BEAT UP

I was throwing bowls, mostly soup bowls off the hump this morning and got near the end of the clay and decided to throw a couple of teabowls. I started out thinking they would be wan-gata shapes but had my fill of making simple bowls and set about to thrown and beat up some clay to alter them and give in to what forms may appear out of the beating. Illustrated are the two bowls I could coax out of the last bit of clay, both were smacked about a bit with opposite sides of the same paddle and though refined a bit, both are just about as the beating left them. After a long period of making very traditional and conservative pieces, letting the paddle decide the form and giving in to the process is very welcome. The tooling of the pieces will follow the same schedule, first will be the pieces tooled on the wheel and them I will cut feet on the teabowls using just a sharp piece of bamboo an a bent and sharpened piece of wire for the inside of the foot. In truth, it is good to break up the routine and should do it more often.

2Cellos version of the MOMBASA SUITE from the movie INCEPTION;