NOTHING FANCY

It's another Monday, the beginning of the second week of a new cycle so I started the day throwing several varieties of bowls including this meduim size serving bowl. After throwing a group of eight bowls it really dawned on me just how many bowls I have made in my time making pots and that is excluding teabowls. I have always made a great number of bowls from two to ten pounds followed by covered serving bowls and plates of all sizes, I don't think I can even guess at this point how many I have made. Going way back to my days at CSU I can remember days where I was all caught up on my tasks as ceramic assistant to fill a number of 8' long folding tables with bowls, at least 40 but likely quite a bit more. I am not bragging as I certainly know there are potters who make way more stuff than I ever will, I am only reflecting on how the bowl form is so elemental and essential to both potters and those that use them. It seems that everyone needs bowls, everyone uses bowls and by making hand made bowls it keeps at least a small percentage of the world from using plastic or commercially manufactured pieces. I am realistic enough to understand not everyone wants a hand thrown ceramic bowl but at some place in the back of my mind I believe that an object made by hand can at the very least bring some measure of beauty and contact between material, maker and user that has helped nurish the world for thousands of years. I would like to think that my bowl, ready to be cut off the wheel head is in some way a small part of that tradition.