NOW & AGAIN

I don't really dislike hand building, what I actually dislike is the need for patience that goes along with the process. In throwing, I have become quite accustomed to the need to wait for pots to firm up, usually overnight before they can be tooled and decorated. With hand building, I haven't built up the tolerance to waiting and as soon as I roll out a few slabs my mind wants to go ahead and build which as one can guess rarely works out that well. The slabs for this particular teapot were rolled out after I finished tooling thrown pots at the end of the day and then placed on fiber boards used for drop ceilings to start to dry overnight and in the morning, coffee cup in hand and 80s music on the stereo, I set to building a pair of these "facade" teapots which despite their appearance are fully functional. The generic name for this decoration is called "waiting" which as you may guess has multiple meanings; the obvious subject matter is about waiting, the process to build the pieces is about waiting and lastly it is all about waiting as to when to decorate the pot. The title of this particular t-pot is "Waiting in Istanbul, Not Constantinople" a play of the TMBG song from 1990. I enjoy decorating pots with these "Its still life" themes as it allows the viewer to create and narrate their own stories or bring up experience from their own lives so have at it.