Day 2 Bowls and Pitchers, Day 3 Lidded Jars, Day 4 Teapots, Alleghany Meadows, Make, Use, Look, Think

Our schedule for the two weeks which soon changed.

Haystack Workshop Schedule

Bowl, paying great attention to the inside

Rim cut out and rolled over

Rim rolled over in two places

Cups from Day 1 with handles. This handle works perfectly for holding and drinking. Bowl ovaled on banding wheel

Pitcher spout shaped into rim

Using bull’s tongue on his pitcher

Pitcher, altered

Cut out, darting, for shape and handle placement

Finished

Pulling handles

Cut out for spout

Attaching spout made from a slab of clay

Handles awaiting attachment

Pulling a spout

Day 3 was Lidded Jars.  I particularly liked this statement of Allegheny’s  that moment of beauty such as when a flower petal causes us to pause.

What are the decisions we make in our pots that are part of our artistic expression and how can we cause one to pause?

The lids of a jar can be as beautiful as a pot so if the jar is broken the lid is still a beautiful object.

Day 4 Teapots. How does one start?  One thinks about form, about motion, about the feeling of making something beautiful.  Allegheny thinks of teapots as being feminine, the making of tea is a ritual, it is nurturing, it is the taking of a moment to slow down.  Things to think about, how do we think of beauty, what is beauty, how do we look at the world.  These inform our pots.  How a finger or tool touches the clay – those are important moments.

Teapot form

Spouts and lids

Thrown handles for teapots

Throw all parts for the teapot at the same time so the shrinkage is the same

Assembling teapots.  If the spout is too low it is hard to pour.  Place the handle high otherwise it is too much on the wrist when pouring.

Day 3 Mark Pharis

Susan and I began our day at Starbucks.  Here is the promised photo.

Starbucks, St. Francis Rd, Santa Fe

Starbucks outdoor seating and drive thru

On the way back I took more photos of the Railyard Garden.

Santa Fe Railyard Park Plaza

Circular Shade Ramada and Susan

Santa Fe Railyard – Circular Shade Ramada. Hard to see this beautiful circular rose garden

Santa Fe Railyard Waffel Garden. In the middle is a bed of blue glass stones

Wonderful walkway with trumpet vine

Community Stories – Piano painted by 7th graders needs some attention!

Community Stories

The Trust for Public Land – Santa Fe Railyard Park and Plaza

Mark gave Susan an assignment to draw her teapot life sized and he would show her how to make a template for the teapot.  He took a compass, found the half, quarter, 1/8th and 1/16th.  From this 1/16th measurement he made 1/6 of the teapot that Susan could use to make the entire body of the pot.  Ingenious!

Life Size drawing of a teapot. Using a compass Mark created a 1/6 template

1/6 th tea pot template

Later in the afternoon Mark cut a square template from 1/4 inch masonite.  Using a jigger saw he cut a square hole.  He placed the square template on a bucket, laid the clay in the template and let gravity do it’s thing.

Making a plate using a wood template

Mark Pharis – Plate

We ended the day with a slide lecture by Mark.  I love hearing someone talk about their work.  It is like receiving a gem.  On abstraction – Working on soy bottles allowed Mark to explore abstraction because there is no history in his family, life or in Minnesota of soy bottles.  In the growth of a vision one can have a small epiphanies along the way which changes the direction of the art work.  When do we learn about pots as kids, what is our history, what do we eat, how does that affect the way we think about form.  Pots create social context they are about humanity.

More tomorrow.  Esther told me not to post this so late because no one sees it at 12.24 EDS – sorry honey posting now!  Good night.