Yunomi cups are the every day tea cups that Japanese people use. The Greenwich House Pottery Studio and Gallery in Greenwich Village in Manhattan recently sponsored a national competition focussing on Yunomi cups. Here are the 7 I made. I entered 3 in the competition. I’ll know on March 21st if any of them were accepted. I learned so much from this exercise that I have won already. I learned to make more than one piece if it really mattered to me how a final one –or 3- turned out. I learned to work smaller than I ever do. I learned to carve small pieces. I got back in touch with
English porcelain which I love. I learned to paint bisque pieces with mason stain slip–not easy on small pieces. And I learned to try new things–always an event at my age.
This is Larry's high school sculture and my new piece.
This is my friend and fraternity brother Larry Keeble’s 60th birthday present piece. He made the wooden sculpture in high school and gave it to a mutual friend. We decided for Larry’s 60th birthday he should get it back but with a piece of my pottery in his signature color–red! Larry thought the whole idea was great and now carries this piece with him everywhere.
This is the acclaimed Adelaide Robineau Scarab Vase. She was a Syracuse, New York ceramicist. One of the few women cramicists at the turn of the century. She threw and carved the piece in 1910. She claimed it took her 1,000 hours to finish the beautiful piece and it is best known as “The Apotheosis of The Toiler.” In celebration of the completion of the Scarab Vase the Everson Museum in Syracuse in conjunction with the Onondaga Park Association, the Syracuse Ceramics Guild and Clayscapes Pottery sponsored a Carved Vase Contest. In addition to presenting the winners of the contest, there will be many special activities at the museum, a special showing of carved pottery selected from the entrants to the competition at the Clayscapes Pottery Gallery and a house tour on Robineau Road.
I am pleased to say that three of my pieces were selected by the judges. Two of them will go to the
Clayscapes Pottery Gallery show and one of them will be exhibited with the Scarab Vase and other famous Robineau pieces in the 100th Anniversary special exhibit at the Everson Museum during the month of June. I am more than honored to be included in both shows.
The piece on the left entitled “New England Trees,” an English porcelain piece with lid, will be on exhibit at the Everson Museum beginning June 12th.
The piece (left), “Seashore,” and the one below, “Georgia Wood,”,will be on display at the Clayscapes Pottery Gallery in Syracuse for the month of June.
All three pieces are available through Clayscapes Pottery.
I just went upstate New York to Peekskill to pick up some pieces of pottery that were woodfired for me. Here they are. Although I don’t feel that generally my style of throwing and carving are the best choice for woodfiring, I did enjoy the experience and think I had some real good luck with these. These are simply woodfires with no glaze. Amazing results. Many of the other pieces in this same kiln-load had great color and texture. Some of the results were surprising and unlike any of the others. It’s always Christmas morning when you unload a woodfire or a raku kiln. I love it. I am a kid at heart and at art.
