2 Ceramics Monthly Ceramics Monthly Volume 30, Number 5 May 1982 Features A Conversation with Ray Finch by Kathleen Wilson Mechali .................................. 30 Danish Ceramic Design............................................... 36 Glen Lukens by Elaine Levin...................................... 40 Walter Dexter by Christine Wardenburg.... 45 The Martin Brothers by Jim Te Krony........................ 50 American Earthenware ............................................... 58 Decorative Abstractions ............................................. 60 Jepson Exhibition by Tom Shafer ............................... 62 Albany Slip Clay in Oxidation Firing by Richard Zakin .................................................... 65 Departments Letters to the Editor .................................................... 7 Where to Show ............................................................ 15 Answers to Questions ................................................. 21 Itinerary...................................................................... 23 Suggestions ................................................................. 27 Comment: Image versus Object by Lucy Breslin...................................................... 29 News & Retrospect ..................................................... 74 New Books ................................................................. 95 Index to Advertisers ................................................... 96 Cover Salt-glazed stoneware “Wallybird” covered jar, 25 inches in height, by Robert Wallace Martin, London, 1882. Wallace and his three brothers produced decorative one-of-a-kind objects in an era when most potters’ ware was either strictly utilitarian or oriented toward mass production. Besides Victorian trends of the day, much of the Martin brothers’ inspiration derived from Gothic revival fantasies and Dickens novels: the Wally- birds became most renowned of their work. Did the funk movement really begin in turn-of-the- century England? To learn more about these salt- glaze potters, turn to Jim Te Krony’s article beginning on page 50. May 1982 3 4 Ceramics Monthly Ceramics Monthly Magazine William C. Hunt................................ Editor Barbara Tipton ................... Associate Editor Robert L. Creager .....................Art Director Ruth C. Butler........................... Copy Editor Mary Rushley............ Circulation Manager Connie Belcher ..........Advertising Manager Spencer L. Davis ...........................Publisher Editorial, Advertising and Circulation Offices 1609 Northwest Boulevard, Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212 (614) 488-8236 West Coast Advertising Representative: Joseph Mervish Associates, 12512 Chandler Boulevard, No. 202, North Hollywood, California 91607 (213) 877-7556 Ceramics Monthly (ISSN 009-0328) is published monthly except July and August by Professional Pub­ lications, Inc. — S.L. Davis, Pres.; P.S. Emery, Sec.: 1609 Northwest Blvd., Columbus, Ohio 43212. Subscription Rates: One year $14, two years $26, three years $35. Add $3 per year for subscriptions outside the U.S.A. Change of Address:Please give us four weeks ad­ vance notice. Send both the magazine wrapper label and your new address to Ceramics Monthly, Circulation Office, Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212. Contributors:Manuscripts, photographs, color sepa­ rations, color transparencies (including 35mm slides), graphic illustrations and news releases dealing with ceramic art are welcome and will be considered for publication. A booklet describing procedures for the preparation and submission of a manuscript is avail­ able upon request. Send manuscripts and correspon­ dence about them to The Editor, Ceramics Monthly, Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212. Indexing:Articles in each issue of Ceramics Monthly are indexed in Art Index. A 20-year subject index (1953-1972) covering Ceramics Monthly feature arti­ cles, Suggestions and Questions columns is available for $1.50, postpaid from the Ceramics Monthly Book Department, Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212. Additionally, each year’s articles are indexed in the December issue. Copies and Reprints: Microfiche, 16mm and 35mm microfilm copies, and xerographic reprints are avail­ able to subscribers from University Microfilms, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. Copies in microfiche are also available from Bell & Howell, Mi­ cro Photo Division, Old Mansfield Road, Wooster, Ohio 44691. Back Issues: Back issues, when available, are $3.00 each, postpaid. Write for a list. Postmaster:Please send address changes to Ceramics Monthly, Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212. Copyright © 1982 Professional Publications, Inc. All rights reserved May 1982 5 Letters More on Apprenticeships then stop to do hand exercises using the I agree with and applaud P. Johns’s opposite muscles to those used in throw­ letter in the March issue that CM ad­ ing. Such simple measures conceivably dress the matter of apprenticeship. Youth prevent months, even years of discomfort. unemployment and the cost of education Joyce Sebert are racing each other toward appalling San Jose, Calif. altitudes. While the propriety of the gov­ ernment’s apparent disinclination to invest I am sorry that the reader with carpal in education can be argued either way, tunnel syndrome missed my letter in the the fact remains that the federal help April 1980 issue. Persistent pain, sensory young people once had can no longer be changes, inflammation, stiffness and loss counted on. So I think it incumbent on of strength are not normal at any age. In potters—all craftspersons, for that matter fact, they may indicate a serious joint or —who have managed to establish them­ neurological problem. The joints of the selves, however precariously, in this strange hand and wrist are small and not meant profession, to dowhat they can to ease to take heavy resistance. Potters who want the growing pains of young people who to prolong their careers would do well to are trying to find the handle on the clay. remember a few common-sense rules: More than that, I am dismayed at the Avoid overwork. Alternate work and rest, possibility that I myself have become a light and heavy tasks. Use tools to reduce potter whose knowledge, lean and spotty physical effort, especially when tackling a though it may be, is inaccessible to some large project. If it hurts, rest. Know your young person simply because we have no limits and stop when you reach them. common form in which to communicate. Rest, warmth and aspirin are the best James Dunn remedies for occasional pain. See a doctor Belews Creek, N.C. if discomfort lasts more than a few days. And while you are taking care of your Carpal Tunnel Syndrome hands, don’t neglect your skin. Chapped, In response to the letter about carpal cracked hands are not only uncomfortable, tunnel syndrome in the February issue, I they are more susceptible to infection. Try hope to offer a safer and more conserva­ an industrial skin cream with paraffin to tive approach. I have worked with many protect your hands when throwing. If your patients both before and after surgery of hands are already chapped, wear surgical the wrist with the diagnosis of carpal gloves until they improve. Use a moisturiz­ tunnel syndrome. This problem can be the ing agent on your skin after washing up. result of nerve pressure in the wrist or You can also use lotion instead of water the neck. Through manipulation of the to clean your hands. Finally, to toughen wrist or chiropractic adjustments of the up your hands for working with groggy neck, this pressure can be eliminated and clay, wipe your palms with rubbing alco­ surgery avoided. If this natural approach hol several times a day. fails you always have the surgery as a last Laura Fidel, O.T.R. resort. Unionville, Ohio Louis H. Vastola Manchester Family Chiropractic Center February Cover Manchester, Vt. As the wife of a potter and having worked with him for the past 14 years, I Having been awakened several times have gained enough knowledge to appre­ nightly with my right arm asleep, I con­ ciate the beauty of the colors of the pot sulted a hand specialist. His solution was on the February cover. However, having cheap and highly successful. He recom­ recently gone back to my original profes­ mended that I sleep with a “Futuro” sion of nursing, I could not help but make brand wrist brace (intended for sprained a curious comparison. The photograph of wrists). It has Velcro straps and a metal that isolated “organic” pot appeared re­ plate that extends into the middle of my markably like a rotten organ recently hand. The condition is dramatically im­ removed from someone’s poor body. proved. I sometimes wonder if the attempts to Bettie Ann Everet take warm, earthy pottery and present it Baltimore Md. as esoteric art doesn’t do it an injustice. How much more beautiful that pot would Ironically the letter to the editor re­ have appeared with some other texture garding carpal tunnel syndrome appeared around it to give it reality. too late for me. Six weeks previously I I must add, though, the other photo­ had been operated on for the same con­ graphs by Glenn Rand were very pleasing dition and I, too, have lost strength in my and his article most interesting. thumb, as well as months of potting. I Nancy Knudstrup would like to see an article by a physical Elora, Ont. therapist that would advise potters how to minimize strain on their hands. It is not Next: Clay on Wheels only flection of the wrist but extension After noticing an article in the March that contributes