Man Talk

I’ve been trying to make a dent in all my reclaim so I threw some man rolls (2 sections plus an added foot ring) totalling 15 lbs plus a 5-pound lid.  I also made some salad bowls that are 18 lbs. I added a thrown foot on them for the elegance factor.  

I'm in a mode where I feel like doing what's familiar. In fact I'm feeling kinda tight. Don't know what has got into me. It's not what I  would call a slump. It's maybe just wanting to be on solid ground for awhile. Some say if it doesn't have the potential for disaster it ain't art but surely the firing of the pots in a wood kiln qualifies for potential disaster. 

  Low tech suits me.  Wood kilns may be low tech but they are a sophisticated technology. People think that because they can light a wood stove they can fire a kiln.  The kiln is the heart of the studio and with a 100 cubic foot wood kiln it gives ya lots of heart.

I will stack the big bowls rim to rim in the wood kiln. Hate when ya get a kiln booger in a big bowl. One of the nicest bowls I ever got from the wood kiln has a nugget in the bottom so nobody loves it but me.

 My mind just seems to work better when I think wood. I can hear the crew mimicking me- tall and thin always get in, bowls and plates sit and wait.

I always demo the man rolls when I do a workshop. To be honest I don’t really make a lot of them or sell many but they make a good impact during a workshop to show how making in pieces gives you such nice articulation of form without trimming your brains out. With a roll this big it usually means you pick it up from below the waist of the pot and not the handles. The handles are really just a necessary thing in my world. Same with the big bowls. You would lift from underneath and not likely the handles.

 I have made them in ridiculous sizes.

I used to like to park a couple on a plinth at the front of my booth at a big show.  Every time I turned my back I could hear the lid being lifted and put back on. It was always a man! It has to be a man thing. What would you serve in there he would ask? Kraft dinner I answered. How many boxes he replied? Now the ice is broken I insert do you like bacon in your KD? I'm on my way to a sale. Man talk.