News from Earth and Fire -- September 27, 2005
Finally teapots?This week I wanted to share a few pots that I own and sort of use that as an entry point for talking about a few of the teapots in the gallery.
One of my most cherished teapots is one made by master potter Warren MacKenzie. This is the teapot that I bought when I made the pilgrimage to Minneapolis the weekend I met Linda Christianson.
Warren MacKenzie is generally recognized as one of the greatest living functional potters. He studied under Bernard Leach at St. Ives in England, just as Byron Temple did. He is perhaps best known amongst pottery collectors because he:
1. Doesn't sign his pots anymore.
2. Prices his own work EXTREMELY low.
He prices his own work extremely low because he wants anyone who loves his pots to be able to afford them. He doesn't sign his pots anymore because he prices his own work extremely low. What was happening was that he noticed folks were coming to his studio, scarfing up pots like crazy at ridiculously low prices, and then, because he was so well-known, they could sell the pots for maybe one or two hundred times what they had paid for them, making them unaffordable to the average person.
Maybe 15 years ago, he stopped signing his pots (imprinting them with his unique identifiable mark)in hopes of keeping their value down. (How successfully can you market an original Rembrandt if it isn't signed?)
This strategy worked to some degree, but I think it also backfired a bit, because it only served to make the pots that WERE marked even MORE valuable on such venues as eBay.
The smallest teapot I have is by Laura Ross. I bought it from her before I had the gallery, and it is because of this little teapot that I knew I wanted Laura's work in the gallery. You might remember the little teapot from Laura that was a fortunate accident on one side and an unfortunate accident on the other. Here is another small teapot from her that has two distinct personalities:
4 1/2" tall (inc. handle) X 4" wide (inc. spout) X 3 1/4" deep
And the flip side:
This little teapot is actually way too small to be used for tea. More likely a person would use it for soy sauce or olive oil.
I find the side that Laura did not control (the first image) -- to be so much more interesting and engaging than the other. All that wonderful ash from the fire landing on that side of the pot and becoming a part of it. You can guess which way the pot is displayed in my home, I'm sure.
Then there is the little invidividual teapot from John Neely that I use most of the time when I'm in the mood for just one cup of tea.
3 1/2" tall X 5 3/4" wide (inc. spout and handle) X 3 3/4" deep
The cool thing about this teapot is the little infuser that John made inside:
It's so incredibly perfect! I have no clue how me made all those holes so perfectly in that thin piece of clay, and then attached it to the inside of the teapot without "smooshing" it. Remember.. the clay was pliable when he attached it there. It is perfectly rounded (towards the interior of the pot). I'm sure he has some little trick he has figured out to do this, but it's a mystery to me.
And finally a sweet little pot from Sam Taylor. This is one of the pots I bought the first time I met Sam. He was opening his kiln at the time and I had a very hard time holding back. There was no way I was leaving this one for the next person to find!
3" tall X 5 3/4" wide X 3" deep.
This really isn't a teapot, either. Sam calls them "pouring bottles." What I love about this one are its proportions (there is just something magical for me in the ratio of length to height and width), and the way it doesn't sit flat on the table. How boring would it be to just have a flat bottom!? Instead, Sam went to the trouble of making that little arch in the center, and then angling the sides up. It makes all the difference, doesn't it?
I bought it over five years ago and it remains one of my very favorites.
Moving on to some of the teapots that are in the gallery that you haven't seen yet. Here are three more from Laura Ross. One "real" teapot, and three of her little baby ones.
Full-sized teapot
12 1/4" tall (inc. handle) X 8" wide (inc. spout) X 5" deep
$180
$180
Small, nested teapot
(on nest): 5 1/4" tall X 4 1/2" wide X 3"
(teapot): 4 3/4" tall X 4" wide X 3" deep
$100
(teapot): 4 3/4" tall X 4" wide X 3" deep
$100
Tiny shino teapot
5" tall X 4" wide X 3" deep
$90
$90
Individual Saki set, with tray
teapot: 6" tall X 4" wide X 3" deep
cup: 2 1/4" tall X 2 1/8" in diameter
tray: 2 1/2" tall X 11" long X 4 1/2" wide
$175/set
cup: 2 1/4" tall X 2 1/8" in diameter
tray: 2 1/2" tall X 11" long X 4 1/2" wide
$175/set
Some old business
I received an email in response to my newsletter last week (on how much trouble I was having photographing Maren Kloppmann's pots). The email, in part, said:
"Did you look at the [professionally done] photos of Maren's work on the [other] site. While I think their photographic environment must have more of an enclosed studio to it, what I noticed is how hard even those photos struggle in projecting the quality of Maren's pots. I had not thought about her work as being so difficult in this sense, but it's obviously true. ... I am quite fascinated with this issue about capturing it as an image. "
What an interesting way to look at the complexity of something -- How difficult is it to capture in an image?
Artists pages updated last week:
Kevin Crowe
Brian van Nostrand
Mark Shapiro -- (re-took several images to improve their quality, and added a pot I overlooked the first time -- the large hammered bowl)
This photography stuff is making me somewhat nuts, as you know. However I find that when I go back and look at some of the images I took before, I know how to improve them now. I guess I'm learning "about the light."
This way madness lies, I'm quite sure...
Have a good week.
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