|
Though our lives have changed significantly since Hurricane Katrina, my husband and I are regrouping to keep pottery making in our lives. For a period of about eight months we were unable to make pottery at all. During that time, however, many caring people provided us with donated equipment – wheels, a kiln, a slab roller – and that enabled us to set up a studio when we finally were able to move into a rental house. We had 220 wiring installed with the landlord’s approval, so we were able to fire our work. Over the years, I have done more hand building than wheel throwing. Faces, fish, angels, and snakes seem to make up a large part of what I create. The angels are always glaze fired. However, the faces, fish, and snakes sit around for ages until an appropriate glaze technique comes along that seems appropriate. I very rarely glaze-fire the faces. They just have always been finished (as far as I was concerned) at the bisque state. A few have been Raku fired, and those have been aesthetically pleasing to me, but the majority of them remain “naked clay”. The fish are evolving. Most of them are glazed and fired either Raku Gold or green. However, many of them remain naked. I have always heard that a potter’s work sometimes has to speak to the potter before the work can be completed. I guess my faces have always told me they didn’t want to be glazed. So they weren’t. (Wiggins, MS )
|
