T&A 2

I have had the fortune to study with John Gill and Jeff Oestriech and one of the most enduring (and frustrating) lessons that I took away from the experience was that if you have enough patience, you can make clay do almost anything. Though I have made it abundantly clear on my blog, I am lacking in the patience gene, on occasion I have the bug to make something that takes both time and patience as well as lessons learned years back. Illustrated is a terra cotta ovaled baker in my abstrakt decoration with a well fitted oval lid. The body of the pot was first thrown and then altered with a slab bottom attached and the lid was made by humping a slab of clay over the form. The lugs on the baker and lid tie the pot together which is further accentuated by the decoration and ribs around the pot. This pot in no way matched the level of patience that either Gill or Oestriech process but I can say with absolute surety, this pot exhibits far greater patience than does throwing a simple teabowl and for someone lacking this particular gene, this is a step in the right direction.

"Beware the fury of a patient man."  John Dryden (1631-1700)