Janet Kaiser on tue 5 feb 02
Well all do it. Yet non-potters do not, unless they are collectors or
connoisseurs or Antique Roadshow viewers and somehow educated to do it
too... Why? It usually starts early in our potting careers... We watch
other "real potters" and our teachers do it and so it is an acquired
behaviour. It is quickly reinforced however, because even if we do not
know WHY we are looking at the bottom, it is one of the few things one
can DO with someone else's pot and still look intelligent.
We have also found we are quite happy and relaxed about handling a pot
intimately. Most non-potters are unhappy physically fondling ceramic
vessels, whilst they hold them in their hands. OK if they are static
and they can run a hand over them, but not holding... Give them a pot
to hold and they look for the nearest surface to put it down safely!
Years of not being allowed to even touch the best china teacups in
Grandma's vitrine or go near that Meissen statuette will out. It is a
danger zone. Also learned behaviour which potters have to un-learn
early on.
We have to feel happy holding a pot first. Then we turn it all ways
and look at the bottom, which is the only hidden part until we do...
And then we learn how to run a finger around the rim and over the
bottom... Do a tongue test... Look at the seal or signature... Weigh
it in our hand/s... Turn it around... Decide how the glaze was applied
and wiped off... The type of decoration method used... All the things
one does... Even through to that most pretentious act of all: holding
the foot with finger tips and pinging the bowl held up with great
panache at eye level!
Because pots become part of our everyday life and we are always
re-evaluating our own bottoms (getting somewhat clennellesque here),
we then think we are looking for evidence of fine CRAFTSMANSHIP (oh...
don't start me on that again) in other people's work... Maybe we are
now, but we did not start out that way... I know I have said this
before, but it was like looking a girl doll's knickers under the skirt
to start with... We just do not remember that.
The Chapel of Art / Capel Celfyddyd
Home of The International Potters' Path
8 Marine Crescent : Criccieth : GB-Wales
URL: http://www.the-coa.org.uk
postbox@the-coa.org.uk
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