Oestreich: My training (apprenticeship) gave me skills of how to make, how to photograph work, how to approach galleries, how to market, how to budget
Peltz: I didn't get that at all. We weren't supposed to do anything but artistic research. She found it freeing. Didn't have to worry about selling.
Oestreich: That's what graduate school gives you. Also 50K debt
Oestreich talking about wood firing. His fascination lasted 10 years, then it got exhausting, couldn't fire alone. Started altering, spending more time with each piece. in 1990, discovered oxidation soda at Alfred. "I'm beginning to miss some of that tradition," will be building a stoneware kiln.
Note: look for Nick's Misfire glaze
Aysha throwing an amazing bottle form, fluted with a trimming tool then puffed outward like a cushion.
Jeff talking about feeling a new interest in curved shapes, not so much sharp angles, the romance of a wood kiln.
Aysha now trimming heavily altered bowl from yesterday.
Audience question: Practice "How do you think about practicing playing music? " wait what
Jeff: "I feel there are so many similarities between music and clay." Talks about his music teacher making him learn the foundation before making music. Each pot practice for the next one. Don't fall in love with your idea because it's going to change.
Telling a story about Warren: He wasn't searching for the perfect pot, he was on a different adventure. When you look at one of Warren's pots, you could get a sense of what he was passionate about. Often you look at a pot & it doesn't create its own backstory.
Aysha: It's a knowing in the body...
Jeff: I know that with music I lose something if I am not able to play for a couple weeks. Clay is a different story, can pretty much just jump right back in even after months.
Aysha: "I have a hard time warming up to it, awakening the body memory," when she has been away from it for some time. Has to go thru getting to know what my arms & body & fingers need to do.
Question: It seems like each potter maybe especially young ones are under need to make pots that would not be confused with somebody else's pots. Questioner doesn't think that was true in 1970s.
Jeff: More & more pressure as more & more people entering field, continuous pressure to be unique. Used to be a calming aesthetic that everyone was working towards, trying to retain a certain tradition. "The cup is the most difficult pot to personalize."
Aysha trimming double ring, scooping out excess weight to prevent differences in thickness between wall & floor. Aysha: had to opportunity to watch Voulkos work, so much fun to watch. The way that he used clay & made marks & was so thoughtful in the decisions he was making was important to see. Everything was slow & contemplative.
Questioner: Cheese cutter: take the original wire out, put a coiled wire in.
Jeff: Used a stretched spring first. Used one from a cigarette lighter, then one from an old ball point pen. Hardware stores, kitchen supply stores. "Linda Christiansen just uses 5 tools. I have a thousand tools."
Aysha: Also likes kitchen supply - can't find melon ballers or butter curlers anymore.
Questioner: Can you talk about finding your own voice after working at Leach Pottery
Jeff: It took 30 years. Had been saturated in the leach tradition since undergrad. Wasn't until he started to teach himself - that opened him up to be able to receive other expressions & take in otehr things. "The work I do now is coming from design principles. I miss hte pots that come from the heart. " "Design principles are what's fueling me."
ooo that plump bottle form Aysha threw is actually the lid of a jar! She's trimming it now.
Jeff: social security takes some of the pressure off to make as many pots, allows him to spend more time with each pot.
Aysha: using the pot as a chuck for the lid
Jeff: leaving seam visible, love when the pot tells something of its construction
Question: what was your hand movement when making the stretched vase yesterday?
Aysha: used sponge, makes sweeping motion. It;s body memory to know how to make the motion without hesitation.
Jeff: what I am thinking about now is how this will pour. though it may end up being decorative it still has to function. Function is at the core. Pitchers don't come together until the spout; the spout makes it or breaks it.
Aysha: Now making splash bowl. Demostrates new bat design from studioprobats.com.
Ayash centers large balls of clay like I do, in two pieces.
Jeff cutting a curve into the spout to make it relate to the curve of the body of the pot. Cuts a flat spot to attach the handle. SilverHut, where the St Croix Pottery Tour show is happening
"You have to learn to make handles the Leach way" Pulled directly from the pot.
Shapes fat coil roughly. Hugs Linda Arbucle.
Aysha throws with two sponges!
Jeff attaching coil to rim of pot, holding pot so coil hangs vertically
Aysha: This pot came out of making things the way I usually do, pushing mostly from the inside, so mcu evidence of building, was distracting. Labor & process were too evident. Started to think more about architecture. HOw could she try to introduce some of that into work.
Jeff's handle is much wider than I wold have expected. Snips bottom with scissors! before attaching. Jeff says his handle is not long enough, is crap. I dunno, looks good to me. He doesn't press the handle against the body but gently pushes so the handle just kisses the pot.
If I did that I'm pretty sure that handle would pop off.
He's now pushing upward on the curve of the handle, saying the pot is perky so the handle needs to be perky.
Aysha using butter curler to flute the interior of the bowl, to cause the glaze to pool & flow.
Ooops it's 4 o'clock & they are done!
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