"A man's
got to know his limitations." Dirty Harry
I recently saw
a very old pot and was inspired to try my own spin on the idea. I spent a bit
of time sketching up surfaces, testing the necessary glaze and materials and
then set about throwing some cylinder vases to test on. The first step went
fine, but as it came time to add the decoration, the whole idea, surface and
concept, just fell short. I know that it can take hundreds (thousands) of tries
to get an idea worked out, but as I sallied forth, the concept became more and
more diluted and less interesting. Through countless tests, experiments and
trials and tribulation, I have figured out what I can do and those great amount
of things that I can not. The conclusion, as vague as this may be, is that I
just do not have the aptitude to proceed further. Over 20 plus years of
potting, I have learned my strengths as well as my weaknesses and at the end of
the day, sifting through the myriad of
possibilities keeps things interesting and is part of the continuing
evolution of being an inquisitive potter.
In keep with
the inquisitive and determined theme, illustrated is a picture of a greenware
teabowl that I have just hand cut the foot. I have been working to create a
foot that accentuates the bowl form more than does a normally tooled foot. The
foot shown has been one approach that works well on both the heavily
paddled/distorted bowls as well as the ones that are asymmetrical and pushed
oval. Understanding limitations is one thing, but practice does make perfect,
lots and lots of practice.
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