Cup #37

More urge for angularity, yet sharp angles soften and split open into curves...

Cup #36 ( the not supposed to be cup)

The cup form reveals that which a potter works against when throwing...it is that which is not supposed to be: deep finger ridges, uneven outline, collapsing handle. AND YET....somehow it has its own integrity and balance. A whirling, swirling little cup whose existence so obviously reveals the turning of the wheel.

Cup #35

The handle vine tucks tenderly into the curve of the cup then loops and flattens into a strong vertical plunge giving way only to a comfortable dip from which to grip it firmly..

Cup #34

Time for a vertical plunge!

Potter's Wheel

The messy potter's wheel from which a ball of clay is turned into a cup. A water bowl, tools, and sponges and 5 new cups line the shelves (cups #32-36) Above the wheel hangs a drawing of a woman (with a cup!) that has hung above the wheel since 1989 drawn by my son, Amory, at age 9. Next to the drawing hangs postcard of a very old photograph of a woman dancing close to the edge of a rock that juts out high above a canyon.

Cup #33 (two angles)

An energetic handle vine splits and proceeds to dance and curl boldly over the cup surface.
This is a large cup that has been well informed by the cost of exuberance in the previous cup. Working in clay shapes the potter, I know I have been shaped by it. Clay is clay. Clay will not be that which it cannot be. It cannot be forced by one's will. Turning clay into an object requires a relationship of sensitivity, respect, and a centered stance. If not, it can fly off the wheel, collapse, distort, wobble, crack, or explode in the kiln (taking out it's next of kin!)....hmm....sounds so human!

Cup #32 (another angle)