Here stand three pots. The first three I ever made.
They are heavy, of an iron-rich and heavily grogged sculpture body. They are thick enough and strong enough to drive a nail.
I didn't have a kiln at that time. My wife Ami and I were living on Mott Street, in New York City. I bought a box of clay, then hand-built these on the kitchen table, constructed around some party balloons which allowed the clay to shrink.
I took them back to the pottery store on LaGuardia Place, and let them do the firing. Amazingly, they offered a service doing gas reduction. I liked the way this iron rich clay turned dark. At that time I wasn't even really sure what reduction was.
I took them back to the pottery store on LaGuardia Place, and let them do the firing. Amazingly, they offered a service doing gas reduction. I liked the way this iron rich clay turned dark. At that time I wasn't even really sure what reduction was.
I waited months for the results.
I think at that moment something in me changed. I found the Bernard Leach book at the New York Public Library. All I could think about was moving out of New York, getting a kiln, and starting to fire.
