Throwing Challenge
Monday evening (May 5th) I got to go to the Goshen pottery guild and hang out with some of the local clay guys. A few of them wanted to get together and share ideas and talk pots. It was based on the Thursday evening throwing challenge from years ago at the Dick Lehman studio. There were about 10 guys at the guild for the first meeting. We decided to work on planters since the weather was starting to get nice. I threw one with about 4 or 5 lbs. of clay to start with for the first 15 minutes. Bigger than what I normally would. I added a few marks with my rib. Then we took a little time to walk around and see some what the other guys had made.
The Crew, critiquing
Troy Bungart made a huge planter and added some texture. Todd Pletcher made about 3 planters with his standard cut/wavy rims.
Planters by Todd Pletcher
Moey Hart made a short, wide planter then cut and altered the walls. There were a lot of other cool pots around the room.
Planters by Fred Driver
Justin Rothshank and Marvin Bartel both had stretched their planters into more of an oval or rectangle.
Planters by Justin Rothshank
Planters
I used that idea for my next pot. It was smaller but I altered it quite a bit with my fingers.
My view from the corner
Marvin stole the show by the end though. For his second pot he threw a tall, enclosed pot then turned it on its side, cut it down the middle and pulled the sides apart like a taco.
Marvin Bartel, creative genius
It was good to see all the guys and talk to them a little bit. It was awesome to see so many different ideas for a simple form. I’ll have a lot of inspiration to use for my own work.
The June meeting was cancelled because so many people were gone or sick. And I have just returned from the July meeting to add the finishing touches to this post. Maybe I’ll do a little write-up from tonight. At the very least, I’ll probably post a couple photos to social media. So go follow me…