4 Ceramics Monthly Ceramics Monthly Volume 29, Number 3 March 1981

Features Cone 3 OxidationRichard by Zakin...... 33 Ted Randall ...... 37 Ohio Craft Fairs...... 42 Raymon Elozua...... 46 F. Carlton Ball: Autobiographical Notes, Part I ...... 48 Robert Archambeau...... 52 National Teapot Show...... I...... 54 Traditional Wood Firing in France...... 55

Departments Letters to the Editor...... 9 Suggestions ...... 13 Where to Show...... 15 Answers to Questions...... 21 Ceramic Crosswords Ricby Swenson ...... 25 Itinerary ...... 27 News & Retrospect...... 69 Index to Advertisers...... 98

Cover Stoking the single firebox of a massive, traditional kiln at La Borne, in southeastern France. One of the last remaining folk potters assists contemporary ceramists Michel Pastore, Evelyne Porret and Janet Stedman in clearing the ash pit as fast- burning fagots (bundles of sticks or twigs) are quickly reduced to embers. A look at the work of these potters and their revival of traditional ways begins on page 55. Photo: Michel Leparreur. March 1981 5

Ceramics Monthly Magazine

Spencer L. Davis...... Publisher and Acting Editor William C. Hunt ...... Managing Editor Robert L. Creager ...... Art Director Barbara Harmer Tipton ...... Copy Editor Carol Lefebvre Hagelee ...... Asst. Editor Ruth C. Butler ...... Asst. Copy Editor Mary Rushley...... Circulation Manager Connie Belcher ...... Advertising Manager

Editorial, Advertising and Circulation Offices 1609 Northwest Boulevard, Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43 212 (614)488-8236

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Ceramics Monthly (ISSN 009-0328) is published monthly except July and August by Profes­ sional Publications, Inc. — S. L. Davis, Pres.; P. S. Emery, Sec.: 1609 Northwest Blvd., Co­ lumbus, Ohio 43212. Correspondence con­ cerning subscriptions, renewals and change of address should be mailed to the Circulation Department, Ceramics Monthly. Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212. Controlled circula­ tion postage paid at Athens, Ohio 45701. Sub­ scriptions: One year $14; Two years $26; Three years $35. Add $3 per year for sub­ scriptions outside the U.S.A. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Ceramics Monthly, Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212. Articles in each issue of Ceramics Monthly are indexed in the Art Index. Microfische, 16mm and 35mm microfilm copies, and xerographic reprints are available to subscribers from Uni­ versity Microfilms, 300 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. Manuscripts, photographs, color separa­ tions, color transparencies (including 35mm slides), graphic illustrations and news releases dealing with ceramic art are welcome and will be considered for publication. A booklet de­ scribing procedures for the preparation and submission of a manuscript is available with­ out cost to potential authors. Send manuscripts and correspondence about them to The Editor,Ceramics Monthly, Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212. Copyright © 1981 Professional Publications, Inc. All rights reserved March 1981 7

Letters Reitz Writes under all sorts of circumstances, and have The fired clay slab shown below was found that any workspace is ideal—when received by CM in response to a letter from efficiently utilized. Cincinnati potter Bob Hasselle which ap­ Watching the women of Nigerian vil­ peared in the December 1980 issue.—Ed. lages fashioning masterpieces of pots from clay, grog and dust is about as great an efficiency—and revelation—as one could wish in a single lifetime. Don and Isao Sanami/Morrill Vancouver Mount Saint Helens Ash I would like to express my appreciation to Michael McDowell for his article “Glaz­ ing with Mount Saint Helens Ash” in the January issue. Michael’s account of the initial curiosity, half-serious testing and jubilation after the first fired tests, vir­ tually parallels our own experience. We have over two tons of fine-grade ash stored in the barn and have plans to return to the eastern part of the state for more as soon as the mountain passes clear. In addition to Michael’s reported results, we have also run tests substituting the ash for 70% of the feldspar and 30% of the flint content of several of our other Don Reitz glaze formulas with virtually no visible Marshall, Wis. change in the glaze appearance, thus open­ ing up the possibility of incredible eco­ January Issue nomic savings. Another interesting use of While mainly agreeing with Ric Swen­ the ash is wedging it into a white stone­ son’s article (“Selecting and Designing a ware or porcelain body and glazing with a Studio”) there are a few comments I clear glaze. The result is a “freckled” would like to make: Most readily available appearance and great body strength. We electric services in North America are not threw a small bottle-shaped pot on the three phase but are single phase, three- floor several times with no chipping or wire, grounded neutral. If one is fortunate breaking. Mount Saint Helens ash seems enough to build the ideal studio, then to be the most versatile material we have probably two 100-ampere services would be yet to discover and it has become a main­ of value. One would be for general usage stay in our repertoire. and the other reserved for kiln power and I hope others find working with Mount heavy equipment. If living arrangements Saint Helens ash as interesting and excit­ are not physically separate from the shop, ing as we have and continue to experiment then one quite definitely should have a for further uses. As artists and craftsper- large, high-volume fan at the end of the sons working directly with natural elements shop opposite the entrance door. It should it seems crucial, given today’s economic operate nearly all the time to assure a realities, that we make as much use of our constant flow of air away from double immediate natural surroundings as pos­ doors to the living quarters. Even bright sible. sunlight may not reveal the presence of I would like to see CM publish more impalpable dust. (A rather high humidity articles concerning local materials, and assists in precipitating dusts.) would also be interested if readers would We have found that a smooth, well- provide information relating to the his­ maintained earth or fine gravel makes an torical use of volcanic ash in pottery mak­ excellent studio floor. Either should be ing. water sprinkled about twice daily to Michael L. Madsen achieve a surface nearly as hard as con­ Blaine, Wash. crete. Concrete itself is not always a de­ sirable surface: untreated, unpolished, it is Counts Responds to Garzio constantly freeing dust to float about— While I respect the opinion of Angelo silica motes to be trappedby the unwary Garzio (“Garzio: Viewpoint” in the Janu­ lung. Polished and treated, wet concrete is ary issue), appreciating the fact that peo­ an invitation to cracks in the pelvis. ple can have honest differences, I do For ourselves, the ideal studio is all believe he misses the point concerning an outdoors in a warm climate. Barring this it exchange of Nigerian craftspeople with is axiomatic that any space is either too American communities. much or not enough and rapidly fills with It is my firm belief that no one loses in the indispensable, until coming across a trying to create an environment of under­ piece of string a year later, we wonder standing and world community. We do what ’n ’ell we saved that for. We have have a global village. The biggest threat created studios in several countries, and Continued March 1981 9 10 Ceramics Monthly creativity necessitates change and flexi­ Letters bility. Without change we would still be to Nigerian culture is ignorance of the painting on cave walls with iron oxide. vitality and artistic excellence of village (Or was it* manganese carbonate?) artisans. The village potters are threatened Jo Fry by imported plastic containers and cheap Garrettsville, Ohio enameled metals, not “Western” ceramic technical information as dispensed by edu­ More NEA Grants Reaction cators at the Ahmadu Bello University or It has become evident that only a few tiny human experiments such as Michael can win at this art welfare scam, so it Cardew’s Pottery Training Centre at seems necessary to somehow come to grips Abuja. with its distribution. Is it true that one A recent magazine article reported that can win more than once? If so, why not 20,000 students were attending colleges differentiate the honor of winning from and universities in the United States from the granting of the monetary gift? Could Nigeria. (See “Nigeria: Oil-Rich and the acknowledgment of the second and Nervous” Atlantic, January 1981.) It has subsequent winnings become “honorary,” been my great disappointment to realize thereby saving the money for others need­ that so very few of these students were in ing it to become masterful? The recogni­ the arts. I believe we all suffer when only tion must be reasonably sure to project the “technocrats” are exchanged. The Ni­ value of these masters’ works without real gerians have much to offer. monetary gain. Or am I just another fool Garzio’s statement that Nigeria is a on the outside looking in, jealous of an­ “largely agrarian society, still living in other’s gain and gain and gain? small villages. . . presents a misrepre­ Let us use air to blow up the illusion, sentation of the truth. Village life remains not to blow the sand of disillusionment into strong, however, the entire country is in the eyes of the unseen. the midst of gigantic shifts from rural to Wayne L. Klein urban life. Cities like Ibadan and Lagos Black Forest, Colo. are sprawling examples of rapid socio­ economic change. Ten modern factories would have a difficult time supplying the I agree one hundred percent with Ronan masses with their requirements for pottery. Adzul’s letter in the October CM. Too Inside the classic village the individual many quality potters are totally ignored by potter (symbolized by Mallam Garba) still federal and state bureaucracies. We are provides a vital, integral service. In the in jeopardy of killing off the right to large cities and developing towns there is liberty and freedom of creation, supposedly an intense desire for modern, efficient supported by this country’s principles. utensils. Win Blazier Nigeria has already confronted the fu­ Micanopy, Fla. ture—amidst pervasive technologies—hit­ More on CM’s November Comment ting at its cultural diversity and human “The Art-Historical Myth” by John complexity from both East and West. It is Stocking not only made many cogent points proper to question individual motives. I but made them lucidly. There was no need know of no personal solutions, but I would for the reader to fight through foggy rather explore future possibilities in open phrases to get to the meat. exchange than wish (merely wish) that The University of Calgary is to be con­ important aspects of human life (like pot­ gratulated on having John Stocking on ters’ skills) were not lost in the rush of their staff. Coverage of the Seminar ’80 in time. Calgary was much appreciated, as is that Charles Counts of other such events for those of us who Rising Fawn, Ga. cannot attend them. Bothered Carol Heckendorn There is one thing that really bothers Worthington, Ohio me: What do artists do with all that funk Subscribers’ Comments art after they have their exhibits? Do they Before pottery, I was a normal guy. Now crate it up and put it in the attic, the my fingernails are worn, my skin is dry basement, or do they get out on the road and my dreams are filled with clay images and try to sell it to the locals? and fantasies. It ruined my life. (But I Lucille Oka wouldn’t trade it for anything else.) New York City Michael Krapek Flexibility Urged Tucson There seem to be a number of letters in CM recently which are highly critical [Let’s see] more color—after all we don’t of conceptual art and funk. I personally glaze in black and white. find little satisfaction in “Earth Rooms,” Gordon Motta etc., but I do, however, highly respect any Honokaa, Hawaii artist involved in any creative form of honest, personal expression. When Di Mor­ Share your thoughts with other readers. rill (December Letters) says “the potter’s All letters must be signed, but names job is to make pots,” she must be assum­ will be withheld on request. Address: The ing that potters are not artists. An artist Editor, Ceramics Monthly, Box 12448, must be creative as well as expressive, and Columbus, Ohio 43212. March 1981 11

Suggestions from our readers Tap Wrench the center. This should allow lids to be inverted, with the hole The working parts of a pipe wrench make an excellent, inex­ protecting the knob. Clay lugs will hold the lid in place on the pensive tap and die set for making screw-top ceramic containers. bat. —James Gibb, Bloomer, Wis. -—Douglas Delperdang, Keokuk, Iowa Incinerator Uses Fine-line Resist I have had successful sawdust firings in a gas trash incinerator A tj anting, or wax-writing pen used for batik, makes an excel­ that vents into a masonry chimney; it is also handy when burn­ lent tool for applying liquid wax when drawing a resist design on ing plant materials for ash glazes. clay. It allows more control, can produce a thinner line than a —Bob Clark, Lancaster, Ohio brush, and is especially useful for detailed work. Stereo Bats -—William D. Herling, Bellevue, Wash. Once when I was broke and needed a supply of bats, I found More Mount Saint Helens Glazes that companies who manufacture stereo speakers throw away the Here are two simple Cone 6 oxidation glaze formulas employ­ rounds that result from cutting holes where the speakers are ing Mount Saint Helens volcanic ash: mounted. These rounds were approximately 10-12 inches in diameter and made of ¾-inch-thick particleboard; they let me VOLCANIC ASH GLAZE I (Cone 6) take all I could haul away. —Steve Conine-Quiney, Seattle Volcanic Ash ...... 75% Wood Ash ...... 25 Grounded Clay 100% I have been storing plastic clay in the ground for the past VOLCANIC ASH GLAZE II (Cone 6) few years. After digging a 10-cubic-foot hole (large enough to Volcanic Ash ...... 87% hold a half ton), it was covered with a wooden lid, then roofing Whiting ...... 13 material. My clay stays moist indefinitely and it doesn’t freeze Too% in the winter. —Nancy Nelson, Spokane, Wash. Add: Zinc Oxide...... 9% —Val Prophet, Dillon, Mont. Dollars for Your Ideas Ceramics Monthly pays $5 for each suggestion used; submis­ Lid Bat sions are welcome individually or in quantity. Send your ideas to For ease in trimming flat or recessed lids with high or delicate CM, Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212. Sorry, but we can’t knobs, cast a thick plaster bat with a 2^-inch-diameter hole in acknowledge or return unused items.

March 1981 13 14 Ceramics Monthly Where to Show exhibitions, fairs, festivals and sales Send announcements of juried exhibitions, first national “Landscape in Art Exhibi­ bition” is open to ceramists. Fee: $10 for fairs, festivals and sales at least four tion” is open to any artist using a land­ up to 2 works. Entry deadline: April 1. scape motif as subject matter. Juried by Juried by slides. Contact: Janis Mershon, months before the entry deadline to The 3 slides; include a resume and self- Box 5, Lemont, Pa. 16851. Editor, Ceramics Monthly, Box 12448, addressed, stamped envelope. Entry dead­ Columbus, Ohio 43212; or phone (614) line: April 30. For both events contact: Texas, Ingram May 17-30 The “12th Bi­ 488-8236. Springfield Art Association Gallery, 700 annual Juried Craft Exhibition” is open to North Fourth Street, Springfield 62702, ceramists. Entry deadline: May 9. Cash or call: (217) 523-2631. awards. Send a self-addressed, stamped Exhibitions envelope when requesting entry form. Con­ Kansas, Topeka April 5-30 “Topeka tact: Hill Country Arts Fdtn, Box 176, Arkansas, Little Rock May 15-June 14 Crafts Exhibition 5” is open to ceramists Ingram 78025, or call: (512) 367-5121. The 14th annual “Prints, Drawing and residing in Kansas and the Saint Joseph/ Crafts Exhibition” is open to artists born Kansas City, Missouri, area. Cash awards. Washington, Spokane July 4-12 The or residing in Arkansas, Louisiana, Missis­ Juror: Ronald Hickman. Entry deadline: “Second Annual Crafts Exhibition” is sippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Oklahoma and March 15. Contact: Larry D. Peters, open to U.S. and Canadian craftsmen. Texas. Fee: $5 per entry; artists limited to Topeka Public Library, 1515 West 10th, Juried by slides. $2000 in prizes. Fee: $5 two works in any one category. Entry Topeka 66604, or call: (913) 233-2040. for two entries. Commission: 30%. Entry deadline: April 24. Juried by works. Con­ deadline: April 1. Contact: Carolyn Ste­ tact: Townsend Wolfe, The Arkansas Arts Minnesota, Duluth June 27-August 9phens, Celebrations ’81, West 3410 Fort Center, MacArthur Park, Box 2137, Little “Lake Superior Crafts Exhibition.” Open George Wright Drive, Spokane 99204. Rock 72203, or call: (501) 372-4000. to all craft media. Juried by slides. Juror: California, DowneyJune 20-July 25 The Ruth Kohler. Entry deadline: March 15. “Westwood Clay National 1981” is open Entry fee: $10. Awards totaling $3000. Fairs, Festivals and Sales to ceramists. Juried by slides. Entry dead­ Contact: Lake Superior Crafts Exhibition, Arizona, Sedona May 16-17 “Fiesta de line: April 6. Fee: $5 per entry. Juror: Duluth Art Institute, 506 W. Michigan St., Los Artes” is open to all media. Juried by Richard Shaw. Contact: Westwood Clay Duluth 55802, or call: (218) 727-8013. 5 slides or photos. Fees: $10 entry; $40 National 1981, Downey Museum of Art, Missouri, Saint LouisAugust 2-26 “Litur­ booth. Entry deadline: April 1. Contact: 10419 South Rives Avenue, Downey 90241, gical and Ceremonial Objects” is open to Lucy Banks, Sedona Arts Center, Box 569, or call: (213) 861-0419. Missouri residents and Illinois residents Sedona 86336, or call: (602) 282-3809. California, Taft October 24-December 5 living within 200 miles of Saint Louis. Connecticut, Stratford August 14-16, 21- “Vessels Aesthetic” is open to ceramic art­ Juried. Cash awards. Entry fee: $10 for 23 The “American Crafts Festival” is ists. Works must allude to the vessel form. up to 3 works. Entry deadline: July 10- juried from 5 color slides. Entry deadline: Fee: $5 per entry. Cash and purchase 11. Contact: Craft Alliance, Liturgical March 27. Fee: $90 per weekend. Con­ awards. Juried by slides. Jurors: Philip Objects, 6640 Delmar Blvd., Saint Louis tact: Brenda Brigham, American Concern Cornelius, Lukman Glasgow and Jerry 63130, or call: (314) 725-1151. for Artistry, Box 221, Uptown Station, Rothman. Entry deadline: August 24. Montana, Kalispell June 2-July 24 “North­ Hoboken, New Jersey 07030. Contact: Jack Mettier, Taft College Art ern Rockies Clay 1981,” a 1-year traveling Gallery, 505 Kern Street, Taft 93268, or exhibition, is open to ceramists residing in Florida, Sarasota November 21-22 The call: (805) 765-4086. Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Juried by 10th annual “Crafts Festival” is open to slides. Purchase awards. No entry fee. residents of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Colorado, GoldenMay 10-June 9 “North Entry deadline: March 16. Contact: Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North American Sculpture Exhibition.” Open to Northern Rockies Clay, Hockaday Center Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and sculptors working in a hard, permanent for the Arts, Box 83, Kalispell 59901, or Virginia. Juried by 5 slides. Entry fee: $5. medium. Juried by up to 3 photographs call: Sue Rolfing (406) 755-5268. Entry deadline: May 1. Contact: Marion per entry; maximum 3 works per artist. Hope, John and Mable Ringling Museum Fee: $10 per work. Entry deadline: March New Jersey, Margate June 13-17 “Craft of Art, Box 1838, Sarasota 33578, or call: 18. Contact: Foothills Art Center, 809 Concepts ’81” is open to all media. Juried (813) 355-5101. Fifteenth St., Golden 80401, or call (303) by 5 slides and a current resume; include 279-3922. a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Entry Georgia, Milledgeville October 17-18 deadline: April 20. Jurors: Rudy Staffel, “Browns Crossing Craftsmen Fair.” Juried Colorado, Grand JunctionJuly 31-Sep­ Betty Park and Patricia V. Gaby. Fee: by 3 slides. Entry deadline: May 1. Booth tember 5 “Objects ’81” is open to all $10. Commission: 25%. Contact: Craft fee: $45. Contact: Carole S. Sirmans, craftsmen. Juried. Fee: $5 per entry, Concepts, Jewish Community Center, 501 Browns Crossing Craftsmen, Route 2, Box maximum 3. Juror: Dorothy Garwood. North Jerome Avenue, Margate 08402, or 271, Milledgeville 31061, or call: (912) Entry deadline: May 12. Awards. Con­ call: (609) 822-1167. 452-9327. tact: Objects ’81, Western Colorado Cen­ ter for the Arts, 1803 North 7th Street, New York, White Plains September 26- Illinois, ChicagoJune 20-21 “Beverly Art Grand Junction 81501. October 30 “Ceramics for Collectors” is Center Fair and Festival” is open to ce­ juried from 4 slides; include prices, re­ ramists. Juried by slides. $2000 in cash Illinois, Crystal LakeAugust 21 -Decem­ sume and self-addressed, stamped envelope. awards. Entry deadline: April 30. Contact: ber 31 The “Clay Workers’ Guild Invi­ Entry deadline: July 30. Contact: West­ Peter Chechopoulos, Beverly Art Center, tational” is open to clay artists living in lake Gallery, 210 East Post Road, White 2153 West 111th Street, Chicago 60643, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mis­ Plains 10601, or call: (914) 682-8123. or call: (312) 445-3838. souri, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. Purchase and cash awards. Ju­ Ohio, Marietta October 31-November 29 Illinois, EvanstonJune 27-28 The “Foun­ ried by slides. Fee: $5 per entry; limited The “Marietta College Crafts National tain Square Arts Festival” is open to all to 3 works. Entry deadline: May 15. Con­ ’81” is juried by slides. Entry fee: $10. media. Juried by slides. $4000 in cash tact: Robert Blue, CWG Invitational, Box Entry deadline: September 12. Cash and awards. Entry deadline: April 20. Contact: 1084, Elgin 111. 60120. purchase awards. Contact: Arthur How­ Evanston Chamber of Commerce, 807 ard Winer, MCCN ’81, Marietta College, Davis Street, Evanston 60201, or call: Illinois, SpringfieldNovember 7-January Marietta 45750, or call: (614) 373-4643, (312) 328-1500. 3, 1982 “Fibers, Fabrics, Clay and Glass” ext. 275. is juried by 3 slides. Entry deadline: Indiana, BloomingtonSeptember 5-6 The March 15. Pennsylvania, State CollegeJuly 5-August “4th Street Festival of Art and Craft” is January 9, 1982-February 28, 1982 The 16 The 15th annual “Juried Crafts Exhi­ Continued March 1981 15 16 Ceramics Monthly sion. Contact: Steve McGrath, Rural “Southern Vermont Crafts Fair” is juried Where to Show Route 4, Box 248, Pound Ridge 10576. by 5 slides; include a self-addressed, juried by 4 slides. Entry fee: $35. Entry stamped envelope. Fees: $3 entry, $125 deadline: June 8. Contact: The 4th Street New York, Syracuse July 9-11 The booth. No commission. Entry deadline: Committee, Box 1257, Bloomington 47402. “Downtown Syracuse Arts and Crafts Fair” April 30. Contact: Charley Dooley or Riki is open to all media. Juried by 5 slides. Moss, Craftproducers Markets, Inc., North Indiana, Chesterton August 1-2 The 23rd Cash and purchase awards. Fees: $5 entry; Hill, Readsboro, Vt. 05350. annual “Chesterton Art and Craft Fair” is $30 booth. No commission. Entry deadline: juried by slides. Fees: $2 entry, $35 May 15. Contact: The Downtown Com­ Vermont, Mount SnowOctober 10-12 booth. Entry deadline: May 15. Contact: mittee of Syracuse, Inc., 1900 State Tower The “Mount Snow Foliage Craft Fair” is Chesterton Art Fair, Box 783, Chesterton Building, Syracuse 13202, or call: (315) juried by 5 slides; include a self-addressed, 46304. 422-8284. stamped envelope. Fees: $3 entry, $125 booth. No commission. Entry deadline: Indiana, Valparaiso May 30-31 “Love Ohio, Cincinnati June 13-14 “Summer- April 30. Contact: Charley Dooley or Riki America” is open to ceramists. Juried from fair” is open to artists and craftsmen. Moss, Craftproducers Markets, Inc., North slides. Entry deadline: April 10. Fee: $20. Juried by 5 slides. Cash awards. No com­ Hill, Readsboro, Vt. 05350. Contact: Porter County Arts Commission, mission. Fees: $10 entry; $40 booth. Entry 72 W. Lincoln Way, Valparaiso 46383, or deadline: March 15. Contact: Summer- Washington, Spokane July 10-12 The call: (219) 464-4080. fair, Box 3277, Cincinnati 45201. “Second Annual Crafts Fair” is open to all media. Juried by slides or work. Entry Louisiana, Bossier CityMay 29-31 “Art Ohio, Cleveland HeightsJuly 18-19 The deadline: March 28. Contact: Pauline in the Park” is juried by three 35mm “Cain Park Arts Festival” is open to artists Bresnahan, Celebration ’81, South 1505 slides. Entry deadline: March 31. Booth and craftsmen. Juried by slides or photo­ Riegel Court, Spokane 99206. fee: $30. Commission: 10-15%. Include graphs. Cash awards. Entry deadline: June a self-addressed, stamped envelope for re­ 1. Entry fee: $25. Contact: Cleveland Wisconsin, Cambridge June 6 The “Cam­ turn of slides. Contact: Cindy McManus, Heights, Department of Recreation; 2953 bridge Art Fair” is open to ceramists. Arts Council, 701 Coleman, Bossier City Mayfield Road, Cleveland Heights 44118. Juried from 3 slides. Entry deadline: 71111, or call: (318) 742-9050. March 27. Booth fee: $16. Contact: Ohio, DaytonMay 23-24 “Art in the Joanne Decker, 1934 Ripley Road, Cam­ Maryland, Gaithersburg October 15-18 Park Show and Sale” is open to artists and bridge 53523, or call: (608) 423-3860. The 6th annual “National Craft Fair” is craftsmen. Juried by slides. Booth fee: juried by five 35mm color slides. Entry $30-$35. Entry deadline: April 1. Con­ Wisconsin, LaCrosseSeptember 5-6 The deadline: July 1. Fees: $5 entry; $100- tact: Art in the Park, Riverbend Art Cen­ 6th annual “Great River Traditional Mu­ $175 booth. No commission. Contact: Noel ter, 142 Riverbend Drive, Dayton 45405, sic and Crafts Festival” is juried by 4 Clark, National Crafts Ltd., Gapland, Md. or call: (513) 225-5433. slides. Fees: $3 entry, $20 booth. $1200 in 21736, or call: (301) 432-8438. awards. Entry deadline: June 15. Contact: Oregon, Salem July 18-19 “Great State Barbara K. Starner, 1409 State Street, Massachusetts, Springfield July 2-5 The Summer Art Fair.” Juried from 5-6 slides. LaCrosse 54601. “Big Fourth Festival” is open to ceramists. Entry deadline: April 1. Fee: $25 for Juried by 3 color slides. Booth fee: $75 for members of the Salem Art Ass’n, $50 non­ Wisconsin, Milwaukee April 25-26 The 12- x 12-foot space. Entry deadline: May members. Contact: Art Fair, Salem Art “19th Wisconsin Festival of Arts” is open 15. Contact: Dennis M. Akins, Office of Ass’n, 600 Mission St. S.E., Salem 97301, to craftsmen 18 years or older. Juried by 5 Cultural and Community Affairs, 1618 or call: (503) 581-0100. slides; include a current resume and self- Main Street, Springfield 01103, or call: addressed, stamped envelope. Entry fee: (413) 787-6622. Pennsylvania, Greensburg July 3-5 The $75 for 10- x 10-foot space. No commis­ “Westmoreland Arts and Heritage Festi­ sion. Entry deadline: April 1. Minnesota, St. Paul June 27-28 The val” is juried by slides or photographs. July 18-19 The “7th Craft Fair U.S.A.” “Minnesota Crafts Council Festival” is Fee: $30 for 10- x 12-foot space. Cash is open to craftsmen 18 years or older. juried by 4 slides. Entry fee: $5. Purchase awards. No commission. Entry deadline: Juried by 5 slides; include a current re­ prizes. Entry deadline: April 18. For ap­ June 19. Contact: Olga Gera, Festival sume and self-addressed, stamped envelope. plication, send self-addressed, stamped en­ Committee, Westmoreland County Road Entry fee: $50 for 10- x 10-foot space. No velope to: Minnesota Crafts Council, 528 and Bridge Building, Rural Delivery #8, commission. Entry deadline: July 1. Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis 55403. Donohoe Road, Greensburg 15601, or August 15-16 The “8th Art Fair U.S.A.” call: (412) 836-1700. is open to craftsmen 18 years or older. New Jersey, MorristownOctober 9-11 Juried by 5 slides; include a current The “Morristown Craftmarket” is open to South Carolina, CharlestonMay 30-June 1 resume and self-addressed, stamped enve­ all craftsmen. Juried by 5 slides. Entry “Spoleto Craft Fair.” Juried by slides. lope. Entry fee: $60 for 10- x 10-foot fee: $7.50. Entry deadline: April 18. Fees: $5 entry, $35 booth. Entry deadline: space. $1000 in cash awards. No com­ Contact: Michael F. Feno, Morristown April 15. For application, send a self- mission. Entry deadline: August 1. For Craftmarket, Box 2305-R, Morristown addressed, stamped envelope to: South all events contact: Dennis R. Hill, 3233 07960. Carolina Crafts Guild, Box 5133, Colum­ South Villa Circle, West Allis, Wise. bia 29250. 53227, or call: (414) 321-4566. New York, Chautauqua June 25-27 “The Chautauqua Craft Alliance Festival” is Tennessee, Tullahoma May 23-24 The Wisconsin, SheboyganJuly 18-19 The open to all crafts media. Juried by 4 slides 12th annual “Tullahoma Fine Arts and 11th annual “Outdoor Arts Festival” is of work, 1 of booth display. Fee: $50. Crafts Festival” is open to ceramists. Ju­ open to ceramists. Juried by 5 slides. Entry Entry deadline: May 1. Contact: The ried by slides or black-and-white, glossy fee: $25. No commission. Entry deadline: Chautauqua Craft Alliance Festival, Box photos. Entry deadline: May 20. Entry May 15. Cash and purchase awards. Con­ 386, Brocton, N.Y. 14716. fee: $30. Purchase and cash awards. No tact: John Michael Kohler Arts Center, commission. Contact: Lucy F. Hollis, 401 608 New York Avenue, Sheboygan 53081, New York, New YorkJuly 4, 5, 11, 12 South Jackson, Tullahoma 37388, or call: or call: (414) 458-6144. The 5th annual “American Crafts Festi­ (615) 455-1234. val” is juried from 5 color slides. Entry deadline: March 27. Fee: $125 per week­ Vermont, Essex JunctionAugust 1-2 The end. Cash prizes. Contact: Brenda Brig­ “Vermont Public Radio Craft Market” is International ham, American Concern for Artistry and juried by 5 slides; include a self-addressed, New Zealand, Auckland May 30-June 14 Craftsmanship, Box 221, Uptown Station, stamped envelope. Fees: $3 entry, $125 The “Fletcher Brownbuilt Pottery Award Hoboken, New Jersey 07030. booth. No commission. Entry deadline: 1981” is open to ceramists. Purchase April 30. Contact: Charles Dooley or Riki award: NZ$2000 (approximately $1900 New York, Pound RidgeMay 16-17 Moss, Craftproducers Markets, Inc., North U.S.). Commission: 20%. Entry dead­ “Gallery in the Park” is open to ceramists. Hill, Readsboro, Vt. 05350. line: May 8. Juried. Contact: The Com­ Juried from slides. Entry deadline: April petition Organizer, Fletcher Brownbuilt, 17. Booth fee: $35 for 2 days. No commis­ Vermont, ManchesterAugust 14-16 The Private Bag, Auckland. March 1981 17

20 C eramics Monthly Questions Answered by the CM Technical Staff ^ Walt Diffley's technical article in the January 1981 issue, “Zinc Borate and the Bristol Glaze ,” mentions Firebrake ZB (zinc borate) as being a useful glaze material. Since this product is not currently available from ceramics suppliers, can you tell me where to obtain it? —C.V. Firebrake ZB is available from a number of chemical distribu­ tors nationally. Headquarters for two of these firms are Van Waters and Rogers, 2600 Campus Drive, P.O. Box 5932, San Mateo, California 94403, phone (415) 573-8000; and Harwick Chemical Corporation, 60 South Seiberling Street, Akron, Ohio 44305, phone (216) 798-9300. These firms have numerous re­ gional offices in major cities. Van Waters and Rogers have no minimum order with price based on quantity acquired. A spokes­ man for Harwick stated the firm has a minimum order of 100 pounds at 98£ per pound plus shipping. In either case, ask for the brand name Firebrake ZB rather than the generic term zinc borate. ^ I’m wondering if you have any information on the dry strength of gum tragacanth compared to gum arabic? —C.P. Gum tragacanth exhibits more than twice the dry strength of gum arabic, although some of the cellulose derivatives such as Union Carbide Corporation’s hydroxy ethyl cellulose exhibits nearly fifty percent more dry strength than gum tragacanth. ^ I am interested in the oxides of molybdenum and am won­ dering if you could tell me how this metal is used in ceramic glazes? —J.T. The oxides of molybdenum serve two principal purposes in glazes: first, they tend to produce a cloudy blue color, and second, molybdenum greatly reduces the viscosity of glazes when introduced in amounts as small as 0.1 percent, particularly in the high-fire range. Found principally as molybdenum trioxide, this metallic element is said to resemble chromium and tungsten in many of its properties. Of all the chemical elements, molybdenum is by itself quite refractory, possessing one of the highest melting points (2620°C). When combined in glazes, however, this melting point is substantially reduced. If somewhat erratic results are noted in glazes containing molybdenum, it may be because of the slight solubility of the trioxide form. Molybdenum trioxide should be handled with caution because of its potential toxicity. Avoid breathing or ingesting the com­ pound. ^ I am very anxious to paint with enamels on porcelain in the manner of the old Chinese Ming wares. Every ceramics supply house that I have tried has only china paints to offer, admitting that these are not the same as enamels. Where can I find real ceramic enamels? Furthermore, how would I apply them?—E.L. The term “enamel” in ceramics is a confusing one because it is used loosely to refer to a variety of low-temperature overglaze substances, and also describes the shiny surface quality of any glaze or even of paint. The Germanic roots of the word enamel relate to terms which have to do with melting, hence the broad meaning and use of the word result from broad entomological beginnings. The term “china paint” is synonymous with the strictest inter­ pretation of the word enamel—as a colored frit or glaze generally firing in a cone range from 022-010. The term may be stretched to also include low-fire (Cone 04-06) glazes applied to higher- fired glazed ware (stoneware or porcelain) and requiring an additional kiln cycle. Enamels are usually a fritted mixture of colorant, and some­ times an opacifier sold principally as powdered china paint, but also as the copper enamelist’s material. Either is traditionally Continued March 1981 21 22 C eramics Monthly Questions ground on a glass plate mixed with fat oil of turpentine (made by allowing turpentine to stand, leaving a gummy residue). Laven­ der oil or olive oil are also used as enamel media, and these may be thinned to the consistency of oil paint with additions of good quality turpentine. Commercial media are also available, as are water-based enamels marketed under the name of “Overstrokes.” Enamels may be made by hand, but because lead is the usual flux, there are certain dangers to the health of both producer and user which require a sound knowledge of glaze chemistry, par­ ticularly when these materials might come into contact with food. Even if an enamel is made with acceptable solubility, grind­ ing may increase lead release to an unacceptable level, as will significant variation in firing temperature. These hazards, when considered with the quality of commercial enamels and their relative safety when fired to the recommended cone range, sug­ gest that enamels are best purchased commercially rather than made by the potter. It is important to apply enamels under dust-free conditions if faults are to be avoided in the fired decoration. Equally impor- ant is good ventilation of the kiln during the early stages of the firing when gases are driven off. Enamel wares during the Ming dynasty typically combined both under- and overglaze decoration. Cobalt blue is the typical underglaze color which bleeds through a soft white glaze. The cobalt decoration was then highlighted with overglaze enamels. For further information on this topic, see “Overglaze Enamels, Low-Temperature Glazes, and Lusters” in the September 1976 issue of CM.

Subscribers' inquiries are welcome and those of general interest will be answered in this column. Send questions to: Technical Staff, Ceramics Monthly,Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212.

March 1981 23 24 Ceramics Monthly 47. _ arabic or for cutting or York State tragacanth grinding a College of Ce- Ceramic Crosswords 49. A person who foot rim ramies, Alfred, digs clay or 2. Acceptance in a in 1900 by Rig Swenson minerals juried show 32Crystalline. form professionally puts most of quartz at 51. A center of potters in a temperatures ceramic art, good ______below inversion Answers will appear ments found in vitality” West Coast 3 -----. u, a measure point in the next issue. brucite (ore of 30. Luster element, city, (abbr.) of heat work 33Souring. clay magnesia) symbol 53. What “dynamic” in the kiln 34Potters. contrib- Across 20. Sun-dried clay 31. Atomic no. 20, husband and 4. Mull___ e, inter- ute to this 1. _ _ tempera­ mud with straw symbol wife potters locking needle- national eco- ture (of the 21. Factor of acidity 34. Ground, bisqued might be called like crystals of nomic output surrounding kiln or alkalinity clay 55. Commercial kiln aluminum total atmosphere) 22. Sound of a late 36. A lithium mortar,_____ irs__t silicate 35Thix. ____ ropy 7. Hotness (abbr.) lit, gas-filled kiln mineral (Li 0# 56. Potter’s “oven 5. D-----ique_c_nt may occur in 11. The flux in 23. To worry before Al 0 *Si0 * 2 in hillside” materials, such slips with exces- whiting, symbol the kiln door is p^)2 3 9 (common in as soda ash and sive deflocculant 13. Historic kiln type opened after a 40. Number of Japan) potassium car- 36Some. potters (see page 31, firing times green- 59. Highly plastic bonate, will find ______September CM) 25. _i_e blends show glazed pottery clay liquefy by centering easier 14. Red in a copper color intervals in is fired 60. Fine particle absorbing mois- when throwing glaze may be mixtures of two 41. A _ _g is some­ clays have a ture from the large masses ______with an different glazes times deaired high ------air of clay addition of tin 26. Atomic wt. 42. There is always strength 6. Little is______37. See 9 down oxide to the 15.9994, (abbr.) “___ __ for one 61. The element of in ceramics 39Calcium. recipe 27. Sh___ t clay, a more” pot in reduction 7. Tom Turner’s phosphate 15. Atomic no. 13, body lacking a kiln 62. Symbols for pots have this 43To. change a symbol plasticity 44. Answer to the atomic nos. in common with celadon glaze 16. Symbol for bases 28. Fired cobalt question: Should 6, 1 and 18 gas line to a temmoku in a glaze color an ash glaze be combined spell connections glaze add ______formula 29. The hard-work­ stirred with the the Japanese 8. Tokugawa red iron oxide 17. Area famous for ing studio hands ? word for tea Period pottery (7-9%) American Indian potter must be 45. Total of num­ 9 ._ thocel, a 46Number. of cyl- pottery (abbr.) full of “ ______, bers added in a Down synthetic com- inders beginners 18. Symbols for ele­ vigor and glaze batch 1. Material used pound glaze should throw binder which for practice also prevents 48Consult. one if settling you think you 10 A. stable silver have lead colored luster, poisoning atomic no. 46, 49Sound. heard symbol when a potter 11. See 11 across views a kiln 12 The. hydrate of load of pyro- this element plastically de­ resists salt formed pots glazing 50Initials. for 14A. low reading material often of this electrical substituted for unit of current potash feldspar would indicate in a glaze to kiln elements are lower its wearing thin maturation 19 . _ _ in, how temperature potters feel after 52.First name of stoking a large this puzzle writ- wood-burning ing potter kiln 54If. they exist, 22.A machine used they probably to stir or mix are ceramic, slip (abbr.) 24.See 16across 56Kiln. builders 26.Kentucky Ball may bricklay Clay____ 4 English or 28.2-3% of its car- Flemish _on_s bonate prevents 57. Location of soluble salt California’s scumming on Craft and Folk red clay Art Museum, 31Initials. of (abbr.) English potter 58. _e__iage, a who became first Japanese inlaid director of New clay technique March 1981 25 26 Ceramics Monthly Itinerary events, exhibitions, fairs, festivals, sales and workshops to attend Send, announcements of events, exhibitions, and restoration of ceramics, resources and ics and terra sigillata ware by Gene Wepp- workshops, or juried fairs, festivals and curriculum, history, critical writing, curat­ ner; at the Craftsmen’s Gallery, 511 South sales at least seven weeks before the month ing of modern ceramics, the new designer Eleventh. craftsmen, painting and ceramics, and an of opening to The Editor, Ceramics international conference of ceramics asso­ Monthly, Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio ciations; at the Waldorf Astoria. Fee: $125 New York, Larchmont March 4-18 An 43212; or phone (614) 488-8236. before May 1, $150 thereafter. Contact: exhibition of ceramic sculpture by Rose Garth Clark, Institute for Ceramic His­ Reitter; at the Mamaroneck Artists Guild tory, 7188 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 210, Gallery, 150 Larchmont Avenue. Events Los Angeles, Calif. 90046, or call: (213) New York, New York through March 7 851-9953. An exhibition of ceramics by Chris Gustin. Arizona, Flagstaff April 22-25 “Clay Az March 10-28 “Anne Richter Exhibition”; Art IV,” includes a conference and work­ Tennessee, Gatlinburg April 17-19 The both events at Greenwich House Pottery, shop. Fee: $20. Contact: Northern Ari­ Southern Highland Handicraft Guild’s an­ 16 Jones Street. zona University Art Gallery, Box 6021, nual meeting; at the Arrowmont School of March 10-April 4 “Bennett Bean: Clay Flagstaff 86011, or call: Joel Eide (602) Arts and Crafts. Vessels”; at the Elements Gallery, 766 523-3471, or Donald Bendel 523-5272. Madison Avenue. March 27-April 2 An exhibition of func­ Arkansas, Little Rock March 1 A lecture tional stoneware and porcelain by Andrea on the “Campbell Museum Collection” by Solo Exhibitions Leila Denecke; at Koester Gallery-Studio, Ralph Collier, president of the Campbell Arizona, Flagstaff March 26-April 24 552 Broadway. Museum in Camden, New Jersey. 2:00 “Don Reitz Exhibition”; at the Northern P.M. Free and open to the public; at the Arizona University Art Gallery. North Carolina, Winston-Salem March 13- Arkansas Arts Center, MacArthur Park. April 30 An exhibition of ceramics by Arizona, Scottsdale March 1-31 “Richard Susan Loftin; at the Southeastern Center California, Orange March 7, 14 “Clay Hensley: Porcelain.” for Contemporary Art, 750 Marguerite Dr. Roots—Southern California,” a symposium March 5-April 4 “Rick Dillingham: New and exhibition examining past and current Work”; both events at the Hand and the directions in clay; at Chapman College. Spirit, 4222 North Marshall Way. Ohio, Columbus March 1-31 An exhibi­ March 7 Elaine Levin will lecture on the tion by potter Mary Ann Wurst; at Helen antecedents of contemporary work in California, San Francisco March 1-31 An Winnemore’s, 150 E. Kossuth at Mohawk. southern California. Panelists Stephanie exhibition of large-scale ceramic sculpture DeLange, Ed Forde, Linda Rosinas, Joe by Dennis Gallagher; at the Quay Gallery, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh through March Soldate and Paul Soldner will discuss their 254 Sutter Street. 19 An exhibition of ceramics by John Gill. work and current trends. 10:00 A.M. March 30-April 23 An exhibition of inlaid March 14 “The Critical Eye,” a panel California, Santa Barbara through March porcelain by Delores Fortuna; both events discussion with Jacqueline Anhalt, Rena 29 An exhibition of ceramics by David at the Clay Place, 5600 Walnut Street. Bransten, Elaine Levin, Suzanne Muchnic Gilhooly; at the Elizabeth Fortner Gallery, and Sherrie Warner. 1:00 P.M. Contact: 1114 State Street, Studio 9, La Arcada Vermont, Middlebury through March 8 Bret Price, Art Department, Chapman Court. An exhibition of ceramics by Karen College, 333 North Glassell, Orange 92666. Karnes; at the Vermont State Craft Cen­ California, Studio City March 25-April 25 ter at Frog Hollow. Connecticut, Middletown March 13-14 An exhibition of stoneware and porcelain The third annual “Connecticut Craft Con­ sculpture and pottery by Paul Nash; at ference”; at the Center for the Arts, Wes­ Garendo Gallery, 12955 Ventura Blvd. leyan University. Fee: $22. Contact: Nancy Hileman, Connecticut Commission Colorado, Denver March 2-31 An exhibi­ Group Exhibitions on the Arts, 340 Capitol Ave., Hartford, tion by ceramist Beth Plowman; at the Arkansas, Little Rock through March 30 Conn. 06106, or call: (203) 566-4770. Artisan’s Center, 2757 East Third Avenue. “The Campbell Museum Collection,” in­ Illinois, Chicago April 2-4 The American D.C., Washington March 3-28 “Ceramic cludes European porcelains from 1721- College of Toxicology’s first annual con­ Sculpture and Relief Works” by Dave 1872; at the Arkansas Arts Center, Mac­ ference, “Health Risks in Arts, Crafts and Yocum; at Gallery 10 Ltd., 1519 Connecti­ Arthur Park. Trades,” is open to artists and craftsmen. cut Avenue N.E. Contact: Health Risks in the Arts, Crafts March 8-14 An exhibition of ceramics by California, Fullerton March 15-April 30 and Trade Conference, American College David Nelson; at the American Hand, “Contemporary Ceramics: A Response to of Toxicology, 2405 Bond Street, Park 2904 M Street Northwest. Wedgwood,” includes works by 85 ceram­ Forest South, 111. 60466, or call (312) ists; at California State University. 534-1770. Idaho, Ketchum March 19-25 An exhibi­ April 10-15 The National Art Education tion of ceramics by Drew Beattie; at the California, Los Angeles through April 12 Association’s annual convention; at the Sun Valley Center Gallery, 4th and Lead- “Made in Los Angeles/Contemporary Chicago Marriott. Contact: National Art ville. Crafts ’81,” includes works by 22 ceramic Education Association, 1916 Association artists; at the Craft and Folk Art Museum, Drive, Reston, Virginia 22091. Illinois, Chicago through March 8 “Sonia 5814 Wilshire Boulevard. Delaunay: A Retrospective,” includes ce­ Kansas, Wichita March 25-28 The an­ ramics; at the Art Institute of Chicago, California, Moraga through March 4 A nual conference of the National Council Michigan Avenue at Adams St. multimedia exhibition, includes burnished on Education for the Ceramic Arts through March 27 “William Daley: New clay by Miriam Licht; at the Hearst Art (NCECA) at the Century II Convention Works”; at Exhibit A, 233 East Ontario Gallery, Saint Mary’s College. Center. For further information, see page Street. 71 in the January issue; contact: Don California, Oakland March 15-April 2 An Gauthier, Wichita State University, Studio Kansas, Wichita March 1-29 “Russell exhibition by members of the Association Arts Department, Wichita 67208, or call: Schmaljohn: Earthenware Pots and Plat­ of San Francisco Potters; at the College (316) 689-3560. ters”; at the Whittier Fine Arts Gallery, of Holy Names. Friends University. New York, New York July 4-6 The California, Orange through March 19 An “International Ceramics Symposium” will Nebraska, Omaha through April 8 An exhibition by southern California clay art- include sessions on marketing, the care exhibition of sawdust- and pit-fired ceram­ Continued March 1981 27 28 Ceramics Monthly Itinerary napolis Museum of Art, 1200 W. 38th St. Iowa, Des Moines March 29-April 9 A ists; at the Guggenheim Fine Arts Gallery, ceramics exhibition by Pat Dressier, Lee Chapman College. Ferber, Steve Frederick, Ed Harris, Cherie California, San Francisco through March Jemsek and Mary Weisgram; at the Art 21 “Collaborations/Individual and Col­ Gallery of Drake University. laborative Works in Clay and Handmade Paper,” an exhibition by Kathryn Clark, Kansas, Emporia March 23-April 10 Marjorie Levy and Margaret Prentice; at “1980 Traveling Cone Box Show”; at the Meyer Breier Weiss, Building A, Fort Emporia State University Art Gallery. Mason Center. Kansas, Wichita March 1-29 “Flatlands— through March 31 “Egyptian Art from the Hi Ed Clay,” a faculty exhibition by uni­ Lowie Museum,” includes pottery; at the versity teachers residing in Kansas; at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Edmund Stanley Library Exhibition Gal­ Golden Gate Park. lery, Friends University. California, Taft through March 5 “Ce­ Maine, Lewiston March 22-May 9 “Fifty ramics,” an exhibition of works by Dawn Maine Potters”; at the Craftschool, Park King and David Snair; at the Taft Art Street Exhibitions, 35 Park Street. Gallery, 505 Kern Street. Maryland, Annapolis March 14-April 9 Connecticut, Greenwich March 31-May 9 “Works in Clay”; at the Maryland Federa­ A multimedia exhibition which includes tion of Art Gallery, on the circle. clay by Eileen and Will Richardson; at the Elements, 14 Liberty Way. Maryland, Columbia through April 9 “The 6th Annual Collector’s Art of Ce­ Connecticut, Guilford through March 15 ramics Exhibition” includes examples of “The Red Show,” a multimedia exhibition Chinese Song dynasty and Japanese Edo which includes ceramics. period stoneware and porcelain; at the March 27-April 25 “Contemporary Dolls,” Antioch Visual Art Center, 6100 Foreland includes ceramics; both events at Guilford Garth. Handcrafts, Route 77. Maryland, Lutherville March 6-23 “Por­ D.C., Washington through April 5 “The celain—3 Prospectives,” includes works by Search for Alexander,” an exhibition of Sandra Byers, Thomas Hoadley and Sally Greek art from 356-323 B.C., includes Silberberg; at Craft Concepts, Green terra-cotta sculpture; at the National Gal­ Spring Station, Falls and Joppa Roads. lery of Art, Fourth Street at Constitution Avenue Northwest. Massachusetts, Lexington March 1-21 through August 16 “American Porcelain: “Clay VI,” an exhibition of works by 30 New Expressions in an Ancient Art,” in­ artists; at the Lexington Arts and Crafts cludes approximately 110 contemporary Society, 130 Waltham Street. works; at the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery, Pennsylvania Avenue at Michigan, Detroit through March 14 17th Street Northwest. “Michigan Ceramics ’81,” sponsored by the Michigan Potters Association; at the Detroit Artists Market, 1452 Randolph St. Hawaii, Honolulu through March 21 through March 14 An exhibition by Joan “Outer Islands: Craftworks of Maui.” Rosenberg and Joe Zeller. March 27-April 18 “Outer Islands: Craft­ March 22-April 12 An exhibition of ce­ works of the Big Island”; both events at ramics by Tim Mather and Georgette Following Sea/Ala Moana, 1441 Kapiolani Zirbes; both events at Pewabic Pottery, Boulevard. Michigan State University, 10125 East Idaho, Ketchum through March 18 A Jefferson Avenue. multimedia exhibition which includes ce­ Michigan, Flint March 8-April 12 “Mich­ ramics by Jenny Lind; at the Sun Valley igan Artists 80-81,” includes ceramics by Center Gallery, 4th and Leadville. artists of southeast Michigan; at the Flint Illinois, Bloomington through March 15 Institute of Arts, DeWaters Art Center, “Ceramics Invitational—Current Trends 1120 East Kearsley Street. in Clay”; at Merwin Gallery, Illinois Wes­ Minnesota, Minneapolis through March 22 leyan University. “The Contemporary American Potter,” Illinois, Chicago through April 12 “The curated by Garth Clark; “Minnesota Pot­ Golden Age of Naples: Art and Civiliza­ tery: A Potter’s View,” an exhibition of tion under the Bourbons, 1734-1805,” in­ works selected by Warren MacKenzie; at cludes porcelain; at the Art Institute of the University of Minnesota Gallery, 110 Chicago, Michigan Avenue at Adams St. Northrop Auditorium, 84 Church St. S.E. through April 12 “A Century of Ceramics Montana, Missoula through March 15 in the United States: 1878-1978”; at the “Ceramic Traditions”; at the University of Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, Montana, Art Department, Gallery of 78 East Washington. Visual Arts. Indiana, Evansville through March 22 Nebraska, Lincoln March 1-29 A multi- “Mid-States Craft Exhibition”; at the media exhibition, includes handbuilt pot­ Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, tery by Ann Beckenhauer; at the Flay- 211 Southeast Riverside Drive. market Art Gallery, 119 South 9th. Indiana, Indianapolis through April 26 “Romantics to Rodin: French 19th Cen­ Nebraska, Omaha March 21-April 29 A tury Sculpture from American Collec­ multimedia exhibition of works involving tions,” includes terra cotta; at the India­ Continueo March 1981 29 30 C eramics Monthly March 21-April 18 “New York State— dents,” includes ceramics; at Findlay Col­ Itinerary New Clay Talent”; at Clayworks Studio lege, Egner Fine Arts Center. intricate detail, includes ceramics by Workshop, 4 Great Jones Street. Wayne Higby; at the Craftsmen’s Gallery, Ohio, Westervillethrough March 28 A 511 South Eleventh. New York, Niagara Falls through March 3 multimedia exhibition, includes clay vessels “Clay, Fiber, Metal,” an exhibition by 65 and sculpture by Ban Kajitani; at Hern­ New Jersey, Newark through March 15 women artists; at the Niagara Council on don House Gallery, 40 Winter Street. “Sculpture in Clay from Puerto Rico,” an the Arts, 1022 Main Street. exhibition by members of the artists’ col­ Oregon, PortlandMarch 6-April 3 “Clay lective Grupo Manos. New York, Scarsdale through March 28 Sculpture” by Eric Erl, John Groth and through June 30 “New Jersey Belleek: A “Oriental Influence in Contemporary Mitchell Messina; “Recent Ceramics: Wall Gift of the 1880s,” an exhibition of porce­ American Crafts,” a multimedia exhibition Tiles, Urns, Vessels” by Fay Nakamura; lains manufactured in Trenton; both events which includes ceramics; at the Crafts­ “Cetacean Spirit Pieces” by Frank Boyden; at the Newark Museum, 49 Washington man’s Gallery, 16 Chase Road. at the Contemporary Crafts Association, Street. 3934 Southwest Corbett Avenue. North Carolina, CharlotteMarch 22-May New York, ClintonMarch 30-April 19 17 “Marguerite: A Retrospective Exhibi­ Pennsylvania, Erie March 8-22 “Sixth “Clay, Fiber, Metal,” an exhibition by 65 tion of the Work of Master Potter Mar­ Annual Mercyhurst College Art Scholar­ women artists; at the Root Art Center, guerite Wildenhain”; at the Mint Museum. ship Competition”; at the Zurn Hall Art Hamilton College. Gallery, Mercyhurst College, 501 East 38 New York, New Yorkthrough March 15 North Carolina, LaurinburgMarch 16-28 Street. “5000 Years of Korean Art”; at the Metro­ A multimedia exhibition, includes terra­ politan Museum of Art, 5th Avenue and cotta works by Bert Sharpe; at St. Andrews Pennsylvania, Haverfordthrough March 82nd Street. College, Vardell Gallery. 12 A multimedia exhibition which includes through March 28 A multimedia exhibi­ ceramics by Joel Kaylor; at the Main Line tion which includes ceramic sculpture by Ohio, Cleveland through March 14 Center of the Arts, Old Buck Road and Carl Culbreth; at the Cooper/Lynn Gal­ “Erotica,” a multimedia exhibition; at Lancaster Avenue. lery, 54 Seventh Avenue South. Sylvia Ullman’s American Crafts, 13010 through April 3 “Home on the Range,” Larchmere-Woodland. Pennsylvania, Philadelphia March 14- an exhibition of art of the Southwest; at April 11 “Four from Vermont,” an exhibi­ BFM Gallery, 150 East 58th Street. Ohio, Columbus through March 29 tion of ceramics by Ron and Sylvia Bower, through May 31 “The Clay Figure,” new “Beaux Arts Designer/Craftsmen Update Karen Karnes and Ann Stannard; at the sculpture by ten artists; at the American Exhibition,” winners of the last 20 years, Sign of the Swan, 8433 Germantown Ave. Craft Museum, 44 West 53 Street. includes ceramics; at the Columbus Mu­ March 16-May 24 “Freedom of Clay and seum of Art, 480 East Broad Street. Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh through March Brush through Seven Centuries in North­ 15 “Associated Artists of Pittsburgh’s 71st ern China: Tz’u-chou Type Wares, 960- Ohio, Findlaythrough March 6 “Senior Annual Exhibition,” includes ceramics; at 1600 A.D.”; at China House Gallery. Show: Works by Graduating Art Stu­ Please Turn to Page 72

March 1981 31 32 C eramics Monthly Cone 3 Oxidation byR ichard Zakin

Suitable clay body formulas (dark brown, nearly white and buff-colored recipes) were quickly developed with the aid of a small test kiln.

Although I have been working almost exclusively with Bowerstown Dark Fineclay(Cone 3, oxidation) Cone 6 oxidation firing (see CM, April 1977) for the past Talc ...... 15 parts fifteen years, I recently decided to study oxidation firing Cedar Heights Goldart Clay...... 25 at Cone 3. Just about as far from Cone 6 as Cone 6 is Cedar Heights Redart Clay...... 40 from Cone 9 (a little over 100°F), Cone 3 is in the heart Ball Clay...... 12 of the midfire range. While Cone 6 is a viable stoneware Pine Lake Fireclay...... 8 firing alternative, it seemed that Cone 3 could be even White Sand or Grog...... 2 more useful in saving energy. 102 parts For this new temperature, suitable clay body formulas (dark brown, nearly white and buff-colored recipes) were Bainbridge Buff Fineclay(Cone 3, oxidation) quickly developed with the aid of a small test kiln. Since Talc ...... 22 parts these kilns heat and cool rapidly—two hours from the Custer Feldspar ...... 4 beginning of the firing to Cone 3—they are extremely Cedar Heights Goldart Clay...... 52 useful for testing clay bodies and nonvitreous surfaces. But Ball Clay...... 12 novices should be aware that glazes fired in these kilns Pine Lake Fireclay...... 10 can look very different from those fired in conventional White Sand or Grog...... 2 kilns. In general, Cone 3 dark clay bodies are quite workable 102 parts and durable, while the white bodies tend to be fairly non- While experimenting to develop Cone 3 oxidation plastic. They remind me of Cone 04 white bodies, but they glazes which were durable, rich, stable and leadless, it too are strong enough for functional ware. Less striking became apparent that many midfire glaze recipes contain in color, the pleasantly neutral buff clay bodies also far too much flux and not enough silica and alumina. It proved plastic and durable. Some successful recipes seemed wiser to employ small amounts of strong flux follow: (such as borax) in these glazes than to incorporate large Moira Ivory White Fineclay (Cone 3, oxidation) amounts of more refractory fluxing materials. Talc ...... 24 parts Nineteen tiles were loaded in that first Cone 3 test kiln. Custer Feldspar ...... 12 The firing went well, hardly taking longer than a bisque. Cedar Heights Goldart Clay...... 8 Five of the nineteen glazes seemed quite promising—a Ball Clay...... 18 good percentage of success. During the next two months, Kaolin (6 Tile Clay) ...... 26 approximately ninety slip and glaze recipes were tested. Pine Lake Fireclay...... 12 Not surprisingly, Cone 3 proved excellent for producing White Sand or Grog ...... 2 slips with surfaces rich with saturated color. The following 102 parts durable recipes work especially well: March 1981 33 Cone 3 is at the heart of the midfire range. While Cone 6 is a viable alternative, it seemed that Cone 3 could be even more useful in saving energy. Since my interests lean toward rich, saturated glaze color, it was a surprise and pleasure to see the results. . . .

Thendara I Slip (Cone 3, oxidation) nepheline syenite proved to be practical feldspars, and Barium Carbonate ...... 2% lithium carbonate, zinc oxide and Gerstley borate work Borax ...... 2 well as fluxes in the following recipes: Gerstley Borate...... 8 Index Transparent Glaze (Cone 3, oxidation) Opax ...... 12 Barium Carbonate ...... 2% Talc ...... 28 Gerstley Borate...... 18 Tin Oxide ...... 2 Lithium Carbonate...... 2 Kaolin ...... 46 Wollastonite ...... 6 100% Zinc Oxide...... 2 Apply Thendara I Slip to wet clay surfaces. Kona F-4 Feldspar...... 46 Thendara II Slip (Cone 3, oxidation) Ball Clay ...... 6 Barium Carbonate ...... 2% Flint ...... 18 Borax ...... 2 100% Gerstley Borate ...... 8 Very hard-surfaced and durable, Index is excellent for Opax ...... 12 functional ware. Talc ...... 28 Maplegrove Translucent Glaze (Cone 3, oxidation) Tin Oxide ...... 2 Bone Ash ...... 4% Calcined Kaolin ...... 36 Gerstley Borate...... 8 Kaolin ...... 10 Lithium Carbonate...... 2 100% Wollastonite ...... 16 This recipe can be applied on bone-dry ware, as under­ Zinc Oxide ...... 4 glaze slip or as a surface finish. Nepheline Syenite...... 40 Color variations with both slips may be achieved by Kaolin ...... 12 adding percentages of commercial stains (most will retain Flint ...... 14 their color and brilliance at Cone 3) or the following 100% oxides: This rich, durable glaze base may be altered with color­ 1% Cobalt Oxide...... Oxford Cloth Blue ants such as the following: 2% Cobalt Oxide...... Dark Blue 1% Cobalt Oxide and 4% Rutile . .Clear, Medium Blue 1% Chrome Oxide...... Light Green 2% Copper Carbonate ...... Soft, Clear Green 2% Chrome Oxide...... Medium Green Elk Creek Translucent Glaze (Cone 3, oxid ation) 3% Iron Oxide ...... Cool Gray Albany Slip ...... 16% 6% Iron Oxide ...... Iron Gray Barium Carbonate ...... 12 1% Chrome Oxide and 1% Cobalt Oxide . . . .Turquoise Gerstley Borate...... 20 Since my interests lean toward rich, saturated glaze Talc ...... 14 color, it was a surprise and pleasure to see the results of Kona F-4 Feldspar...... 32 experiments with glazes containing significant amounts of Flint ...... 6 iron-bearing clays such as Albany slip or Cedar Heights 100% Redart. A number of these formulas produced rich Add: Copper Carbonate...... 2% earth-toned tans, oranges and reds. Kona F-4 feldspar and A soft, grass green, this glaze has a fairly matt surface. 34 Ceramics Monthly Right Handbuilt tile wall piece, 121/% inches in height, surface coloration from Thendara II Slip with glaze stains and metallic oxides, by Richard Zakin. Below Grouping of handbuilt forms, to 9 inches in height, illustrates the variety of colors and effects available at Cone 3. Photos: Thomas C. Eckersley

March 1981 35 Richmondville Glaze (Cone 3, oxidation) Milford Burnt Orange Glaze (Cone 3, oxidation) Albany Slip...... 21.3% Albany Slip...... 79.5% Dolomite ...... 8.5 Gerstley Borate...... 7.0 Gerstley Borate...... 17.0 Lithium Carbonate ...... 2.0 Kona F-4 Feldspar...... 31.9 Talc ...... 6.0 Ball Clay...... 21.3 Zinc Oxide ...... 0.5 100.0% Ball Clay...... 5.0 Add: Zircopax...... 6.4% 100.0% This opaque, hard-surfaced glaze is a pale, straw yellow A rich, deep glaze, Milford Burnt Orange works well with color. the following texture glazes: Fabius I Texture Glaze (Cone 3, oxidation) Snyders Glaze (Cone 3, oxidation) Albany Slip ...... 40% Albany Slip...... 32.6% Barium Carbonate ...... 2 Dolomite ...... 13.0 Bone Ash ...... 4 Gerstley Borate...... 15.2 Dolomite ...... 26 Kona F-4 Feldspar ...... 28.3 Gerstley Borate...... 24 Ball Clay...... 10.9 Lithium Carbonate ...... 4 100.0% 100% Add: Zircopax...... 8.7% Fabius II Texture Glaze (Cone 3, oxidation) An opaque earth yellow, this glaze yields amber orange Albany Slip...... 40% where very thin. Bone Ash ...... 4 Carmel Glaze (Cone 3, oxidation) Dolomite ...... 28 Albany Slip...... 60% Frit 3124 (Ferro) or Frit 90 (Hommel)...... 4 Dolomite ...... 10 Gerstley Borate...... 20 Gerstley Borate ...... 20 Lithium Carbonate ...... 4 Ball Clay ...... 10 100% The Fabius recipes should be applied over other glazes 100% for textural gradations of light and dark. Although Fabius A soft, pale amber glaze, Carmel is burnt orange where II tends to be more stable than Fabius I, its visual texture thin. is not as rich. Treadwell Glaze (Cone 3, oxidation) Initially, I avoided frits since they are somewhat expen­ Albany Slip...... 87.7% sive, but eventually I began experiments with small addi­ Ge stley Borate ...... 10.0 tions of Frit 3124 (Ferro) as a supplemental flux and Liuiium Carbonate ...... 2.0 glaze stabilizer. Zinc Oxide ...... 0.3 Because Cone 3 glazes often contain a great deal of strongly alkaline feldspars and fluxes (which cause the 100.0% glaze to settle in glaze containers when the batch is wet), Add: Cobalt Oxide...... 2.0% suspension materials are a necessity. I add one teaspoon of This is a very dark brown recipe, good as a durable yogurt per 10,000 grams of glaze as a suspender. “liner” glaze. A richer brown may be achieved by adding 2% manganese dioxide and 8% red iron oxide to the The author Richard Zakin is on the ceramics faculty at formula. the State University of New York in Oswego.

Because Cone 3 glazes often contain a great deal of strongly alkaline feldspars and fluxes (which cause the glaze to settle in glaze containers when the batch is wet), suspension materials are a necessity. I add one teaspoon of yogurt per 10,000 grams of glaze as a suspender.

36 Ceramics Monthly (now emeritus), head of the Division of Art and Design at Alfred University, commercially developed wheels and Ted Randall clay mixing systems, and was among the earliest authors Large-scale forms by Ted Randall will be presented in contributing to Ceramics Monthly (see February and a one-man show at the Elements Gallery, New York City, March 1953). from April 7 to May 2. Reminiscent of Chinese bronzes, “I think that artwork is a matter of making thoughts the sculptural vessels average 20. to 36 inches in height, and feelings real,” commented the artist. “It is a lot of were handbuilt and thrown, then single fired to Cone 6 other things, too, but this dimension of it is at least more (reduction). or less unarguable, up front and important. I can imagine Throughout his long career and involvement in ceram­ a coffee cup for the heavy drinker that is three inches in ics, Ted Randall has served as studio potter, professor diameter by one mile high, with a wonderfully flame red

Ted Randall in his personal studio. glaze running down the side—but I can’t make it real. And while these thoughts and feelings, this humming, buzzing inside, this image of a tall cup, may be most intensely experienced when it is purely imagined, it is not until concept is externalized, constructed in real stuff and all the corrections, additions, deletions, resonances, rein­ forcements or necessary adaptai .ms are discovered in the process of ‘making real’ that the possibility of a work of art arises. In fact much of the meaning (as well as art­ fulness) of art may be found in the connections or adaptations we effect between imagination and reality, between the world inside us and that other one outside. The route between the two is by no means direct or given. It can curve full circle and fool you. The leather handbag you see hanging on the gallery wall is there as a result of Above Rounded form, approximately 24 inches in diameter, surfaced with brushed slips and glazes.

Below Thrown and handbuilt container 19 inches Right Lidded vessel, thrown, altered, with handbuilt in height, with incising, applied clay. y additions, fired to Cone 6by Ted Randall. Photos: Steve Myers

38 Ceramics Monthly thoughts and feelings made real—but what kind of skill. But however you catch hold of it, a flux of thought reality? What appears to be real leather turns out to be and feeling has been ‘frozen’ in physical reality, one of really ceramics. Has a kind of pun on being and reality many possible relationships between the two has been set been intended? Or has the more serious question of what and a resultant meaning conveyed. After all, knowledge is real been assayed? Is reality something the eye sees or of reality is one of our more important products. the mind shows? If there is a difference, which is it? “Lately, in a more or less conscious way, I’ve been Or how do they combine? It may be none of these options chasing after these concepts and toward an enhanced and the whole thing is just a jovial display of technical value, an unequivocal beingness, a ponderous, motionless March 1981 39 Stoneware form, 24 inches in diameter, handbuilt Handbuilt stoneware vessel, 20 inches in additions, reduction fired to Cone 6. height, with brushed slips and glazes. Covered jar, 10 inches in height, thrown, altered, with incising, excising, fired to Cone 6 reduction.

40 Ceramics Monthly presence in clay with thought and feeling focused on the the staggering wastefulness of the ‘American Way,’ a reality of the stuff—and other things too. twinge of conscience at Third World misery, annoyance “I like the necessity in pottery for its innate capacity at shortages and costs of this and that. We shrink at the to eloquently embody the concepts embracing function, ominous sound of ‘nonrenewable resource,’ cringe at ‘non- utility, causality and necessity. These I have come to disposable waste,’ and wonder why the alarms don’t ring think of as old friends, forgotten for a time, but who now, at the mounting evidence of high entropy in the affairs unexpectedly, are coming to call. And while no doubt of men. they have been alive and well all this time, during the “With all that, I am glad those old friends have come more fatuous phases of our affluent past they seemed to call and in most of my later work I’ve renewed an old somehow irrelevant and rather dull. Given abundance, a acquaintaince with function, utility, causality and neces­ too-muchness of everything, who needs expressions of sity in an effort to find tranformations of these old con­ necessity? But values and attitudes change with the times. cepts into new aesthetic forms, made real in clay and in Lately they seem to have flipped. Now, I suppose, almost resonance with the needs of the times—and I’m finding everyone feels a growing unease, a nervous doubt about them friendly and relevant again.”

Handbuilt vessel, 24 inches in height, with applied clay, brushed slips and glazes, by Ted Randall. Ohio Craft Fairs

Porcelain teapot, 8 inches in height, wheel-thrown, faceted, with incising, ash glaze, by Diana Gillespie, Weaverville, North Carolina . Works in this article are representative of those shown at the three Ohio Designer Craftsmen fairs.

42 Ceramics Monthly In an aggressive program to expand crafts marketing the four-year-old Winterfair accounted for almost one- opportunities, Ohio Designer Craftsmen Enterprises, Inc. fourth of the $552,000 total. With a ten percent increase sponsored juried fairs in the state’s largest cities last year, in attendance in Cincinnati, Crafts Affair ceramists aver­ adding a Cleveland show to those already established. aged $1,243 in sales per booth. At the Cleveland show Even with the economy in a recession, ODC figures indi­ (the earliest of these pre-Christmas sales), ceramics sold cate 1980 revenues increased approximately twenty per­ at an average rate of $1,073 per booth. cent at both the Columbus Winterfair and the Cincinnati Craft artists interested in entering the 1981 juried fairs Crafts Affair, while the Cleveland Designer Craftsmen November 6-8 (Cleveland), November 20-22 (Cincin­ Fair equaled the others’ first-year receipts. nati) and December 3-6 (Columbus) should write: Ohio Averaging nearly $2000 per booth in retail sales (one Designer Craftsmen Enterprises, Inc., 1981 Riverside sold over $20,000 worth), the 70 ceramics exhibitors at Drive, Columbus, Ohio 43221, or call: (614) 486-7119. Left Two-quart vegetable steamer with serving tray, Below Wheel-thrown stoneware soup tureen, 10 inches 12 inches in diameter, thrown stoneware, by in height, with slip-trailing, white and red glazes, fired Jonathan Kaplan, Bowmansville, Pennsylvania. to Cone 10, by Michael Frasca, Cincinnati, Ohio. Photos: Ron Forth, Linda Young, Jim Ziegler, and courtesy of the artists Photos: Ron Forth, Linda Young, Jim Ziegler, Averaging $2000 per booth in retail sales, the 70 ceramists in the Columbus Winterfair accounted for approximately one-fourth of the $552,000 total.

Porcelain vase, 9 inches in Lidded stoneware containers, to 9 inches in height, height, by John Tracey, glazed, with spiral wall trailing and raised slip Wilson, New York. lid patterns, by Michael Frasca.

44 Ceramics Monthly Stoneware container with bamboo, 12 inches in height, by Lenore Vanderkooi, Nashville.

Left The Cincinnati Crafts Affair reported increases of ten percent in attendance and twenty percent in sales. Opposite page Far left Porcelain plate, 4]/ inches in diameter, thrown, carved, by Betty Talbot, Columbus,2 Ohio. Center left Tile, 24 inches square, sgraffito through white slip on earthenware, by Vaka Pereyma, Troy, Ohio. Near left Stoneware form, 16 inches in diameter, by Alan Vigland, Benzonia, Michigan. March 1981 45 Raymon Elozua

Ceramic landscapes of dilapidated and abandoned in­ dustrial structures by Raymon Elozua, abstracted from photo research of historical American sites, were featured in a recent one-man show at O.K. Harris Gallery in New York City. After handbuilding stoneware billboards, bridges, warehouses and cement plants, the artist simu­ lated aging by repeatedly damaging and repairing the forms until satisfied with their time- and element-weath­ ered appearances. Rising from the stoneware ground amid the decayed buildings, altered white porcelain domes were also eroded by submerging in water or sandblasting before Cone 5 firing. For surface depth and pigmentation, the landscapes were dusted with layers of raw clays, wood ash and oxides, each layer saturated with a thin solution of acrylic medium to bind the particles. As a self-taught artist originally from Chicago and now in New York City, Ramon has “progressed from a full-time production pot­ ter (participating in Rhinebeck for three years) until I was able to make the transition to sculpture.” Right “ Coal Unloader ” 23 inches in height, detail of a larger sculpture that includes a warehouse, handbuilt stoneware, acrylic.

46 Ceramics Monthly Above “Repair” 14 inches in height, from the artist’s billboard series, handbuilt clay, acrylic. Far left “Cement Plant Mixer ” 22 inches in height, handbuilt stoneware, porcelain domes. The dust and debris are ground clay bound with acrylic medium. Left “Ore Processor with Shafts ” 15 inches in height, handbuilt stoneware and porcelain, acrylic, by Raymon Elozua.

March 1981 47 F. Carlton Ball: Autobiographical Notes Part 1

In the following article, potter, author and teacher F. or eleven, I watched Will Rogers making one of his first Carlton Ball provides a picture of the evolving of twen- cowboy movies in Jackson. When I was seventeen I tieth-century ceramics—largely from the standpoint of painted a mural of the National Hotel in Jackson with the West Coast. The author originally delivered this ad­ the stage coach just leaving; the painting is still there. A dress at “Ceramics ’80,” a recent symposium at Oregon pony express rider used to watch me paint and told me State University, Corvallis, attended by approximately how the harness went on the horse. I watched herds of 170 studio potters, students and teachers. The text was cattle going down Main Street on their way to summer transcribed and made available to CM through the cour­ pasture. tesy of Don B. Johnson, the conference’s chairman. The rough times and the pioneer background had its As a potter, Carlton Ball is perhaps best known for effect on art in the West. For most people around small monumental thrown forms. Additionally, he is the author towns there was no place or time for frills or art. Wealthy of Making Pottery without a Wheel, the handbook Deco­ westerners, who wanted culture and to impress people, rating Pottery, and was a frequent contributor toCeram­ bought European art. This was considered good because ics Monthly in the 1950s and ’60s.—Ed. it was imported, no matter how bad it really was. No one was considered an artist unless he had studied T I have been asked to talk about how I thought things at least a year in Paris. Any art produced in the West by were in my early career as an artist. For some reason or westerners was not thought much of in relation to any­ other I seem to have been in a number of places when thing imported. things were happening in crafts. I helped some happen. Remember, the impact of the industrial revolution was I may be mixed up in dates, and I know I am biased, still being felt. Nearly all good craftsmen had died or had opinionated and can only see things from where I am or turned to other work, forgetting their craft. The products was. When others talk about what they remember, then made by the machine that had taken over from the crafts­ perhaps pieces will fit together to make a picture of how man were poor in design. That left over from the Vic­ pottery developed on the West Coast. torian era was bad and made doubly so in the way My father’s parents came to California in 1852. Grand­ industry used it. It’s no wonder that the first art galleries father Ball mined gold, then ran a ranch near Plymouth, we had only showed paintings, prints and sculpture, California. My mother’s parents came to the gold mining mostly from Europe. area of California a short time later and had a cattle It seemed to me that an artist/potter was always con­ ranch, a slaughterhouse and a butcher shop in Sutter nected with a factory and used the factory’s facilities. The Creek. My parents were schoolteachers in Jackson (in the artist/potter painted things on pots, did sculpture on pots heart of the mother lode country), population 5000. Till or designed figurines. I was seventeen the farthest away from home I ever went I didn’t know anyone who threw pots or anyone who was to Sacramento and Stockton, both 50 miles away. had seen a pot thrown. When Marguerite Wildenhain I tell you this because I feel that in the early days the and Gertrud and Otto Natzler came to California from people I knew were natives or considered themselves Europe about 1938-40, we saw real throwing for the first westerners with a great deal of pioneer spirit. They didn’t time. understand or particularly like easterners. I think they felt Right after World War I, art was at a low level in the inadequate and inferior in education, art, music, dance United States. The Bauhaus in Germany started up and and such things. wanted to put art on a mathematical basis; it was severe My parents were what was then considered well edu­ and directly the opposite of Victorian ideas. The Bauhaus cated. My father had one year of business school beyond got much publicity, started people thinking of modern grammar school and my mother studied for two years at design and redesigned things for industry. Art students San Jose Normal School when it first started, now the had the hopes and desires to become industrial designers. University of California at San Jose. The art in our house The guiding phrase then was “form and function.” was a big print of one of Maxfield Parrish’s paintings and World War II did great things for American crafts. The a colored photograph of a statue called “The End of the Bauhaus in Germany closed and some of their teachers Trail.” They weren’t very good, but remember this was came to America—like Walter Gropius, the architect; the end of the Victorian era, a period considered rather Anni Albers, the weaver; and Moholy Nagy who started low on the scale in respect to art. the Chicago School of Design in imitation of the Bauhaus. To help you realize the time, I started drawing and was During the war, shipyard and airplane factory workers helped from five to eight years of age by an old Civil War had extra money to spend. There were no foreign imports. veteran, who was a gardener next door. When I was ten The general feeling was to buy American products. There

48C eramics Monthly F. Carlton Ball in 1955. “. . . I seem to have been in a number of places when things were happening in crafts.” weren’t too many people producing craftwork, but those Council (now the American Crafts Council) to pull the that did had an eager market for the first time. scattered crafts organizations together. Their first national Occupational therapy became a big thing and it em­ convention was in Carmel, California, in 1954. Mrs. phasized handcrafts. Servicemen tried craftwork in hos­ Webb also started the World Crafts Council. She devoted pitals. The occupational therapists, Red Cross workers her life and fortune to furthering all crafts. and Gray Ladies learned a craft, then taught or helped Finally, these efforts had an effect and came together. others. American craftsmen were accepted as artists. Art was At the end of World War II many servicemen, who had desirable in the home. Art was needed in industry. Gal­ done crafts in hospitals or USO clubs, remained inter­ leries would show craftwork. Americans revived old tech­ ested. They had marvelous GI benefits, so many excellent niques and could go their own way with respect, and they craftsmen were trained in art schools, colleges and didn’t have to think too much about competing with universities. machine-made articles. Aileen Vanderbilt Webb should be given a lot of credit Hopefully this gives a background of the way I saw for furthering the growth of American crafts. She started things in the period in which I worked. I went to Sacra­ to help craftsmen during the Great Depression. In order mento Junior College in 1927 because they had an excel­ to help them sell, she established and ran America House, lent art faculty. Two years later I enrolled at California a craft shop in New York City. Then she learned that College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. They said I had craftsmen needed technical help and especially guidance to start as a freshman, so I phoned the University of in designing for the market, so she started the School for Southern California and was admitted there as a pro­ American Craftsmen, which was at Alfred University visional junior. before moving to the Rochester Institute of Technology I became an art major at USC in 1930-31, and wanted (where Frans Wildenhain taught for quite a while). To to be a great painter or sculptor. Diego Rivera and get publicity for craftsmen she started Craft Horizons and Michelangelo were my heroes. Remember, this was the as the editor kept it going even though it ran in the red time of the Great Depression with millions of people out for many years. She also started the American Craftsmen’s of work—not a good time for art. This was the end of the March 1981 49 Photo: David Hubka

Left to rightJurying an exhibition, 1954; Carlton Ball Puget Sound, 1971; and, recently, delivering an address in 1956; demonstrating, 1967; at the University of at((Ceramics ’80” presented on these pages. jazz age and the time of Prohibition, the bootlegger and I had terrible doubts starting to teach there, 24 years speakeasies. old and never having fired a kiln and no chance to test I worked as a houseboy in sororities, as a busboy in glazes. But everything worked well; my classes were full restaurants and as a soda jerk. I painted sorority girls’ and students were happy. Glen Lukens had given me a lot portraits for $25. I quit school for one semester and took of Cone 08-04 glazes and that saved me. We fired every­ up prizefighting in my hometown. My manager was a thing to Cone 07 and had many colors of glazes using bootlegger and I trained in back of a speakeasy. I didn’t underglazes to color them. earn much but learned how rotten the profession was. I started a chapter of Delta Phi Delta (a national However, it was a wonderful feeling being an artist, and honorary art fraternity) at CCAC and the second year also being able to walk down main street of a tough they won first prize nationally as an organization. In 1938 mining town, having men know I could beat them in a I fought with Fred Meyers over basketball suits. He fight. In my hometown artists were thought of as weird wouldn’t buy them for the team, so we had a barn dance and as sissies, and I didn’t like that. to earn money and he didn’t approve. I then quit CCAC The fighting helped in college, for my roommate was and applied for a teaching job at San Jose State College. the Swedish Olympic boxing champion. We put on exhi­ There was a minute classroom and no equipment. The bitions for $25 a bout at places like the Hollywood athletic chairman thought that painting and drawing were the club and speakeasies in the area of Los Angeles referred only things worthwhile in art. I knew I couldn’t take that to now as Watts. and when Sacramento High School offered me an im­ My masters degree was in fresco painting, one of the mense classroom and all sorts of equipment, I took that first masters degrees in creative arts. Before then, M.A. job, hauling students’ pots across town all year to fire degrees had to be in art history or art education. I also them. At the end of a year I didn’t have a kiln, so again got a California secondary teaching credential in art, but I quit. there were no jobs in 1934. So I did research for the dean I learned that a man by the name of Herbert Sanders of architecture’s doctoral dissertation for 50^ an hour, took that position at San Jose State, and you all know paid by the government. It was better staying in school what he did. The small room and the chairman didn’t instead of being one of those on relief and working for stop him. He made the San Jose State ceramics classes the WPA. I signed up for the only two courses left in the famous throughout the country and started many potters art curriculum, pottery and jewelry, both taught by Glen on their way. Lukens. When I left CCAC, Marguerite Wildenhain took my At the end of the year he heard of a job at California place. Hitler was becoming obnoxious then (1938) and College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, and got me the we sympathized with all people leaving Germany because job. I taught metalwork and jewelry, pottery, sculpture, of Hitler. Frans Wildenhain had stayed and joined the and drawing. Because I was the only teacher with a teach­ French Underground. Marguerite was difficult to get ing credential, I had to teach basketball, swimming and along with even though we wanted to help her. She used boxing. the Cone 04 white talc body we had but insisted on firing The president of California College of Arts and Crafts it to Cone 7 in oxidation. We warned her, but she fired to —Fred Meyers—had a wonderful point of view on teach­ Cone 7 anyway and pots shivered into hundreds of pieces. ing art. He maintained that woodcarving, weaving, metal­ She was stubborn and fired two more times with similar work, jewelry and pottery were just as important as disasters. I didn’t think the poor old kiln would take Cone painting and sculpture, and art students were required to 7 since it was built for Cone 5 only. The kiln didn’t dare take all these subjects. He was very much alone in this oppose Marguerite, but the clay did. In one and a half point of view, but it was important. I think he started years her enrollment dropped to five students, so she the art school in 1923 with ideas like this. CCAC did a moved to a chicken ranch in Guerneville and turned it great deal in furthering the crafts in California. President into Pond Farm Pottery, doing all the work herself. It is Meyers said CCAC had the first kiln in any California a beautiful spot. She changed her clay body by the way— school. It looked like it, too—an old, beat-up, 7-cubic-foot equal parts Kentucky Ball Clay (OM 4), lone Red Clay Denver Fire Clay kiln, an updraft muffle design for Cone and Mexico Fireclay—and it worked. She did use one 5 firing. There were also a 24-cubic-foot Denver kiln and thing I left, a ground glass glaze—50 grams of Frit 25 an old rickety kickwheel in a big room. I had Fred Meyers (Hommel), 50 grams ground glass, 50 grams of white lead buy six sewing machine wheels. and 30 grams of kaolin.

50 Ceramics Monthly After one year of high school teaching, I applied and ably Cone 10. I thought that if Marguerite got such got a position at Mills College in Oakland, the first wom­ beauty at Cone 7, I could equal or surpass her efforts if I en’s college in the West. I was hired because of the things could fire to Cone 10 oxidation. No one had ever heard I made in plastics and because I could teach photography, of reduction firing and the few things written about pots not because of my pots. never mentioned it. Mills College had no pottery. I started it with two old' I fired my Cone 08 glazes to Cone 10 oxidation and did wooden storerooms from the library and $375 for equip­ get good results. I was the first to fire to Cone 10 for art ment. I bought an old 7-cubic-foot Denver kiln for $250 pottery in the San Francisco Bay area, and had all my and three sewing machine potter’s wheels, and we were students doing this. I got porcelain at a doll factory in underway. I taught screen printing on cloth, jewelry, Berkeley and also made a porcelain body for firing to photography, and beginning and advanced pottery. Pot­ Cone 10 with Cone 10 glazes. With the Cone 10 oxidation tery went well, but there was very little money for supplies results, I got my first big exhibition at the Walker Art and equipment. Gallery in Minneapolis, along with Marguerite Wilden­ The first year I was at Mills the summer session was hain, Laura Andreson and Glen Lukens. composed of the whole Chicago School of Design headed During this time I also made up Cone 06 glazes for the by Moholy Nagy, who attempted to set up the defunct Western Ceramic Supply Company which had started German Bauhaus in the U.S. He had been a teacher in business in San Francisco. This ceramic supply company the original Bauhaus. I thought I could get equipment was a great help for potters in the Bay Area. for pottery through this summer session. I didn’t. Meanwhile, I became friends with the art buyer for the The next summer I had an excellent class that had to city of Paris, and asked her to have an annual pottery stop potting at the end of six weeks. I wanted them to go show in the Rotunda Gallery. This exhibition helped on and they did also. The pot shop was not used half the Northern California potters to become recognized. time so I thought of establishing a guild to help my I had some carborundum kiln shelves that wouldn’t fit students and to get equipment. The idea was to have any kiln and I couldn’t cut them, so I built a small muffle fifteen people not in college pay $50 a year dues which kiln with them for a wood-firing kiln at low temperatures. gave them the privilege of working in the pottery when We planned for long hours of stoking wood and having there were no classes. The money from the guild bought a barbecue. The kiln fired in six hours to Cone 07 and equipment that helped the guild and the college. It the barbecue was postponed. worked very well. After two years of firing to Cone 10 oxidation the first Elena Netherby was the guild president. She owned and commercial kiln (Alpine) came out that would fire to ran a building contracting firm which was great for us. Cone 10. It had only a partial muffle, which is wonderful We would buy a second-hand kiln, her carpenters would for reduction firing. About that time Bernard Leach’s pour a slab and then we would move the kiln onto it. The first book came to California, telling us all about reduc­ next week her carpenters would slap some walls around it tion firing at Cone 10. Because of the strong Oriental and we would have a new wing. We built four new wings influence on the Pacific Coast (especially Chinatown in that way and I didn’t ever have to ask the college permis­ San Francisco), we loved old Chinese pottery. Leach’s sion to do so, which was superb academic freedom. book told us how and we couldn’t wait to try it. The old Denver kiln at Mills would only fire to Gone 5, I bought clay from N. Clark and Sons Terra Cotta but I wanted to fire to Cone 10 in oxidation, so the first Pottery, on Alameda Island for 30 a pound, and sold it to dues from the guild went towards a new sillimanite lining Oakland and Berkeley public schools for 6^ a pound, for the old kiln. We then fired to Cone 10 in an oxidizing saving them 10 a pound. I made glazes for them and atmosphere. I finally found a few glazes in an old book fired their pots all for profit, so we bought a 15-cubic-foot on Sevres pottery, Grand Feu Ceramics, by Taxile Doat. Alpine kiln. I got two glazes from Leach’s book, altered There were no Cone 10 recipes available in those days; no the oxidation ones and everyone glazed test pots. We fired one was firing that high that I knew. Besides all glazes and followed Leach’s instructions, but had no pyrometer. were secret. We oxidized for fifteen minutes and reduced for half an About this time Marguerite Wildenhain scored a big hour, over and over for 16 hours, to simulate wood firing. triumph. The San Francisco Museum of Art had a show We were really worn out. The firing was great, we had of the pots she had brought from Holland when she came celadons, temmokus and tea dust glazes, as well as some to this country. They were beautiful and different and the sickly copper reds. We were the first school to do reduc­ show was a big success—hand-thrown stoneware. I had tion firing, but in about two years others were doing it. only seen earthenware and factory porcelain before her Laura Andreson of UCLA sent four of her best students show. to Mills for a summer session. After learning about reduc­ Two years after Marguerite Wildenhain’s exhibit my tion firing and throwing, they returned and taught her. wife and I were fortunate enough to get a small show Leach’s book also intrigued us with a description of there, that to me seemed successful. But it was difficult raku firing. We mixed raku glazes and fired them in a getting museums to show pottery. 3-cubic-foot kiln. I knew it was perfect for high school Because Marguerite fired to Cone 7 in oxidation and students, so I gave a raku workshop in Modesto for the used my Cone 08 glaze, I came to the conclusion that she art teachers. We did raku from 1947 on, but it didn’t overfired these earthenware glazes. I found out later I catch on. It took Paul Soldner and his enthusiasm to make was right. I just couldn’t wait to fire to Cone 7 or prefer­ raku firing popular. March 1981 51 Robert Archambeau

Teapots and covered jars were among the functional stoneware forms by Robert Archambeau featured in a recent one-man show at Prime Canadian Crafts gallery, Toronto. All wheel thrown, the pots were often altered by paddling, incising or faceting. Much of the work was salt glazed—fired on silicon carbide shelf fragments to allow complete circulation of salt vapors. Other treat­ ments included the application of black slip or wood- and flax-ash glazes before salt firing. Patterns were sometimes achieved by firing tree branches, stalks of wheat, local grasses or leaves on the raw glazes. A characteristic trade­ mark of this artist’s work in recent years has been bronze lids cast to fit individual forms. Still making functional ware after twenty years as a potter, Robert noted, “You hang a painting on the wall and after a while you really stop seeing it, but a teapot Thrown teapot, 9 inches in height, spruce ash is something you hold in your hand every day, so that you pattern on unglazed stoneware, bronze lid. are always aware of its contours and its texture, and always enjoying it.” Stoneware covered jar, 9 inches in height, thrown, Robert Archambeau is on the ceramics faculty at the faceted, salt glazed. Bronze lids are cast to fit the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. forms after finishing. Photos: Ben Hogan, and courtesy of Prime Canadian Crafts

52 Ceramics Monthly AboveCarved stoneware teapot, 6 inches in height, saturated iron glaze, bronze lid. Left Wheel-thrown covered jar, 6 inches in height, ash glaze, black slip, salt fired, with bronze lid, by Robert Archambeau.

March 1981 53 National Teapot Show

Fifteen ceramists were invited to show functional or nonfunctional works in the recent “National Teapot Exhibit II” at Horizon Gallery, Mill Valley, California. Among the forty-five porcelain and stoneware teapots presented were traditional wheel-thrown shapes, slip-cast and assembled futuristic forms, mythical animals on wheels and raku sculpture. Works were selected by Rich­ ard Tokar, gallery director, from national craft fairs,' from Bay Area artists and from slide submissions.

BelowFuture Form I” 10 inches in height, porcelain Above“Ex-Tea” teapot, /2 6 inches in height, raku, with decals, by Marek Cecula, New York City. by Bill Abright, San Anselmo, California. Photos: Rotem, New York, and Zootimages

54 Ceramics Monthly Photos: Elizabeth Joulia, Michel Leparreur, Michel Pastore, Janet Stedman salse suis hr, sal salr wood-burning smaller usually there, studios established ehius Mce Psoe Eeye ort n Janet and Porret Evelyne Pastore, Michel techniques, Janet Stedman in abundance. in ae mlyd o ie h ntv soeae tl found still stoneware native the fire to employed are kilns tda arne t fr oe f h rmiig 1000- remaining the of one fire to arranged Stedman Until tradition. in rooted deeply still France central of ade, iig h egt r e kls t mreig the marketing to kilns, ten or eight the firing handles, rdcin n frn o fntoa pteyfo cutting pottery—from functional of firing and production ae en bnoe. lhuh ay on ptes have potters young many Although abandoned. been have n sltig od t dgig ly trwn pt, pulling pots, throwing clay, digging to wood, splitting and os i hre n cr. u nw te nros l kilns old enormous the now, But cart. and horse via pots La 90 ery l te naiat wr ivle i the in involved were inhabitants the all nearly 1940 The MassiveKilnsofLaBorne Traditional WoodFiringinFrance oig o an wrig nweg o traditional of knowledge working a gain to Hoping B orne

s sal ilg i te Hu-er, a region a “Haut-Berry,” the in village small a is , Evelyne PorretandMichelPastorethrewallsummertofillthe1000-cubic-footkiln. onr. s dies f h od tnwr fo the from stoneware old the of admirers As country. tmoay okhp er h kl. hy a t test to had They kiln. the near long workshop very temporary a the during “deposited glazes ash those duce direct flame,fire to1350°C(2462°F),andyetbe suitable region.” other any in found be cannot which firings wood stone­ raw-glazed wood-fired, produced which workshop ue tnwr pt wt tcnqe idgnu t that to indigenous techniques with pots stoneware duce itrs f oa ca t fn oe hc wud eit the resist would which one find to clay local of mixtures ae se o wrs ln i te ae en Eeye and Evelyne vein. same the in alone works now she ware, at working been has and English is Janet kilns. cubic-foot Bry” hy ldy cetd h opruiy o repro­ to opportunity the accepted gladly they “Berry,” a on fr hren er. ne pte wt a large a with potter a Once years. thirteen for Borne La ihl r Sis ec wne te g t Eyt o pro­ to Egypt to go they winter each Swiss; are Michel o ei, h ptes mte a od an stig up setting barn, old an emptied potters the begin, To March 1981

55 for the 1200°C (2192°F) they wanted to obtain at the Monsieur Talbot, one of the few descendants of La Borne head (or flue end) of the kiln. Black clay rich in iron potters still living in the village, demonstrated the tradi­ pyrites was the basis for their preparations. After the tional technique for embauchage, assembling large pots. tests and with the help of the “old” La Borne potters, He threw the lower half with a split lip and the upper they mixed the black body with 20% sturdy yellow clayhalf with a matching thin edge—the old method for mak­ for better throwing qualities and strength in the raw ing saloirs, \0l/ -gallon salted-meat preserving jars. state. Pots fired at the head of the kiln were thrown with Although the2 three wanted to repeat the traditional an earthenware frequently utilized for cooking vessels. method of “boxing” greenware in bungs (stacks) for The three potters threw approximately eighty large single firing, they had to give up the idea for part of the two-sectioned pots, often assembled within the day. Each kiln loading because production was too diverse. “Mon­ capable of containing from 15 to 22 gallons, some mea­ sieur Migeon, the son-in-law of La Borne’s last potter sured up to 40 inches in height. After seeing earlier efforts, (who made traditional pots until 1968), enlightened us

Using an old barn as temporary studio space, among the works produced there by the three potters were eighty large forms thrown and assembled in a process called “embauchage,” the traditional method for making lO/2-gallon salted-meat preserving jars: AboveWith approximately 26 pounds of clay Michel Pastore throws the bottom half of a large pot. Center left Evelyne Porret sets half of a pot out to dry. Its grooved lip will receive the thin rim of the top half (left). The rims are joined, the bat is removed and the top rethrown to complete the form. Far left Janet Stedman completes a bottle while her two daughters wait for a chance to practice throwing when the wheel is free. March 1981 57 with a multitude of small, but important, details for such The kiln is considered small by La Borne standards; packing,” Janet explained. “For instance, he showed how several have 1766- to 2119-cubic-foot capacities. A direct the lid of a large pot must be dried on the pot with a flame, low-lying design, it resembles a Chinese kiln. mark made to keep its position and with the weight of a Bricks, or sometimes just earth and stones, are built up few bricks on it to ensure equal contact around the rim along the sides to buttress a low, wide arch. An ash pit at before stacking other pots on top. Each time we slipped the entry is covered with sheet metal, which is removed up on these essential points we had to admit making yet for emptying and, toward the end of the firing, for addi­ another pot for the top of the pile.” tional air. Over the ash pit, a grill acts as the firebox As the barn workshop filled with pots, they had to floor. A horizontal metal bar across the entry holds up the begin storing fresh ones outside. La Borne has a rainy ends of burning logs. Inside, the floor is of sand and climate, and on those days the pots were covered with earth; the bricks are glazed with accumulated ash and large sheets of plastic, and checked several times during salt. Between the firebox and the main ware chamber is the night to make sure the cover was well anchored. In the bag wall which, in the past, was often constructed spite of these precautions, several large pots were de­ green for each firing—an economical means of firing stroyed by the rain. But after throwing seven tons of clay, about 800 new bricks. (Many of the buildings in La Borne packing the kiln was begun ... in the rain. are colored with these products of earlier kilns.)

Toward the end of summer, greenware filled the barn, spilling out into the adjoining yard.

58 Ceramics Monthly AboveThe interior of a typical La Borne kiln reveals a narrowing arch. The sand and earth floor slopes down toward the firebox; bricks are glazed with accumulated ash and salt. On the exterior, bricks, or earth and stones, are built up next to the wall as a buttress.

Left One of La Borne3s traditional potters, Monsieur Numa, bricks up the “tetier” at the head of the kiln, leaving four rows of ports (at the bottom of the wall) for draft and flame to escape. March 1981 59 A spyhole (6) is left in the “tetier” (5) for cone observation and for removal of test pieces called Above The ash pit (1) runs “witness cups ” underneath the firebox (2); its sheet metal cover is removed for emptying ashes, and, toward the end of the firing, for additional air.

Above Shelves are placed on the sand and earth floor of the ware chamber (3) to provide a level surface. Ports in the lower half of the head wall (5) create a slight downdraft for exiting heat.

The bag wall (4) protects pots from too much direct flame. It is traditionally built leaning away from the firebox, as are the first tiers of pots. Greater shrinkage on the firebox side will straighten it.

For this firing, as in earlier times, Monsieur Numa glazed with a mixture of equal parts grapevine ash and built the bag wall leaning away from the firemouth to feldspar. As soon as a bowl of glaze was emptied inside a allow for greater shrinkage on that side. The old La large form, the latter had to be picked up and drained of Borne potters suggested dropping a small lump of clay any surplus. “This proved to be quite a struggle as speed from the top of the wall to judge the inclination—the clay was important with these unbisqued pots,” Janet noted. should land 4-8 inches from the foot. Ware, too, is boxed To bring the melting point of the glaze down for pots in leaning bungs. loaded nearer the head of the kiln, lead was added pro­ Instead of packing the front of the kiln with the tradi­ gressively. From the middle of the kiln on, they applied tional stack of milk jugs, Janet, Michel and Evelyne put laitier glaze—a mixture of ground slag from iron ore smaller pots on shelves. Farther away from the firemouth, factories with a small amount of clay to bind the particles they stacked small pots within each large one; narrower —with further additions of lead or ash for the lower- forms were placed at the bottom of the stacks to induce a fired ware. Throughout the loading, numerous salt flame path along the floor. The interior of each pot was crucibles were placed in the kiln. “Witness cups” were

60 Ceramics Monthly Greenware was boxed (on top of one Firing began with “bassinage ” a slow burning that lasts another)} stacked on shelves according to almost three days, to dry out the kiln and pots. Then shape and size, or fired in saggars. “le petit feu” was initiated with long} split logs. On the first day of the small fire, the firemouth could be approached easily . After three and a half days of continuous stoking, kiln temperatures rose to 2460°F at the firemouth, 1560° at the head of the kiln.

Above and below After the firing: the bag wall, often constructed green, offers an economical way of producing about 800 new bricks. Perfume bottles line the flame ports as seen from the ware chamber side of the wall, while a larger pot sits on the other side (in the firebox), well glazed by salt and ash. Left Flame and smoke escape Three days after the firing the “tetier39 was unbricked. through the ports at the head wall of the kiln during reduction. No chimney is necessary. AboveCovered jar with hinged lid, thrown, incised, Right Wheel-thrown jar, 20 inches in height, with cup 16 inches in height, by Evelyne Porret. insert and lid, by Michel Pastore. positioned near the cones for withdrawing at the end of After three and a half days of continuous stoking, aided the firing to judge the state of clay and glazes. Then by many volunteers, the kiln temperature was up to Monsieur Numa closed the kiln with the tetier, a 16-inch- 2460°F in the firemouth and approximately 1560°F at thick wall with four rows of ports between the bricks for the head. At the final stage of the firing, le grand feu, the the flame to escape; a chimney is not necessary. Some kiln was stoked with bourrees, 4-foot-long fagots. One of La Borne kilns did have a chimney one or more yards these bundles was thrown into the white hot fire at from the rear (with a connecting flue just underground minute intervals for the next twenty hours. The flame to permit packing). Others had a solid head wall with licked along the complete length of the kiln, escaping short chimneys on each side. through the holes in the head wall amid belching clouds Firing began with bassinage, a period of slow burning of black smoke, inducing a reduction atmosphere and for nearly three days to dry out the kiln and pots. Then raising the temperature toward the head of the kiln. Just le petit feu was initiated; long, split logs were placed in before the stoking ended, Monsieur Numa threw in about the firemouth with the outer ends held up by the iron bar 20 pounds of salt with a flat wooden spade over the arch across the entry. More finely split wood was gradually of the firemouth in quick, upward sweeping movements. introduced at an increasing pace as the temperature rose As the last wood burned, he was able to distinguish two in the kiln. Proper stoking caused the flame to be drawn pots that Michel had placed in the firemouth itself, half well along the floor. buried under white hot embers, covered with molten

64 Ceramics Monthly From left Lidded jar, 20l/ inches in height, with flat lid for stacking; and vinegar2 jar with slip trailing, 14 inches in height; both by Janet Stedman. Dish with “potter’s tears” from the kiln arch, thrown, 13 inches in diameter, by Michel Pastore. Below With unstacking completed, pots again fill the Above jar, 11 inches in height, by Evelyne Porret. Its yard. The kiln is in the background. lid bears scars left by the pot it supported.

ash, but still upright. Dur­ About this more primitive form of production and fir­ ing the two hundred hours ing, Michel found: “I gained a lot from the act of of firing, they had stoked exposing such a large number of pots to a firing without approximately 1000 cubic being sure of what would be rendered. To take certain feet of split wood, mostly risks and to study the results will always teach us some­ oak, and 1200 fagots of oak thing. In a way this strips us of any conscious effort to and birch. When the kiln be represented through our work. Our forms are made by was cool, they found many pots (mainly those sitting us and resemble us, but if we let the work evolve without directly on the floor) had dunted, but from the middle of this conscious effort, we reach a far vaster field. I felt the kiln on were “the most beautifully fired pots with this very strongly at La Borne—that I was going slowly splendid molten ash colors.” but surely toward the origin of the skill.”

66 Ceramics Monthly

68 Ceramics Monthly News 8c Retrospect Nicholas Homoky and approach from work in England,” ac­ back to watch things happen. It is also “Ideas start with a functional form and cording to association secretary Stephen considered being “home free.” Nancy also develop into abstract relationships, but re­ Brayne. Shown decorating a slab made by discussed how to approach a gallery for an tain references to their origin,” explained exhibition. Always call for an appointment, British ceramist Nicholas Homoky about then bring in slides, resume, and other his work being exhibited at Oxford Gallery pertinent material to “sell yourself.” (in Oxford, England) through April 22. Following a question-and-answer session Working with the “double vision of a pot­ on artists,/spaces/programs, a panel of ter and a draftsman,” Nicholas noted that journalists discussed the state of art criti­ his approach has “evolved through the cism. According to John Perrault, New elimination of those things in ceramics that York art critic for the “Soho Weekly inhibit a full use of drawing in clay.” A News,” art criticism is any published writ­ potter’s tool is employed as a pencil to ing (newspapers, magazines, catalogs, es­ draw “profiles of previously thrown forms” says, books) which describes and evaluates artwork while providing related informa­ tion for the reader. Because critics typically write for anyone who can pick up a newspaper, artists usually get poor coverage in the press, noted Owen Findsen, art critic for the “Cincinnati Enquirer.” He recommended pushing the visual news media by submit­ Steven and Susan Kemenyffy ting photographs and information to have Steven at the workshop, Susan painted, your work shown. (A newspaper photog­ then incised the design with a needle tool. rapher is rarely sent to a gallery to take Above is a completed greenware object pictures for an article.) they made that day. Radio arts reporter Sylvia Pierre Also present at the event was Rehoboth, (WOSU, Columbus) feels that artists Massachusetts, ceramist Harriet Brisson must approach the various media profes­ “Teapot Composition' who, with British potter Walter Keeler, sionally for effect. Since art is in competi­ on the ware during trimming. Unglazed built, fired and dismantled two wood- tion with other news, the publicist should porcelain objects, such as “Teapot Compo­ burning raku kilns. explain what is new or different about spe­ sition,” above, approximately 6 inches in cific art or craft work. For radio and tele­ height, are inlaid, fired and polished “be­ Ohio Arts Conference vision coverage, she suggested contacting cause ceramics should be tactile. I like the To provide practical, professional assis­ the producer at least two weeks in advance surface to simulate a paper quality.” by submitting a well-defined proposal tance for visual artists, the Ohio Arts stressing newsworthiness. Follow up with a Council recently sponsored a two-day con­ telephoned reminder or arrange to discuss American Raku in England ference at the Ohio State University in the matter personally. Weekends are a Clay artists Steven and Susan Keme- Columbus. In the opening session on the better time to get attention for live cover­ nyffy, McKean, Pennsylvania, recently processing of state and federal grants, age as more station personnel are likely to conducted, a one-day raku workshop in Nancy Drew, an Artists Services Program be available. Derbyshire, England. Organized by the coordinator with the National Endowment As business guides for professional art­ Craftsmen Potters Association of Great for the Arts, discussed basic guidelines for ists, certified public accountant Bernard B. Britain, the event was held on the grounds applications. She mentioned that along Eder listed the following publications: of Sudbury Hall, a mansion built in 1670. with a completed grant application form, “The Small Business Reporter,” “Small the artist may wish to enclose a statement Marketer’s Aid,” “How to Sell Your Art to clarify the work’s intent. Make sure sub­ Work Complete,” “How to Make Money mitted slides are first-rate, never blurred in the Art Market,” “This Business of or spotted. Finally, register all grant appli­ Art,” “Art Marketing Handbook,” “Art- cations with the post office; some have tist’s Guide to His Market,” and “National been lost in the mail or arrived six months Directory and Aids to Individuals in the late. Arts.” In his opinion, the best newspaper Nancy stated that there are three for the arts is the “Wall Street Journal.” stages an artist goes through. The first is He noted that a recent Journal article “mindless enthusiasm” when the artist is named the top four states in art funding— new and full of energy and willing to make New York, $33 million; California, $7.2 sacrifices for a career. The second stage is million; Michigan, $6 million; and Ohio, the “worked hard, and it’s time we are $4.7 million. Texas was last with $363,000. funded” stage, when the artist is tired of The Journal quoted a Texan as saying, making sacrifices and wants some recogni­ “We worked hard for that position, now tion. The third and final stage is “denim let’s maintain it.” double knit—beyond Kiwanis Club,” when Emphasizing the necessity of record the artist has refined procedures and sits keeping for tax purposes, Bernard advised filing proof (a cancelled check or receipt) Send news and photos about people, of all business transactions in 12 large places or events of interest. We will be accordion-type monthly envelopes so that Susan Kemenyffy incising pleased to consider them for publication they are easily accessible. For a simple, in this column. Send items to: News & straightforward bookkeeping process, he To demonstrate their various techniques, Retrospect, Ceramics Monthly, P.O. the artists presented slides and collabo­ Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212. recommended the Peg Board system, which rated on several pots “different in form Continued March 1981 69 News & Retrospect keeps everything (carbons of all checks written and what they were for) in one book. Peg Board ledgers are available through companies listed under Business Forms and Systems in the Yellow Pages. Artists working together or in a group might consider a partnership, but each can be liable for the other’s debts. Incorpora­ tion can limit liability. If one decides to incorporate, applications should be filed through a lawyer. (A young attorney’s fees may be lower, yet he/she is usually well- trained in incorporation procedures.) As the owner of a corporation, an artist can buy group life insurance, even though there is only one person involved. A disad­ vantage with incorporation is the increased record keeping but, according to Bernard Eder, it may be worth it in the long run.

Tennessee Invitational “Familiar Signatures,” an invitational clay exhibition, was presented recently at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg. Coordinated by Rosa Ken­ nedy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, ceramics instructor, the exhibition brought together work by 21 ceramists from ten states and several foreign countries who have graduated from the university since the master’s program began 11 years ago. Shown from the exhibition are three stone-

Deanette Kuhn ware jars, 9, 10 and 12 inches in height, by Deanette Kuhn, Darien, Georgia. In a statement for the show, the artist com­ mented that for her “a functional pot has more potential for communication than a purely decorative piece.” Also shown is a stoneware “Lasagna Dish,” 18 inches in length, thrown and altered, by Ron Slagle, Bakersville, North Carolina. In conjunction with the opening of the exhibition, a “Clay Conference” included discussions, demonstrations and slide pre-

RonSlagle sentations by Ohio studio potter Tim Mather; Donna Polseno, Virginia studio potter; John Stephenson, University of 70 Ceramics Monthly Michigan; and Susanne Stephenson, ce­ ramist at Eastern Michigan University. As he demonstrated, Tim Mather ad­ dressed design considerations for functional ware. In teapots or other forms where one piece must be joined to the next, the potter is dealing with transition problems. One part can appear to grow from an­ other or make an abrupt change. But “if the bottom relates well to the top,” he said, “then the transition becomes easy.” Tim believes it is detail that makes a pot work, and advocates making form varia­ tions rather than constantly switching from one idea to the next in pot design. He sees pattern as a way to put order back into ceramics after the abstract expressionism of the sixties. Technical pointers were offered: He suggested handles could be made from chair caning, basket materials or clay. He built a clay handle constructed flat on the worktable: a pulled handle section was connected to each side of a modular, hand­ built center section which became the cen­ tral grip. Finally, the handle was draped over a paper-covered cardboard roll until sufficiently set to join to the pot. Addi­ tionally, a handbuilt spout was formed by wrapping a thin slab around a wooden dowel, joining the slab, then rolling the dowel to smooth the clay. This caused the spout to become slightly larger, thus re­ leasing from the dowel. For proper func­ tioning, this long, straight spout was then joined to a bulbous shape already added near the pot’s base. As he worked, Tim dispelled several “myths” of the studio potter: Contrary to the idea that a potter shouldn’t take time to trim, Tim explained, leaving clay in the bottom of the wall prevents sagging in throwing, relieving the necessity to com­ promise form. Studio potters who believe they can’t take time to decorate indulge in aesthetic compromise. “A potter must be committed to each piece,” he said. The idea that studio potters have to make all cheap items is not true either, because this approach actually causes a “small piece, small price energy rut.” Donna Polseno’s emphasis was on slab construction, decoration and raku firing techniques. Four-piece molds enabled her to make large forms by handbuilding within the molds with pressed coils or slabs. This technique for working with large forms gives solidity and strength to an otherwise difficult handbuilding pro­ cedure. Her decorative processes employed multiple airbrushed layers of commercial glaze and painting liquid latex for resist patterns. (Before firing, the latex is peeled from the surface.) Through her experience of working with large pieces in raku, Donna has perfected some useful tech­ niques. Large pieces are handled best when carefully moved with asbestos gloves rather than with tongs. She found that the big­ gest cracking problems occur if the work is cooled too quickly. To prevent this, she stacks several trash cans inside each other for use as the carbonizing chamber. This serves to insulate during post-firing reduc- Continued March 1981 71 Wisconsin, Madison through March 29 ramic League Show”; at the Coachman Itinerary “Generations in Clay: Pueblo Pottery of Inn. Continued from Page 31 the American Southwest,” includes approx­ imately 125 objects; at the Elvehjem Mu­ New Jersey, Ridgewood March 14-18 the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, seum of Art, 800 University Avenue. “Craft and Plant Show”; at Temple Israel, 4400 Forbes Avenue. 475 Grove Street. Wisconsin, Milwaukee through March 15 Rhode Island, Providence March 27-May “China That’s Ancient and Blue: Porce­ Texas, Dallas March 21-22 The second 3 “Clay,” an exhibition of contemporary lains from the Permanent Collection”; at annual “Dallas Craft Market”; at Market ceramics, 18th and 19th century Mocha Villa Terrace, 2220 N. Terrace Avenue. Hall, Dallas Market Center, 2100 Stem- ware and Whieldon ware; at the Museum mons Freeway. of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 2 Wisconsin, Sheboygan through March 22 Texas, Waco March 7-8 The 26th annual College Street. “Paint on Clay: A Survey of the Use of ceramics show sponsored by the Central Non-Fired Surfaces on Ceramic Forms by Texas Ceramics Association; at the Brazos South Carolina, Hilton Head Island March Contemporary American Artists”; at the Room, Waco Convention Center. 1-31 “Primary Art II,” a multimedia exhi­ John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 608 bition which includes ceramics; at Artistic New York Avenue. Wisconsin, Milwaukee March 13-15 “6th Sass, 14 Greenwood Drive, Number 1406. Craft Fair U.S.A.”; at the Wisconsin State Fair Park, 8100 West Greenfield Avenue. Tennessee, Memphis through March 13 “Third Annual Paper and Clay Show”; at Fairs, Festivals and Sales the E. H. Little Gallery and the Faculty Student Gallery, Jones Hall, Memphis Florida, Boynton Beach March 7-8 “Boyn­ Workshops State University. ton Beach 7th Annual Festival of the California, San Diego March 30-May 4 Arts”; at the Recreation and Park Depart­ “Kids ’n Clay,” a workshop for children Vermont, Middlebury through March 6 ment, 128 East Ocean Avenue. from 6 to 12 years of age. All materials “New Directions in Clay,” an exhibition by provided. Fee: $30. 4:00-5:30 P.M. Con­ Elaine Anthony, Lisa Youngner and Mal­ Florida, New Smyrna Beach through tact: Clay Dimensions Studio, 1735 Adams colm Wright. March 1 “Images—A Festival of the Avenue, San Diego 92116, or call: (714) March 21 -April 17 “Interiors,” an exhibi­ Arts”; at Riverside Memorial Park, down­ 296-9752. tion of crafts for the home; both events at town. the Vermont State Craft Center at Frog Connecticut, Brookfield March 28-May 17 Hollow. Florida, Saint Petersburg March 28-29 Brookfield Craft Center is planning the “Mainsail Arts Festival”; at Straub Park, following advanced ceramic workshops: Washington, Bellevue March 7-April 19 Beach Drive between 1st and 2nd Avenues March 28-29 Angela Fina: Glaze Calcu­ “The First 4000 Years: The Ratner Col­ Northeast. lations and Formulation. lection of Judaean Antiquities”; at the April 4-5 Scott Tubby will demonstrate the Bellevue Art Museum. New Jersey, Cranford March 7-8 “Ce­ Continued

72 Ceramics Monthly blage approach, she threw a bowl shape, News & Retrospect pinched it together across the top, and tion and prevent rapid cooling. To avoid reinforced it with a coil before joining extraneous uncontrolled burning, she sim­ other parts. Hollow extruded pieces were ply lines the can with a few layers of shaped freely or cut through with a wire newspaper. To control the amount of re­ for various effects, and employed as circu­ duction smoke, she opens the can two or lar bases. Throughout, she emphasized the three times. This allows full carbonization relationship of parts to the whole, and the without leaving the paper or sawdust im­ freedom of expression which comes with prints, which are undesirable in her deco­ assemblage. To obtain subtle color effects, rative technique. an influence which Susanne attributes to Donna expressed concern for students time spent in Japan, she suggested a white today, saying that “it is not enough to clay body and porcelain slips. Number 6 make pots or learn technique anymore— Tile clay may be substituted for the more you must be concerned with being original expensive Grolleg. Also, she recommended or far out.” Yet on the other hand, “too adding polyester fibers to the clay body for many people get wrapped up in issues.” more strength in large constructions. To Her advice to them is to concentrate on obtain soft color effects, Susanne adds their work, then everything else will come. 8-10% commercial stains to a basic porce­ John Stephenson commented on clay as lain slip. Applied with an airbrush, work­ an art form, explaining that clay sculpture ing from light colors to dark, and spraying is more difficult to approach because “it layer upon layer, many gradations are is harder for people to learn what it is offered. A further mellowing effect can be about, whereas a clay bowl is like an old obtained with Cedar Heights Goldart, friend.” Even in the area of criticism, he sprayed as terra sigillata over the slips. feels we need critics who understand clay When the event ended, a variety of in terms of the vessel and its history as an ideas for improving technique and studio art form. practices as well as ways to approach sculp­ John combines several ideas about clay: tural ceramics, had been presented at the First, as an ancient art, it carries influ­ Arrowmont Clay Conference. Above all, ences from tradition; second, clay is a the participants emphasized the impor­ direct medium—there is almost a signature tance of aesthetics in ceramic work. feeling with clay as you work. To these he Text: Christine Steiner, photos: Cynthia adds the idea of mixed media. “Bringing Brown. things together is what we are about today—packaging.” John’s wall sculptures were one result of these concepts. Using Czech Ceramists the wall-mounted grid as a framework, Seven Czechoslovakian artists recently space becomes a concern as the “cutouts” exhibited clay vessels and sculpture in in the grid turn into negative space, with “Porzellan und Keramik” at Galerie am the walls describing the void. Thus the Graben in Vienna, Austria. Shown from grid becomes a structure both to determine form and to hold clay. (Clay is laid into various sections of the grid according to the balance and weight required for the design.) In discussing sculptural orienta­ tion and relative size, John pointed out that a 2- x 2-foot cube set on one point gives a 3- x 3-foot effect because we tend to gauge size by reading the horizontal-vertical di­ mension. Thus the grid can be made to appear larger without actually increasing its size or weight. John suggested clay sketches as an ap­ proach to all ceramic sculpture, and rec­ ommended working through series, thus giving a chance to respond to feeling. “Different pieces require a different re­ sponse and in checking a series of sketches, you may find that you have centered in.” The first construction of this artist’s work is done on a wooden grid. After roughing out the whole piece in clay, he goes back to add detail and finally punches holes in it so that string or wire can later tie the pieces to the final grid. These clay sections can then be decorated and fired for vari­ ous specific effects. The final grid may be constructed of another material, such as Sarka Radova aluminum. An emphasis on a combination of the exhibition is “Geheimnis des Waldes thrown, extruded and cut forms finished (Secret of the Woods),” above, approxi­ with subtle under/overglazes and stains mately 12 inches in height, handbuilt por­ highlighted Susanne Stephenson’s contri­ celain, bySarka Radova. Gallery director bution to the conference. With an assem­ Continued March 1981 73 March 28-29 “Ceramics and Drawing North Dakota, FargoApril 25-June 21 Itinerary Workshop” with David Middlebrook. Con­ Community Arts is planning the following tact: Greenwood Gallery, 2014 P Street sessions: usage of neriage and colored clays. Northwest, Washington, D.C. 20036, or April 25-26 “Salt Glazing and Firing” April 11-12 Fred Tregaska: Energy Effi­ call: (202) 463-4888. with Mark Pharis. cient Kiln Design and Construction. June 19-21 “Stoneware and Raku” with April 24-25 Farley Tobin: Tiles and Ce­ Wayne Branum. Both workshops include ramic Surfaces. Nebraska, Omaha June 8-14 A one-week hands-on experience. Contact: Carol May 2-3 Leon Nigrosh: Architectural intensive workshop in large-scale ceramic Schwandt, Creative Arts Studio, 1430 Commissions. sculpture with Tony Hepburn of Alfred May 9-10 Kathy Yokum: Raku. University. Workshop participants will South 7th Street, Fargo 58103, or call: May 16-17 Penelope Fleming: Advanced utilize industrial facilities at the Omaha (701) 241-4859. Raku and Special Glazes. Contact: Brook­ Brickworks. Send up to 10 slides of recent field Craft Center, Box 122, Brookfield work, $5 application fee, brief resume and Ohio, CantonApril 3-4 A workshop with 06804, or call: (203) 775-4526. self-addressed, stamped envelope. Applica­ Karl Christiansen. Fee: $20. Registration tion deadline: March 21. Contact: Nancy deadline: March 30. Contact: The Can­ D.C., Washington March 6-May 3 “Mak­ Gruver, Craftsmen’s Gallery, 511 South ton Potters Guild, The Canton Art Insti­ ing It in Clay 4,” a series of 2-day lec­ Eleventh, Omaha 68102, or call: (402) tute, 1001 Market Ave. N., Canton 44702. tures/demonstrations which will conclude 346-8887. with a 1-week exhibition of the artist’s Ohio, ClevelandMarch 9-10 A session on work, includes the following: slipcasting with Jim Chaney. Contact: March 6-8 Airbrushed and faceted work New York, New York March 13, 15 “Slip Richard Schneider, College of Arts and by David Nelson. Casting and Mold Making for the Potter” Sciences, Department of Art, Cleveland April 3-5 Slip-cast canvases by Tom with Stephen Hill. Contact: Janet Bryant, 44115, or call: (216) 687-2090. Spleth. Art Center, 92nd Street YM/YWHA, May 1-3 Cone 05 earthenware by Mineo 1395 Lexington Avenue, New York 10028, Mizuno. All events at the Corcoran School or call: (212) 427-6000, ext. 172. Ohio, WoosterApril 23-25 “Functional of Art. Fees for each event: Friday night, May 10-11 A session with Warren Mac- Ceramics Workshop,” includes sessions for $5; Saturday, $30; Sunday, free and open Kenzie, includes a slide lecture; at Green­ the potter with Richard Hensley, Donna to the public. Contact: Eagle Ceramics, wich House Pottery, 16 Jones Street. Polseno and Tom Turner. Contact: Phyllis 12266 Wilkins Avenue, Rockville, Mary­ Clark, the College of Wooster, Wooster land 20852, or call: (301) 881-2253. New York, RoslynMarch 23-May 31 The 44691, or call: (216) 264-1234, ext. 388. March 7-29 Greenwood Gallery is plan­ Nassau County Center for the Fine Arts is ning the following workshops: offering a series of pottery workshops. In­ Oregon, PortlandMarch 23 A lecture,/ March 7-8 “To Decorate” with Bennett structors: June and Lloyd Reiss, Andrew demonstration in tile making with Sara Bean. Quient. Fee: $75. Contact: Craft Work­ Krohn, includes airbrush techniques, Cone March 14-15 “Porcelain” with Gerry Wil­ shops, Office of Cultural Development, 6 oxidation firing and solar use. liams; “Photographing Your Work” with Northern Boulevard, Box D, Roslyn 11576, April 25-26 “Low Fire Sculptural Ceram- Bob Hanson. or call: (516) 484-9333. Continued

74 Ceramics Monthly even those whose ancestors may not have News & Retrospect worked with clay, have developed interest Inge Asenbaum described Sarka’s work as and initiated ceramics programs—some of “fantastic realism. She presently works in porcelain and employs strong, gay colors, producing puzzling objects such as fish protruding from a wall, antlers growing on a chimney, pierced animals.” Also shown from the exhibition is a matt-glazed stoneware vase, 11 inches in height, by Petr Svoboda , whose work has evolved over the years from slip-cast, sky-

Toussowasket’s “Otter Pond” them decades ago. As these workshops gradually made an impact, Indians in Canada organized their own crafts society and began funding workshops and engag­ ing more of their own instructors. The poverty on many reservations results in the temptation to produce “souvenirs” for the tourist trade—the final stage in the destruction of a culture. In spite of the odds, many persist over the years in follow­ ing their inner callings without making trade-offs with opportunity. Among the latter is Toussowasket, a prolific producer of ceramics (besides be­ ing a printmaker and painter), who lives near Kelowna, British Columbia. Shown are two of his bowls: “Otter Pond” (top), a thrown form, 15 inches in diameter; and “Owl Hunting,” a slab-built container, 11 inches in diameter—both with sgraffito and glaze. We have been living side by side with Indians since we invaded this continent and yet have much to learn about each

Petr Svoboda scraper-like forms to large-scale, wheel- thrown plates. The surfaces of his present work, said Inge Asenbaum, “break like a crust of bread baked too rapidly, like crevices in the soil.” Canadian Indian Ceramics American Indian cultures had their pre­ historic and classical periods before West­ ern influences made any impact, and the “Owl Hunting” more recent period, which is the most other. It is good to see that many native familiar to all, generally dates from the Canadians have made an impact and are time Indians were placed on reservations. gaining recognition with their work in Even though many artifacts continued to British Columbia and throughout Canada. serve tribal needs, most work made since Text: Zeljko Kujundzic. is for trade or sale to the outside world. Mention American Indian ceramics and generally people think of Southwest styles, Andy Nasisse such as Acoma, Zuni, Santo Domingo and Selected from 500 proposals submitted in of course San Ildefonso where Maria res­ a national competition, four clay murals urrected the craft and attracted worldwide by Andy Nasisse, University of Georgia attention. (Athens) assistant professor, were recently With the growth of tribal consciousness installed at Heartsfield International Air- throughout the continent, many Indians, Continued March 1981 75 sity of Sydney. Michael Cardew will give the World Crafts Council European Con­ Itinerary the keynote address. Fee: $96. Registration ference; participants will join the WCC ics,” a lecture/demonstration in handbuild­ deadline: March 31. Contact: The Pot­ program while in Copenhagen. Fee: 6100 ing, airbrushing and casting techniques ter’s Society of Australia, 48 Burton Street, Danish kroner. Contact: Helle Wisti, Det with Patti Warashina. For both events con­ Darlinghurst, N.S.W. 2010, or call: (02) Danske Selskab, Kultorvet 2, DK 1175, tact: Oregon School of Arts and Crafts, 31 3151. Copenhagen K, or call: (45-1) 13 5488. 8245 Southwest Barnes Road, Portland 97225, or call: (503) 297-5544. Canada, Alberta, Calgary May 2-3 “Ce­ England, Halifax May 23-25 “National ramics Seminar ’81” includes sessions for Potters Jamboree” will feature demonstra­ Pennsylvania, Doylestown June 22-August the potter. Contact: Faye Nutting, Leisure tions by several British potters including 14 “Apprentice Tile Workshop,” an 8- Learning Services, Parkhill Centre, 3630 guest of honor David Leach. There will week program for advanced ceramists. Ap­ also be a concurrent crafts fair. Registra­ plication deadline: May 1. Contact: Second Street Southwest, Calgary T2S tion deadline: March 31. For more infor­ Mandy Sallada, Moravian Pottery and Tile 1T8, or call: (403) 243-0463. mation write: Alan Beastow, 1, Lumbrook, Works, Swamp Road, Doylestown 18901, Canada, Ontario, Guelph through March Westercroft Lane, Northowram, Halifax, or call: (215) 345-6722. 15 “Explorations Within a Landscape,” West Yorkshire, England HX37SF. Pennsylvania, Philadelphia April 1-2 The porcelain objects by Robin Hopper; at the England, London March 20-April 8 An Philadelphia College of Art plans a 2-day University of Guelph Art Gallery, Mc­ exhibition of ash-glazed pottery by Jim presentation in ceramic art with Dave Laughlin Library. Malone; at Amalgam Art Limited, 3 Nelson and George Timock. Contact: Bill Barnes High Street. Daley, Philadelphia College of Art, Broad Canada, Ontario, Thunder Bay through and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia 19102, or March 6 “Fireworks 1980,” by members England, Oxford through March 11 call: (215) 893-3100. of the Ontario Potters Association; at the Mixed-media sculpture by Rosamund Thunder Bay National Arts Centre. O’Connor. Washington, College Place April 6-7 A March 16-April 22 An exhibition of lecture/demonstration workshop with Otto Canada, Ontario, Timmins March 23- thrown and altered porcelain by Nicholas and Vivika Heino. Free and open to the April 10 “Fireworks 1980,” an exhibition Homoky; both events at Oxford Gallery, public. Contact: Tom Emmerson, Art De­ by members of the Ontario Potters Asso­ 23 High Street. partment, Walla Walla College, College ciation; at the Timmins National Exhibi­ Place 99324, or call: (509) 527-2600. tion Centre. England, Salcombe March 21-May 17 A multimedia exhibition which includes ce­ Denmark, Copenhagen through March 15 ramics by Keith Smith; at Windjammer An exhibition of ceramics by Gerd Knap- Crafts, 2 Russell Court, Fore Street. per; at the Museum of Decorative Arts. International May 27-June 8 “Crafts and Design in West Germany, Dusseldorf through March Australia, Sydney May 17-23 The 2nd Denmark” includes lectures and visits to 29 An exhibition of ceramics by Kurt Australian Ceramic Conference for Pot­ workshops, exhibitions and factories. This Spurey of Austria; at the Hetjens Museum, ters; at Seymour Centre and the Univer­ seminar is being held in conjunction with Schulstrasse 4.

76 Ceramics Monthly glaze treatment ranging from raku firing News & Retrospect to reduction-fired copper reds and cela­ port in Atlanta. Based on early American dons to low-fired metallic lusters. From the quilt designs, “Shadow Box” (front) and “Harvest Sun” are each 12 feet in width, with glazes and paint. Commented the artist, “The craft ob­ ject often has many levels of meaning

Pat Saab exhibition, the cups above, 3½ inches in height, are thrown and faceted stoneware, with brushed decoration, by Pat Saab, New York City.Photo: Rebecca Moy. Alan Patrick “Repetitive throwing tends to keep one honest,” noted studio potter Alan Patrick, Albany, Indiana, whose functional stone­ ware and one-of-a-kind porcelain vessels were featured at Artifacts Gallery in India­ napolis through February 21. Everyday pots “are the most basic form of expression for a potter. One-of-a-kind and sculptural work represent the flights of fancy and personal images which are outside the realm of tableware. They are neither bet­ ter, nor more artistic; only different.” Porcelain in the exhibition included the vase below, 13 inches in height, thrown and altered, with overglaze enamels. For sgraffito patterns, Alan brushes some por-

Andy Nasisse which transcend our notion of limitations within the crafts. I try to develop a surface which articulates many modes of space and has several layers of pattern which relate in a casual rather than a formal way. Color bridges the gap between two- and three-dimensional space.” The Drinking Vessel One thousand wheel-thrown mugs, cups, tea bowls and goblets were exhibited re­ cently in “The Drinking Vessel” at Mao Lee Gallery in New York City (Soho).

Thrown and altered porcelain vessel celain vessels with a slip made from the commercial body and 10% red iron oxide. Tableware is thrown from the following oVen-safe stoneware: Patrick’s Ovenware Body (Cone 10, reduction) Pyrophyllite...... 5 pounds Custer Feldspar ...... 10 Cedar Heights Goldart Clay . . 50 A thousand drinking vessels Kentucky Ball Clay (OM 4) 20 Organized by Antioch University (Mary­ A.P. Green Fireclay...... 20 land), the invitational exhibition featured A.P. Green Grog (30-mesh) . . 6 18 Maryland and New York potters. The Red Iron Oxide ...... 1 one-of-a-kind and limited-production stone­ 112 pounds ware and porcelain forms incorporated Continued March 1981 77 78 Ceramics Monthly News & Retrospect Most of Alan’s ware is glazed with the following recipes: C-6 Temple White Glaze (Cone 10, reduction) Dolomite ...... 18.75% Whiting ...... 3.75 Custer Feldspar ...... 35.00 Edgar Plastic Kaolin...... 23.75 Flint ...... 18.75 100.00% For a blue glaze, add 2% cobalt car­ bonate. Clear Glaze (Cone 10, reduction) Magnesium Carbonate...... 0.26% Whiting ...... 14.67 Custer Feldspar ...... 49.38 Edgar Plastic Kaolin...... 12.09 Flint ...... 23.60 100.00% A celadon is achieved by adding 2-8% red iron oxide to the clear recipe. Glaze pigments, brushed over the raw white and under the clear glazes, were prepared by volume. Two heaping table­ spoons of red iron oxide for brown, or 2 heaping tablespoons of cobalt carbonate for blue, were mixed in 1 cup of the liquid Temple white glaze. The following Michael Cardew recipe was employed for green pigment: Green Glaze Pigment (Cone 10, reduction) Fluorspar ...... 25.0% Custer Feldspar ...... 37.5 Edgar Plastic Kaolin ...... 12.5 Flint ...... 25.0 100.0% Add: Chrome Oxide...... 25.0% Alan fires all his work to Cone 10 in a 100-cubic-foot, downdraft, propane kiln. Hanovia “Overstroke” enamels and lusters are fired to Cone 018 in an electric kiln. Sometimes lusters are fumed in the kiln with stannous chloride to make the entire pot iridescent. Photo: Ruth Chin. Jerry Caplan Incorporating reflected light, new sculp­ ture by clay artistJerry Caplan was fea­ tured recently in a one-man show at Chatham College, Pittsburgh. Along with elongated tiles, veined with gold luster and pit fired, the exhibition included revolving forms such as “Undulating Dome,” 12

“Undulating Dome” with reflected light inches in diameter, with gold and light green lusters, mounted on a 1 rpm turn­ table. After bisquing to Cone 08, the Continued March 1981 79 80 Ceramics Monthly News & Retrospect domes, cones and warped planes were coated with a shiny, crackle glaze and fired to Cone 04. An application of Liquid Bright Gold luster fired to Cone 018 was overlaid with transparent orange, blue or light green commercial lusters, alone or in combination, also fired to Cone 018. “When struck by the light of a narrow- beamed spotlight, they reflect a changing pattern of color on surrounding walls and

Jerry Caplan ceilings,” Jerry noted. Also from the exhi­ bition is the teapot shown above, 7 inches in height, with clear crackle glaze and gold luster. Roy Fender Framed between the halves of a sesame- seed bun, ceramic hamburgers by Roy Fender were included in a recent faculty exhibition at Western Maryland College, Westminster. Among the suggested models assembled “to free ground beef from the symmetrical patty syndrome by pressing it into fancy-pleasing shapes,” was “O, Dem

“O, Dem Golden Slippers Elf Burger” Golden Slippers Elf Burger,” 7 inches in height, press-molded and slip-cast bisque- ware, with commercial glaze and lusters. The bun, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cheese Continued March 1981 81 82 Ceramics Monthly News & Retrospect and pickles were press molded (in plaster casts of the actual objects) with the following low-fire clay: Low-fire Clay Body (Cone 06) Talc ...... 40% Ball Clay ...... 40 Fireclay ...... 20 100% Many of the sculptural objects within the sandwiches are commercial hobby ceramics. These slip-cast forms were altered and combined with handbuilt components. Throughout the drying stage, knock-out supports held the layers in place. After bisque firing to Cone 06, some of the burgers were coated with a commercial black gloss glaze and refired to Cone 06 to serve as a base for the application of metallic lusters fired to Cone 019. Others were painted with acrylics. Photo: Rebecca Orenstein. Potters and Painters What would happen if potters and painters could see their work through each others’ eyes? What could potters and painters learn from one another? How would painters and potters collaborate? To answer these questions, students, faculty, studio potters and painters participated in a recent collaboration at the University of North Dakota Craft Center, Grand Forks. Directed by clay artistCarol Levitov , Rockville, Maryland, the three-day event began with potters constructing porcelain slab forms to give painters a white surface, not unlike the canvas and paper with which they were familiar. The painters decorated these with acrylics and tempera (which produce subtle color effects when

David. Spatola fired) or oxides and colored slip. In the meantime, the potters produced additional handbuilt or wheel-thrown objects, which were rapidly dried with fans, trimmed and set on tables for random selection by the painters. Shown is a porcelain slab form, 6 inches in height, handbuilt and surface decorated byDavid Spatola. Finished objects were dried overnight and during the second day of the work­ shop, fired to Cone 019—to maintain more of the original color of the slips. Wood, metal and paper were incorporated in clay forms designated to remain unfired. For Continued March 1981 83 84 Ceramics Monthly News & Retrospect some potters, unfired clay was a foreign idea, but for the painters this approach seemed more appropriate—removing the mystery of firing and destroying the pre- ciousness of the finished objects. As a result, painters began to work directly with the clay, making their own forms, and potters began to decorate each other’s work. On the last day, the kiln was unloaded and ware assembled alongside the unfired work from the previous day. Because real

Matthew Zimmer-Dauphinee, Roberta Paul collaboration did evolve, no one person could claim any individual object. Yet elements of style could be identified from each artist. The slab-built form, above, 6 inches in diameter, was constructed by Matthew Zimmer-Dauphinee, and painted with stains and oxides by Roberta Paul. The work was fired to Cone 019, then glazed with a clear recipe before firing to Cone 6 in oxidation. The workshop ended with some partici­ pants discussing future, more sustained collaborations. There seemed to be a dawn­ ing recognition that through this process one could remove the individual ego and the single idea to create objects of signifi­ cance from mutual sensibility. Text: Nancy Monsebroten; photos: William Lubitz and Glenn Price. Southeastern Ceramics “Much of ‘Ceramics Southeast/80,’ at the University of Georgia, Athens, was characterized by intimate and personal imagery,” commented show coordinator Andy Nasisse, “implying in some cases that through intensified introspective experi­ mentation one may possibly reach a point where the personal becomes universal. Some of the pottery forms, both functional and sculptural, rely heavily on our powers of association, and make allusions to the more archetypical nature of the container.” The works, by approximately 80 regional artists, reflected a variety of approaches Continued March 1981 85 86 Ceramics Monthly News & Retrospect ranging from utilitarian ware to formal ab­ stractions, constructivist arrangements, fan­ tasy figures and process-oriented installa­ tions. Selected for a purchase award by juror Don Pilcher, ceramics professor at the University of Illinois, Champaign, “Stone-

Michel Conroy ware Basket,” above, 14 inches in height, was handbuilt by Michel Conroy, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Also shown from the exhibition is “Bailed Covered Jar,” 18

David Nelson inches in height, thrown and faceted por­ celain by studio potter David Nelson, Weaverville, North Carolina. New Hampshire Potters Clay objects by approximately 30 mem­ bers of the New Hampshire Potters Guild were featured in the organization’s annual Continued March 1981 87 88 Ceramics Monthly News & Retrospect exhibition held late last year at the Man­ chester Institute of Arts and Sciences. Among the thrown and handbuilt works

John C. Baymore displayed was “Ritual 5,” 13 inches in width, a slab-built stoneware vessel fired to Cone 12, with ash deposits, by John C. Baymore, Wilton. Thomas Hoadley Nerikomi porcelain forms by Massachu­ setts ceramist Thomas Hoadley, Lenox, were featured at the Jackie Chalkley Gal­ lery in Washington, D.C., through Janu­ ary 31. In keeping with the traditional Japanese method, colored clay bodies were sliced, stacked, folded, twisted or wedged slightly to develop intrinsic designs in the handbuilt forms. Shown from the exhibi-

Nerikomi porcelain vessel tion, this unglazed porcelain vase, 10 inches in height, was scraped when leather- hard and sanded when dry to reveal the feathered clay patterns. Planning an Exhibition In the following text, Phyllis Clark, curator since 1974 of the “Functional Ceramics” exhibitions at the College of Wooster (Ohio), provides insights into the workings of a major national show, and offers advice Continued March 1981 89 90 Ceramics Monthly News & Retrospect for those planning involvement in estab­ lishing or developing an exhibition.—Ed. Before getting involved in putting to­ gether a ceramics exhibition, ask yourself a few questions: Do you like eating, sleeping and talking pots and potters? Do you like to see pots in formal, clean exhibition areas? Is your back strong enough to handle several hundred pots numerous times and to pack large quantities at a time? Do you enjoy endless details? If you can answer these questions positively and are still enthusiastic, you are hooked. A good exhibition director must be ex­ cited about the subject—your enthusiasm will generate the momentum needed to get the show going and will come across to the audience. Decide what type of work to feature. We chose to exhibit functional ware because there were quantities of good work being done which were not receiving enough recognition, and quality pottery was something our community would relate to and enjoy. Next, consider the gallery space avail­ able, security, and the number of items which could be accommodated. Keep in mind that you will have to store all the shipping cartons. Advise the potters that, if possible, ware will be returned in these containers, packed as closely as possible to the original shipment. Potters’ names should be marked on the boxes; identify each of the cartons shipped with storage notations such as “3 out of 4,” with the packing materials inside. When the show is over, it is then simple to repack most of the items. Publishing a catalog necessitates having the work two and a half months prior to the show opening. If you plan to publish a catalog, you may need to secure adequate funding even earlier. Only after these matters are settled can you take on the more exciting part of the preshow work—determining who will be in the exhibition. Start with a small group showing a larger amount of work from each, then in later years increase the num­ ber of potters, if you like. For the first two years of our exhibition, 20 to 25 potters exhibited about 20 objects each. Now ap­ proximately 30 show a maximum of 10 pots each. Set a number or you may get three dozen from one exhibitor and only three from another. Since our show is in April—a time con­ venient for most potters—invitations are sent the previous September. Slides indica­ tive of their work must be submitted by early November. Then a juror or selection committee carefully screens the entries to select a diversified show, including some folk pottery, some trend setters, by people from many areas of the country. If it qualifies, we also try to include the work of one former student. After the final selection, the potters are sent an invitation and an information packet including dates, phone numbers, shipping instructions, number of pots, in­ ventory sheets and a form for catalog Continued March 1981 91 92 Ceramics Monthly News & Retrospect information. (The catalog contains a pho­ tograph of one work by each potter repre­ sented, prices, a biographical sketch and a statement in regard to a question posed for the show.) There is also an acceptance note to clip and return. Potters are busy and not always fond of paper work, so we try to keep the required forms as simple as possible. Work should arrive at the gallery by the given deadline, unless prior arrangements are made to photograph just one pot for the catalog, with the others following in ample time for the show preparation. Be nice to your United Parcel Service delivery man. Alert him in advance that you will be receiving work for the show, indicating approximate dates, about how many boxes and from where—he may take more care with the shipment delivery. Upon arrival, the pots are unpacked and the potters are informed of the conditions of their work. In case of breakage we start to process claims with the carriers. As the unpacking proceeds, the work of each potter is kept in one place with a card indicating owner­ ship and number of objects. After preparing materials for the cata­ log and checking inventory sheets, show publicity is released to the news media. For magazine coverage these announce­ ments or advertisements should be sent as early as possible. When setting up the exhibition, place small typed tags near each pot, indicating the inventory number, what it is and price, such as no. 3 covered jar $45. Patrons are asked to reserve the items they want to buy by placing their name and telephone num­ ber on the tag. Purchased ware is picked up the day after the show closes. Grouping each potter’s work allows visi­ tors to study particular styles. We urge potters to send work that relates well, but not necessarily sets of ware. Try to display the items at counter level, or slightly lower or higher, so they can be felt or touched. On the evening the show closes, the pots that have been sold are pulled, marked with the buyer’s name and isolated. Then the stored mailing materials are assembled and inventory begun. During pickup day, sales slips are marked with the potter’s name, the item number and the price for the final inventory. Several catalogs and any mounted pho­ tographs/statements from the exhibition are packed with the pots for return. The cartons are sealed with tape and tied with heavy cord. Try to keep shipping weight down to less than 100 pounds (50 per package) so that UPS will deliver the work. Then do the bookkeeping. Send each potter an inventory sheet with a complete breakdown: pots sent, sold, percentage withheld, and total check. When preparing the show for the open­ ing, there is much excitement, but when it closes and the packing begins, the euphoria tends to evaporate. Later, positive feed­ back from the press, exhibitors and others seeking to be included in the next show, Continued March 1981 93 94 Ceramics Monthly News & Retrospect re-establishes your enthusiasm. Before you know it, you will be off again, compiling a new list of qualified potters to bring to the public’s attention. Minnesota Dinnerware Contest Studio potter Charles Hailing, North- field, recently received the first place pur­ chase award for work selected from 45 entries in a juried contest to design dinner- ware for the Minnesota governor’s resi­ dence (in Saint Paul). The winning entry

Charles Hailing and pots by 14 other finalists were exhib­ ited at the governor’s office in Minneapolis through October. The design challenge was to produce dinnerware sturdy enough for heavy use, but not too casual for the 1910 English Tudor mansion. Charles drew from previous experience to produce the place setting shown above. “Usually my customers determine the spe­ cific combination of shapes and colors by choosing from among what I offer,” he explained. “This situation was unique in that I had to offer the perfect choice for a particular setting. I knew the ware had to suit a variety of gatherings and that they didn’t have a lot of different sets of dishes, so I avoided a brightly colored or highly specialized design. “A 6/2-inch-diameter bowl in the set will be used for many purposes—soup, salad, cereal, dessert. The 10^-inch-diam- eter plates were thrown on plaster bats and allowed to dry until they shrank. I do not cut them off with a wire, nor do I trim a foot rim. They must be reasonably flat to fit a dishwasher.” The place setting was thrown with the following clay body: Dark Stoneware Body (Cone 10, reduction) Feldspar ...... 3.7% A.P. Green Fireclay...... , , 55.6 Cedar Heights Redart Clay . . . 18.5 Tennessee Ball Clay...... 18.5 . 3.7 100.0% Dinnerware can take up a lot of space in a kiln if fired on standard shelves, so Charles cuts triangular plate and bowl setters from slabs of the following body: Plate Setter Clay Body (Cone 10) Mullite (100 mesh) ...... 55% Talc ...... 20 Tennessee Ball Clay...... 25 100% Fired to Cone 10, the ½-inch-thick setters Continued March 1981 95 96 Ceramics Monthly recently exhibited by Canadian artist News & Retrospect Annemarie Schmid Esler at Gallery Moos have worked well for two years. Five in Calgary. All cast in a mold taken from dinner plates and five luncheon plates can a plaster crow purchased at a sporting be stacked on a 12- x 24-inch silicon car- goods store, the altered birds were framed with open or partially enclosed ceramic

Plate and setter tile bide shelf in about 10 inches of vertical space. Small triangular kiln posts (1½- 2/2 inches in height) support the setters. “Complicated designs on dinnerware can conflict with the food or with multiple plates, cups and bowls set at a table,” Charles commented. “A simple design, or none at all, is best on place settings; more complicated patterns can be applied on serving dishes. A cup design, balancing the handle and shape, can be seen well from “Bird at Window” across the table.” structures. To achieve a weathered texture, With the wax resist design applied after the framework was made by pressing slats the first glaze coat to produce a two-tone of old wood onto thinly rolled strips of brown and white surface, the governor’s clay. In “Bird at Window,” 41 inches in dinnerware was dipped twice in the fol­ height, the wood texture was accented with lowing glaze: wiped oxides and glazes before firing. Stoney Semimatt Glaze “Freed from rational concepts,” Anne­ (Cone 10, reduction) marie said, “I was not primarily concerned Dolomite ...... 18% with formalist aesthetic values or solutions. Whiting ...... 3 In many cases a piece makes demands . . . Custer Feldspar...... 54 I try to sense these demands very early in Kaolin ...... 25 its conception. Materials are interchange­ 100% able; choices are not always deliberate.” Add: Bentonite ...... 2% Making production pottery for a living Carolyn Sale is like running a small manufacturing Pit fired with various fuels including plant, according to Charles. “It starts with pine needles, tumbleweed, field grasses and raw materials and encompasses every tamarisk or cottonwood leaves, slab- and phase, right through marketing. It’s a coil-built objects by Albuquerque clay art­ little like a ‘ma and pa’ business for us— ist Carolyn Sale were featured in a recent the whole family is involved. exhibition at the Contemporary Craftsman, “I take great pleasure in making non­ functional objects too. Working in both approaches provides a satisfying balance. Some days I’m full of ideas and can’t work fast enough to get them into clay. At other times, I’m glad to have any project that engages me. “I think there is a growing audience for the crafts, along with an increasing inter­ est in nonfunctional pottery. This may make it possible for us to earn a better living. Things are going on now that help broaden people’s acceptance and apprecia­ tion. We need even more understanding of what goes into making pottery.” Text: Barbara Bradley , photo: Peter Fleck, Pit-fired form Santa Fe. Among the ceramic masks and Annemarie Schmid Esler sculpture shown was the envelope-like Whole, halved, bandaged, caged or on form, above, 13 inches in height, slab built stage with show lights, earthenware crows and smoothed, then pit fired in leaves and were featured in mixed media sculpture Continued March 1981 97 News & Retrospect pine needles, and mounted on a metal base. With pit firing “one can actually watch the surface as it changes,” Carolyn ex­ plained. “The individual pieces of fuel make a soft color and subtle pattern as they burn against the surface.” Berta/Kaczmarczyk Rockford, Michigan, clay artists Jerry Berta and Madeline Kaczmarczyk recently presented porcelain objects in “Funky and Functional,” a joint exhibition at Middle Earth Gallery in Ann Arbor. Fea­ tured with Madeline’s colored-clay table­ ware and satin covers was Jerry’s “Fink

“Pink Flamingo Drive-In” Flamingo Drive-In,” above, 18 inches in width, handbuilt, with lusters and decals, illuminated with red neon tubing.

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