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.
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