For the love of Blackheads


I was one of the lucky ones in my teen years that didn’t have pimples or blackheads except for the day of my wedding I got a big zit on the end of my nose. That was a message from God. You have to learn to listen to your body.
 I bought this jug I’m sure it had to be 40 years ago at The Ontario Crafts Council shop in Yorkville, Toronto. It was an expensive purchase for me and now that I look back on it – a somewhat daring one! I was being taught that thin was very difficult, smooth was were it was at,  clay pots were supposed to look like it was made of something else. This jug by Neil Liske of Alberta has remained an inspiration for the work I make today. This has given me licence to be direct with clay. Although I must admit the primary motivation for buying this pot was not the freedom of gesture. It was the blackheads!  It was the seventies and blackheads were proof of reduction firing. I built my first Olsen fast fire wood fired kiln not so that I could have wood ash but so that I too could have blackheads. An oatmeal glaze with iron spots was the real proof you were a potter.
I still love this jug. I wonder what happened to this potter? I’d like to say thanks and that I have enjoyed living with this pot these many years. You know I even like the blackheads and wonder



if they might come full circle in the clay world again.

Here are a couple of jugs I just made with a double upside down pretzel handle. Sounds like a wrastlin’ hold.

Comments

Unknown said…
And I would like to thank YOU as I have been living (happily) with some of YOUR pots for many years, from when you were in Beamsville. My favourite tea bowl is one of yours and we have a giant platter/plate for our fruit on the counter in the kitchen - it kind of dominates, to tell the truth. Oh, and a cream 'n' sugar which are amongst my prize possesions. I am proud every time I take them out. Glad to find you on your blog and know that you are potting: those double pretzel handles look fabulous/funky/alive/totally cool. Olga in Toronto
smokieclennell said…
that was very sweet of you Olga. T
Ashley said…
Neil Liske still lives and works in Calgary. He was flooded in the 2013 flood when the river took out a lot of the Bowness Community. He even went to far as to take that stinky, disgusting river muck and turned it into a glaze.
Anonymous said…
Water into wine, swords into plowshares, river muck into glaze.

It's all transmutation to me!
Unknown said…
Doggone it I like those handles Tony ... except they make my handles look practically obsequious by comparison

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