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.
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