David Hendley on thu 9 jun 05
While weeding in the garden today, I found a piece of an old stoneware
crock. I use the same garden spot that has been used as such since the
1930's, when the old farmhouse was built. For some reason, the previous
owners liked to discard their broken glass and pottery in the garden.
Every time I plow or hoe, I find a piece, mostly glass. I have a quart jar
filled with interesting old weathered and worn glass.
Anyway, the stoneware piece had a white glaze on the outside and an
Albany slip-looking brown glaze on the inside. There are 3 sharp
pinholes in the black glaze, over about 1 inch by 1 1/2 inches. It made
me smile to imagine that potter eighty or a hundred years ago struggling
with the same problems we struggle with today.
While growing up, I lived in only one house, a 2 bedroom ranch in
North Dallas, built at the end of World War II. For 20 years I spent
countless hours in the bathroom of that house.
It wasn't until I took my first pottery class in college that I realized
that
every single tile in the bathroom was a second. Every one had some
slight imperfection. My parents never knew it, and in fact they were
not pleased when I pointed it out (It didn't help that at age 20 I knew
much more about everything than they did).
I liked knowing about tiles, and I liked doing something (clay work)
that had history behind it.
The house was demolished in 2002. It was a fine house that had been
updated, enlarged, and well-maintained, but the real estate had
become too valuable for such a pedestrian house. The whole block is
now crammed full of new "North Dallas McMansions".
I'll bet there are no second-grade tiles.
We ate our first homegrown tomatoes of the season today. As Guy
Clark says, "There's only two things that money can't buy......"
David Hendley
I don't know nothin' but the blues, cobalt that is.
david@farmpots.com
http://www.farmpots.com
| |
|
