BoSox 6, Yankees 5

Wow, it's been long while since I've posted here last. A couple reasons are at work. Quinn and I've been focused on getting things ready for our approaching nuptials. Ever wonder what a wedding blog looked like? Well check it out here. I've also been doing some work for these fine folks and not too much pottery-related is happening. Yesterday was a good break from both the farm and wedding planning. A good high school friend of mine who happens to be getting married on Saturday scored Fenway bleacher tickets for a BoSox vs Yankees throw down.
I haven't been to Fenway in a long time, certainly not since they've become a very popular and successful franchise. I had totally forgotten how wicked ahsome that park is. We got there early enough for batting practice and found a wonderfully emasculating pink Red Sox visor for the lucky bachelor.
The game itself was fantastic. We took an early lead with some base hits in the first off of Yankee pitcher Wang, who's current ERA is somewhere in the 14.5 zone (oops). The Yankees however found a lot of Wakefield's knuckleballs to send into the outfield or beyond (three homers by Damon, Pasada, and Teixeira). But the Red Sox held onto the lead and brought in Papelbon to finish the game with a win.
There were some really great Bahston accents audible all around out in the bleachers. It was perfect.

What a curious thing

I found this shard yesterday. I was walking through a cornfield adjacent to our house and this little fellow was just laying on the ground right in my path between two rows of corn. It's an old piece of a stoneware crock or jug. I couldn't believe that the piece of this pot that I found was the piece with a partial maker's mark. It reads, "JULIU" then "BEN". I assumed assumed this meant it was an old Bennington Pottery piece and looked it up online. Lucky for me Lura Woodside Watkins' book "Early New England Potters and Their Wares" is online in its entirety (here). So I looked to see if a Julius was associated with Bennington. Low and behold, Julius Norton was the grandson of Capt. John Norton who founded Bennington Pottery in 1793. Julius' mark dates from two different periods 1841-1844 and 1847-1850.
As you can see there is some flashing from the firing as well as some salt glazing. The inside is rich with the potter's (Julius Norton probably didn't make this pot, a slew of hired craftsmen potters would have actually done the throwing) throwing lines under the ubiqutous brown slip glaze.
I tend not to believe in fate, but I'll be damned on this one. I almost never walk through the cornfield, but this one time I do and a relic from a past I've been thinking a lot about recently appears at my feet. I'll be damned.

Winter Beard

I've grown a modest beard this winter, but I'll shave it off as soon as spring is official. I decided I want to make this an annual endeavor, to put on facial hear when all the leaves have fallen and then clear the whiskers when the spring buds appear.

mugs and flat bottles

I worked on some porcelain mugs this week. It's a new form for me so I had to play around with the handles a bit. They'll be part of a registry for some friends which I'm have a great time working on. With the plates and bowls they want uneven, organic, undulating shapes and bright color accents. So it's pushing me to try some things I've never really done, but have always wanted to. I'll keep posting updates.
Below are some slab bottles that I made in January up at Malcolm Wright's studio. I'm please with the way they turned out so far, they probably won't get fired until this summer so they're just hanging out for now. Three of them received white slip and will get some stencil decoration. The other one got some sprigs and will get the temoku dunk.

Isaac Button reels

I noticed that more Isaac Button videos appeared on YouTube:









This movie of Isaac get my mind cranking. Here's a bit more about Isaac and his pottery, courtesy of Grit in the Gears. In watching this extremely efficient and practiced potter not only turn that many pots but load and fire that huge kiln (did you see those kiln shelves?!!) with such ease, I can't help but think how machine-like our bodies and actions can become. On the one hand I would love to get to that level of craftsmanship, to master the clay and glaze like it was nothing at all to throw twenty pound jugs in two minutes flat. But on the other hand, I think about his speed to make pots was out of necessity as they were cheap wares for the everyman. That I can take a little extra time to add to what my pots are is a privilege and I should consider that more. If I'm going to take the time to make a pot (let alone pots at all), it better be damn good by my standards.

The other thing that comes to mind while watching these videos of a man working in a very old fashioned and obsolete way are some of the Garth Clarke essays. I'm thinking of one from a Studio Potter in which he criticizes the followers of Leach as miring themselves in nostalgia and not moving ceramics as an art forward. It's hard to watch these videos and feel the urge to live that Isaac Button kind of life. Perhaps that's exactly what Clarke is criticizing, i.e. it's kinda backwards to want to live make pottery strictly in a way that has expired from our culture. I don't know, I still want to make pots all day long regardless of the cultural relevance.

On a less deep and introspective note, I love that the pipe never leaves Isaac's mouth. Also, it's time I started wearing some button-up shirts and ties to the studio.

Cheers

mud season preview

Quinn and I went for walk down by the West River on Rice Farm Road on Sunday and came to this distinct reminder that spring is coming! Well, after mud season, but it's coming sure enough.
It was also around 50 degrees, sunny and perfect for a stroll. We meandered a little on the Black Mountain trail and struck our best "old mountain man" poses.

"His name was Jeremiah Johnson, and they say he wanted to be a mountain man.
The story goes that he was a man of proper wit and adventurous spirit, suited to the mountains. Nobody knows whereabouts he come from and don't seem to matter much.
He was a young man and ghosty stories about the tall hills didn't scare him none..."

Our walk took us past a formidable property with the requisite collection of camping vehicles, old school bus on blocks, cargo container turned house, half-burned old house, half-built old shed, pony, emus, carnival ride parts (maybe?), and a nice office desk chair in the middle of the yard. The"posted no tresspassing keep out" sign hangs above a "friends welcome" sign. Sorry for the poor photography, we tried to take the snap quick and subtle like to avoid raising any hackles.

God's Gift to Man: Cheese and Crackers

Vermont seriously sharp cheddar, stoned wheat thins, and irish breakfast tea. Tumbler by Walter Slowinski, a local doctor, jazz musician, potter, gardener, renaissance man. The plate is one that I threw upside down to get the wire cut off marking on the face.