IRON ON IRON

Illustrated is a sleek thrown and altered oval baker form with lugs at each end and lobed in the center, front and back. Glazed in iron on iron, the decoration creates a sense of quadrants that coincides with the lobes and ends of the piece. I like making these pieces going all the way back to the early 90s after seeing both Ron Meyers and Jeff Oestriech create ovaled pieces, the former, casual, immediate and direct and the later exacting, well thought out and precise. Taking from both schools of creation, there is always room for both in one's vocabulary, this one being tighter and more structural, the details are added to accentuate the form and highlight its mode of manufacture. Truth be told, after all the wheel throwing I have done it is great to break the routine and take a thrown cylinder and cut, paste, fold and mutilate. Just another aspect of making pots.

"The less routine the more life."  Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888)

T&A 2

I have had the fortune to study with John Gill and Jeff Oestriech and one of the most enduring (and frustrating) lessons that I took away from the experience was that if you have enough patience, you can make clay do almost anything. Though I have made it abundantly clear on my blog, I am lacking in the patience gene, on occasion I have the bug to make something that takes both time and patience as well as lessons learned years back. Illustrated is a terra cotta ovaled baker in my abstrakt decoration with a well fitted oval lid. The body of the pot was first thrown and then altered with a slab bottom attached and the lid was made by humping a slab of clay over the form. The lugs on the baker and lid tie the pot together which is further accentuated by the decoration and ribs around the pot. This pot in no way matched the level of patience that either Gill or Oestriech process but I can say with absolute surety, this pot exhibits far greater patience than does throwing a simple teabowl and for someone lacking this particular gene, this is a step in the right direction.

"Beware the fury of a patient man."  John Dryden (1631-1700)

THE CHOICE IS YOURS

When I think about teapots, I think of all of the engineering and construction issues and opportunities. Even a simple thrown round teapot, poses issues of spout and handle placement, making sure the lid stays on when pouring, making sure the liquid doesn't pour out the lid as well as the spout, well you get the idea, there is quite a few things to think about. From my perspective, there is a fairly steep learning curve regarding teapots and even with the best of teachers and examples, some teapots are just not going to make the cut.

In making teapots, there are two distinct approaches that spring to mind, the first is the finessed form. Jeff Oestriech's thrown and constructed teapots (from the 1990's) are a very good example of this where the shapes and lines created, almost as pure geometry, are finessed to create simple and elegant form, as if the pot is in distinct motion. The second approach is the engineered form of which Bruce Cochrane is an excellent example. Many of his teapots from the 90's were made of thrown cylinders, extensively fluted with a base added and a top made by using the body as a temporary hump mold. Everything revolves around the fluted body, engineered to accentuate and mimic the various elements of the pot, right down to the handle.

Illustrated is a fluted form teapot by Canadian potter, Bruce Cochrane. The pot is a wonderfully engineered piece with a simple yellowish ash glaze over porcelain, with slight wood fired effects. At a certain level, this pot may seem baroque in inspiration, but as you study the pieces and the whole, there is nothing out of place or superfluous, it is simply narrating its story through line and curve to best fulfill its function while tempting the eye for another cup of tea.

http://www.brucecochrane.ca/about-the-artist/