter honeysuckle (lonicera fragrantissima) from my neighbor's yard. It blooms every January and fills a room with its sweet lemony perfume. The small, wavy black line on the pitcher is one of the signatures of McCarty pottery- it represents the Mississippi River and can be found on the vast majority of their functional pottery.

If you are ever in the Mississippi Delta, it is worth your time to take a side trip to Merigold, where the McCarty studio and gardens are located. We went down for my 29th birthday, four years ago, and even in mid-March the gardens were fabulous. The McCartys are wonderful artists and fine people; I am grateful for their influence on my life and craft.

not great aunt edna's teapot

This is one of my favorite tea pots- I made it hoping that it would look like a traditional china teapot, but the knob on top is a bit wonky, and the glaze I chose, a deep celadon that reminds me of old Fire King Jadeite, has flashes of bronze verdigris and a drippy character. I use a plastic zipper bag filled with slip to make the dots- I use this glaze a lot with my slip-dotted pieces. I think that this big guy holds about 24 oz, or 3 cups.

When I grow up I want to be Josiah Wedgwood. This teapot, based loosely on his work, shows that I still have quite a ways to go!

When I made the deep celadon pot, it was a stretch for me. My first teapot wasn't so bad, but it wasn't so great, either. I was intimidated by the form but felt that I HAD to make one because my friend Katherine, who was also my student at the time, wanted to make them. I think that she actually made a few before I made my first, a tiny one cup number modeled after a sea urchin. It is still my favorite- even though I put the spout at such an angle that tea leaks out, and the placement of the handle means that it can be difficult to pour the water in from the kettle. It is a milestone of sorts, not a piece to be sold.

baking

Most people who know me know that I’m not big on sweets. Oh, I like my chocolate- extra dark, at least 65%, more bitter than sweet- but I’d rather have cheese or some other creamy fatty salty concoction than a cake or pie. My boys like sweets, so today, while G was called into the office to handle some pre-business-trip arrangements, I baked a warm and comforting sweet. This trip has been the cause of dinnertime phone calls and emergency blackberry emails about speech changes for his boss’s boss, and has caused a great deal of stress for a normally easy-going guy. That and the fact that we left the warm house to go out into the cold for an early-morning car repair trip (we still have to go back out to get the car) means that the bigger boy deserves a treat.
My infrequently made but most loved sweet treat is a four-fruit cobbler, easily thrown together with whatever is on hand. This time we used apples, dried cranberries, a handful each of frozen blackberries and blueberries from this summer, plus a handful of chopped pecans. I mixed the fruit with some Chinese five spice powder, a couple of tablespoons of sugar and a tablespoon of cornstarch. The crust for the cobbler is my mother in law’s specialty (she is a sweets baker supreme).

Cookie crust cobbler:
1 stick melted butter
1 c each sugar, flour
1 beaten egg.

These four ingredients are mixed and dropped by the teaspoon on the top of the fruit mixture, then baked at 350 until it smells good and the cookie crust is slightly browned. This recipe usually makes enough for 2 small cobblers, so I spoon the rest into a sheet of waxed paper, roll it up, and freeze it for the next time the boys need a treat.

I love how this looks in a blue pottery bowl. It also works in ramekins for a slightly more fancy presentation-and more crust per person. Though sweet, it is a great way to get fruit into your meal, and if you decrease the sugar in the crust, this cobbler works for breakfast, as well.