So..here it is January and I'm playing catch up on all that stuff. We have a big list on the frig of all things that need to be done and I love to mark them off. ( I'm not sure Joey's so thrilled with the list but......). Yesterday as I finally got all the Christmas stuff put away and pulled out pots that I had taken down I realised how many ugly old pots of mine I have been saving. Why do I hold onto these things and worst of all, display them! I guess truthfully I have some connection to these few pieces because they have a story behind them as opposed to one's I got rid of a long time ago. I guess I also keep them around the house because I don't have a true studio to display them in. I love to go to other potters studio's who save old work. If they are like me, they do this to remind them of something they want to come back to or never go to again!
Here is a pot that in undergrad was the biggest covered jar I could make at the time. Look at those handles!! I guess I was trying to be creative and make handles like no one else. You can see here, at an early "age" I was into some form of surface design. I also made a dinnerware set that went with this jar. I gave it Joey the first year we were dating. It was collecting dust in my studio space at school and he needed plates and bowls. When we moved out of his apartment, we left the whole set with the apartment and new tenant.
At the moment we keep our pennies it. I made this in 1996.
The 3 larger vases on these shelves came out of a wood kiln I helped fire at Dan Finch's pottery in Bailey NC down near East Carolina where I went to school. If you've ever fired a huge wood kiln for days, your so happy with anything that comes out of it!! I used these vases to display flowers at our wedding. The smaller vases are from the first year I started potting. First pots are such good reminders of how hard it is to throw a pot when you first start out. My beginning students get a kick out of seeing these pieces.
So..that's what it going on here this weekend. If I get my painting done, maybe I can get out to clean my studio tonight.
4 comments:
I like keeping a certain amount of old work around. Not only can you see where you`ve changed over the years, but sometimes new ideas grow out of pieces that haven`t been looked at for a long time. Good luck deciding what to get rid of, it`s tough.
I guess I'll keep them around a bit longer until I get a "real" studio to put them in!
I'd take a picture of it to hang on the wall in the studio and then put the pot in the attic. Then replace it with something recent you've made that you like or something of someone else's that inspires you.
Or better yet, bring those early pots to Clayworks and show your students!
Someday if you ever decide to get rid of them, you can have a keeper's sale!
I wish someone would leave me a set of handmade dishes.
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