News from Earth and Fire -- July 20, 2005
A different kind of bottleneckThis week, rather than look at several pots from related potters, I thought I'd share related pots from several potters.
The relation in this series is very simple -- the bottle form.
The shapes are different. The rims are different. The sizes are quite different. Some have tiny little handles, others don't. Some are decorated with glaze alone. Some have patterns swiped into the glaze or slip, or stamped directly into the clay.
Although each of these bottles stands alone as an object of beauty, how wonderful a vessel each would make as a vase for single flower and some greenery.
The first group is from Bill van Gilder, Frederick, MD.
These bottles are all about the same size -- roughly 7 1/2" X 4" X 2 1/2" and are $40 each.
They are thrown, paddled into an oval shape, glazed, decorated and gas fired. Look at the blue one in the center. I like how Bill did a sweeping finger wipe in the ash glaze -- following the shape of the shoulders of the bottle on the ash glaze. Had he not interfered with the glaze, the rivulets (a characteristic of ash glazes), would be continuous from top to bottom. Bill must have also realized that he needed to follow the shape of the bottle when he did this, and given the rivulets an easy path to follow as they ran down. He just gave them a gentle nudge to find another route. The pattern reminds me just a bit of the top of the Chrysler building in New York. (I know.. that's a stretch!)
The tricky thing with ash glazes is that, since they do run, they can easily run right off the bottom of the pot and melt right to the kiln shelf, thus necessitating help from a hammer to release the pot -- a procedure which is sometimes fatal to the pot, of course. And even if it isn't fatal, when the glaze has run off the bottom, the pot is always at best.. only a second.
The subtle shape of this bottle at the bottom, with a tiny "nub" around the base, was enough to stop the glaze just where it should stop. See how it pooled just a bit there at the bottom, but didn't spill off?
Trust me.. that's no easy feat!
I once had the unfortunate opportunity of being at a potter's studio while the kiln was opened and the discovery was made that the glaze had run off the bottom of about 10 large pitchers. While I'm sure there is some stress relieved by the act of heaving a ruined pot down the side of a hill into the chard pile, it is a sad sound to hear the crashing of pot.... after pot... after pot.
But.. I digress.
These two wood-fired bottles are also from Bill. The one on the right is round in shape and 5 1/2" tall by 4 1/4" wide.
The one on the left is about the same size as the other three in the first image and it has a beautiful coloration on the one side from the firing:
These two bottles are also $40 each.
Moving on to another potter now, Robert Strasser, a young potter from near Thurmont, MD.
The one on the left is oval in shape, but not so "severely" oval as Bill's. It is 6 1/2" tall by 5" wide, by 4" deep. It was gas fired, and has a lovely texturing in the clay that you can just make out under the glaze. Yes.. that's another ash glaze. (See the rivulets?) It is $100.
The one on the right is one of my favorites. It is 8 3/4" tall and 4 1/2" wide, and $140.
I can't tell you why, but it looks like it is maybe a thousand years old. It looks worn and weathered and I can just imagine the interesting things it has seen in its life.... Until I recall that Robert is a fairly young man and I probably have pickles in my refrigerator that are older than this pot. (But that's the subject for another newsletter entirely!)
It is somewhat squared on the sides, but it's very graceful and subtle. It was fired in a wood kiln, on its side. Do you see the three small white spots on the side? That's where the clay wads were, and that's how you can tell it was fired on its side, in a wood-fired kiln. All pots that are fired in a wood kiln must be elevated from the kiln shelves with small clay wads, or else they will stick to the kiln shelves. That is one reason that wood-fired pots in general are more expensive -- it's very labor intensive to make all the little clay wads and put them under each and every pot as you load the kiln!
The next bottle is from Sam Taylor, Westhampton, MA.:
This bottle was also wood-fired, and the rivulets you see are from an ash glaze all right, but it's the ash from the wood burned in the firing that landed on this bottle and then melted again, and then ran. If the ash had been in the glaze itself, it would have dripped uniformly all over the bottle.
The pot is marked with Sam's little fish chop (stamp), which you can just barely make out in this picture, about a quarter of the way down the bottle, in the middle. It is more distinct in person.
It is 8 1/4" tall, 4" wide and about 2 1/4" deep. It is $90.
The bottle has two very different personalities, depending on which side you look at:
Next we have a female potter, Laura Ross, Louisville, KY.
Yes.. you spot another ash glaze! So much more subtle (less ash in the glaze) than the first one we looked at from Bill.
It is 9" tall, 6" wide, and 4 1/2" deep. It is $96.
Finally, an absolute beauty from Phil Rogers -- an internationally-known potter from Wales.
This one is here through the courtesy of the Pucker Gallery in Boston, which represents Phil in the United States.
It is 9 3/4" tall, 6" wide, and 3" deep. It is $750. (Unfortunately, that's not a typo.)
Definitely a collector's pot!
That's going to do it for this week (you know.. when I started this edition, I didn't know if I'd have anything to talk about or not!).
Back to the Newsletter Archive list
Contact us to join the mailing list or inquire about a specific piece.
| Earth and Fire Gallery | Home | Artists | Exhibitions | About Us |
