Helen Bates on wed 11 oct 06
Hi,
Ellen Currans mentioned that she does allow water to touch her St. Paulia (I
love that name for African Violets.) The one book I read years ago
suggested that the water acts as a lens if the plant is in a bright window
(which is another reason these plants are not supposed to be in a South
window, or maybe even a West window, unless filtering curtains are used on
the panes.
Usually if I have dropped a spot of water on an African Violet leaf, I wick
it up with a piece of tissue. Seems to work.
I also agree with the idea of using a tallish pot. I just replanted one of
mine that had gotten very leggy in a tall flowerpot I'd received as a gift.
Now that it has recovered from the insult, it's doing extremely well! The
way I see it, it makes the pot look quite a lot better than it would have
looked with any other type of plant in it.
Helen
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Helen Bates
Belleville, Ontario, Canada
Clayarters' URLs: http://amsterlaw.com/clayart/
Ellen Currans on wed 11 oct 06
I've had African Violets growing in my studio and house for many many
years. Someone gave me one and I made some cuttings, and once in a
while I repot them in the same pot with new dirt. They seem to thrive
on benign neglect, pottery dust and the right light. Mine love
skylights. I've threatened to throw them out many times but a little
bit of fertilizer brings them back loaded with bloom, and they are just
too cheeerful to get rid of. Mine bloom several times a year.
Over the years I have made several kinds of pots for African Violets to
sell. I made mine to fit on a windowsill, or a narrow rack since that
is where many people keep them. They are taller than wide because as
the violets grow older they tend to grow a stem which needs to be
trimmed from the bottom and reinserted into the pot, and a low pot will
not allow for that. What I made were actually "jackets" for 4 inch or
6 inch plastic pots. I water the plants in the sink, let them drain
and put them back in the ceramic pot, which does not have a drainage
hole, making it ok to put on a table or windowsill. I know you are not
supposed to get the leaves wet, but I actually hold mine under the
spray to get the clay dust off.
I think your idea of a double pot is a good one, although it doesn't
seem to have been necessary in my case. I wonder if you can charge
enough for them to make it worthwhile. My experience is that people
will not pay as much for a plant container as they will for a similar
sized pot to hold food or just sit on the coffee table. There are
just too many cheap flower pots out there for them to buy, and they
usually want more than one. Over the years I have abandoned many
(what I thought) were clever pot ideas, just because they turned out to
be too time consuming for the price the public was willing to pay. I
am, of course, speaking as a functional potter making my living from
selling my work.
I always felt like the glaze should complement the flowers in some way,
so I glazed mine in several greens (which go with the leaves) and in
shades of blue or white to not conflict with the blooms. One glaze that
sold very well was white with cobalt blue sponged on top, which fit in
well in all the early American kitchens. At Cone 6 there are some
lovely colors in the mauve, pink, lavender range, etc. that I didn't
have at cone 10. It is just my opinion, but your glaze colors and
decoration do not say "African Violets!" to me. A true African Violet
lover (probably an older woman) will want the flowers to be the stars
of the show - not the pots. I realize that you are still fairly new
to selling, and are still working out your design and glazing. I would
suggest that you might want to experiment with some other glazes colors
just to see what sells best.
It has been my experience that most any new design or form I decide to
make requires a bit of tweaking or change before it really works.
Sometimes you just have to put them out there and see what happens. I
have to force myself to "bracket" sizes when I begin to throw, since I
always forget the 12 % shrinkage and throw to the size that looks
right. Glaze colors go in and out of fashiion also, which doesn't
matter much on ceramic art, but does matter a great deal on functional
ware.
Hope this helps and doesn't hurt.
Ellen Currans
Dundee, Oregon
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