Thursday I flopped around a pottery class, not knowing what to do with myself. Friday I found this:
YES! This is where I want to go. There's development yet to do, but I'm in a new place. So far I have learned
-- Fewer, bigger moves/changes/gestures are better than more and smaller ones.
That's boring.
That's interesting. 2 views I think of the same bowl, but it's clear that it becomes better with more depth in the cut.
-- The line should keep flowing. The one above does, not so sure about the next picture.
-- The heights and shapes should vary. The relatively flat part above doesn't work so well.
Several years ago, I made a bowl to remember a trip in Arizona. Now I see what its weak points are.
I was thinking of cliff tops, where streams fall over the edge, and carve the beginnings of canyons. I like that part, but not so much the wide bowl base and the rest of the top.
It all repeats the same heights, not good.
Is this new? To me, sure, and it feels like an invention. I have, though, stopped to look at every pot with an irregular rim for years. In Craft in America, I noticed a Richard DeVore pot that does it wonderfully, looked up more of his work, and bow and step back. Not my invention; he made whole galleries full of marvelous pots with these qualities. He was after something else though, finishes like skin, pots like bodies. Interesting.
