Truly Handmade

Sittin' here this morning listening to a new release of some oldie goldies by fellow wordsmith Guy Clark. I am waiting to join my peeps at Ash and Barrel Invitational at Fairweather Brewery in The Hammer. I want to show a couple of pieces I just refired that have got the Clennell family pedigree written all over them. In 1954 my mum, dad and their 3 boys migrated from Medicine Hat, Alberta to Pinecroft Pottery in Aylmer,Ontario in the hopes of making a living. We lived in a small log house with an ice box for a fridge, a oil stove and an outhouse. It was hard enough to support my aunt and uncle in the business of pottery and so much harder for a family of 5. Dad made the molds some of which are still in use today. Half an apple and a leaf dish have been staples of the production for 80 years now. Uncle Jimmie was not the uncle that took you bass fishing or to the circus. You want to hang with him and I did you had to work along side him. He paid me a nickel to slip cast a half apple dish. I remember one day I made $1.25 and was pretty proud of my production. Two pourings in a day. A few years ago I decided to put the half apples together and make sculpture. After all I am a big shot artist with an Mfa now and not a production potter. Said tongue in cheek! So there are three Clennell's involved in these pieces. Dad ,his brother Uncle Jimmie and yours truly. They were wood fired and then refired this past week with some more mojo applied. There is a lot of love and a lot of memories in these pieces. I think I made 3 or 4 of them. My sweet friend Emma Smith is the only one that bought one. She is sensitive to the energy of things. Inspiration is everywhere. It just needs to find you working. Pablo Picasso.

Production becomes something that has quite simply a visual function.

freshly poured half apple dishes

The leaf mould

Not sure of my Uncle Jimmie's obsession with apples. This is his half apple wax resist decoration on production cream and sugar. He even believed you had to eat the apple seed. I miss him in his womans pink mohair hat. On his death Guy Clark asked for his fathers Randall knife. I asked for his women's pink mohair hat.