mel jacobson on fri 23 feb 07
two years ago i re/met the student that had
made the pot that i featured in the behrens` tribute
article. i thought it was fitting to use a student pot as
the glaze was the one i used at hopkins high, that behrens
discovered and shared with us.
the pot was a 60/40 base of gertsley and volcanic ash. cone3.
the student had added a bit of rutile and wrapped his pot
in fine copper wire.
of course, the pot has a perfect spiral of green around the
entire pot...from top to bottom.
very sensitive design and very inventive.
when i saw him, it all came together...`steve, you made
the copper wire pot...it is in ceramics monthly.`
`what, my work in cm...wowow`.
he had traded the pot to me for one i made for him.
i had saved it and photographed it...and then used
it for the cm article. (i had a box full of traded work from students
that had very interesting affects from that glaze.)
we have become friends again and he comes to all of my shows.
he is an electrical engineer(now 51 years old), and has become an expert in
laptop
computer screens. he travels the world. wonderful young man.
of course, i gave him his green spiral pot back. his wife just glowed.
he has the magazine...and shows it to friends.
one never knows what may happen when you do the right thing.
mel
and yes dear lily...we do need to remind folks of where our
heritage comes from. and behrens was a wonderful man..however,
he did not come from the `academic` side of pots, so very few ever
gave him credit for his work.. he was a paper and pencil guy. he just
loved what he did. and made many of us approach glaze from a new direction.
it gave us hope. we were just artists/potters trying to make good stuff.
our chemistry backgrounds we sort of on hold from ninth grade.
i was so pleased for tom buck when he got the green light from ruth butler.
no one else gave a damn, and he so wanted to honor richard behrens.
and, he got to do it.
from: mel/minnetonka.mn.usa
website: http://www.visi.com/~melpots/
Clayart page link: http://www.visi.com/~melpots/clayart.html
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