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Dear fellow potters

 

Days and weeks fly so fast.... sigh

 

My today's guest is... tataaaaa.... our one and only and much beloved oldlady!

 

Her question(s) for us is the following:

 

What shape did you like most when you first started out? Have you made it recently and if so, do you still like it?

 

I myself started out with trying different shapes because I was still looking for an own language in clay. Later I discovered the tripods and the bi-discs and that's what I still like doing.

 

What about YOU?

 

Warm wishes for a nice week ahead.

 

Evelyne

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This is a tough one for me. At the moment my favorite form is a cup with a foot. There are just infinite possibilities to design them. Ridges, humps, bumps, indents, marks, etc etc. And they are so enjoyable to drink out of, looking at the designs and marks in the cup as you use it every day is just brilliant. 

 

The best part about making pots is that you can be an irresponsible creator and go nuts, but you have to be a very harsh editor of your work. I feel cups are the best form for that process. Although plates are starting to peak my interest. Thinking about doing some type of instagram of a plate a week or something for a year. Maybe 3 plates a week. Once I get enough plates in the process.

 

This is a really good QOTW. I can't wait to see peoples favorite shape.

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I really like bottle forms. I could not make any when I started out so I learned to love making bowls. I still make bowls. I now can make bottles and have been focused on that along with cup and mug forms for a good year now. Going to make some growlers soon. 

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Like Doris I like graceful curves on my forms. While I have thrown ceramic bowls I've turned so many wooden ones its not my go to form. At this time of my learning, I haven't really settled on what I like best but I usually throw mugs and jars.

 

I'm not sure what ceramicists call the shape but woodturners call them hollow forms, they're something between a bottle and a jar. I have a lot of ideas I want to explore with this shape.

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I had to think for a minute about it,  I have been making coiled pieces for a couple of years now and I make one shape for a while and change because I am getting bored with that shape.  My favorite for now is a round balloon shaped pot with a small recessed lid.  Potter

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I find that my skills and aesthetic tastes have changed so much over the years. When I first started out, I was interested in throwing cylinders, and that also included casseroles with lids. Most times lids would be included on almost anything. My prof in the undergrad school was from Alfred, and he always stressed people loving to lift a lid to look inside and that was a selling point. . . !. . .? The things we will believe when young! At any rate I made lot of pots with lids.

 

As my skills improved, I started making larger jars and such, early one were 18"-24", and then I learned about joining two sections, and about coil throwing. Jars went to 4-5' at State College. I soon got tired of that and went back to 24-30" jars, large bowls 36" diameter, and other things. 

 

Somewhere in the middle here I tried to do a teapot. .. .It was terrible. As I was not happy with my first effort, I read a ton of stuff, and then made a second, and a third, and. . . you get the idea.

 

Now I am trying to throw much looser, without so much worry about the perfect centering, or the mechanical precision of a pull, but just having fun, enjoying the feel of the clay. I impress into the wet cylinders before shaping, I gouge areas with tools, and then shape. I try to inflate the form as much as I possible can without it collapsing, sometimes even having to patch the holes that appear because of a stamp or gouge that was too deep. I'm having fun with the challenge of the inflated form, and hope to get more joy from it from day to day. The forms are bulbous, with nice necks, shoulder lines that define a border between the belly and the neck. The curve is extreme S in shape, but has irregularities in the belly from the marks that have expanded. I still have a lot to do with it, but then I am . . . . retired!

 

 

best,

Pres

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cylinders, cylinders was my aim.  i knew a potter who sold me her yellow cylinder vase.  about 10 inches tall, 3 inch diameter with a rim that folded out about half an inch.  i practiced that shape forever, it seems, before i got one i liked.   haven't done a straight cylinder for years.  but it was great skill building, trying to get the height and width and lip the same thickness.

 

the last tall one, about 15 inches was done and sold within the same week about 2007.  the buyer wanted the peonies that i had in it.  happily sold it.

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well, we all have some kind of favorite, and enjoy making what we like individually.  isn't it great to be self-employed, no boss telling us "Make 50 mugs, three inches wide and six inches tall with a three finger handle.  and do them by noon."

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  • 2 weeks later...

I like to do thrown flared bases on handbuilt pieces, then add necks and flared openings to the top, or a large neck and large lid with some sort of fanciful decoration. All in the eye of the . . . 

 

 

 

best,

Pres

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