Antique Crockery and Railroad Pottery

One of my interests besides making art is looking at and collecting old crockery. Over the years with help of family, friends, and fortune, I have assembled an interesting collection of pots. Some are crude and it's obvious that the craftsperson that created them may have been unskilled. There is a certain beauty to many of these pots despite blemishes, and unrefined surfaces. None of the pots have signatures or dates, so their origin is somewhat mysterious. However, through research I have discovered some interesting facts about these items.

One type of crockery that I collect are also known as "railroad pottery" Railroad pottery it turns out are actually old stoneware pots made in China and sent to the west for Chinese railroad labor. The Chinese built much of the US railroad systems especially in the Western states. The laborers were exploited as cheap labor but the railroads supplied them with goods familiar to them back at home. Many of these pots were used to store dried vegetables, various medicinals, and liquified soy. The pot above left is a Soya pot. I recently acquired it from a thrift store nearby. It is estimated to be from 1855- 1890. It is thrown in two parts and assembled. The glaze appears to be an iron based (tenmouku style) glaze. There are finger marks around the base, where it was dipped. I'm guessing it was wood fired.

The two pots pictured below are also of similar origin. These are known as food storage containers or "turnip jars". These are from about 1875- 1890. The one on the right was in fact dug up from an old railroad site near Pasco, Washington by my father back in the early 1970's. The one on the left was found at a flea in Monroe, WA three years ago. Note the similarity in glaze, clay body, and style. These were wheel thrown and then coil built on a pottery wheel. The inside is mostly unglazed, perhaps because they contained a dried commodity.

Another food storage jar that I have also comes from Pasco, WA (shown below,right). I purchased it at a yard sale. I am unsure of it's age, though it appears rather old. I am guessing it was a bean pot of sorts. The inside has a low-fire tan glaze and the outside is unglazed except for some light coloring on the clay body from a flame. It appears to be made of some sort of Terra Cotta. It somewhat resembles pots of Mexican origin and considering the population of migrant workers of Latino background in the region, that could be the case.

Some of the crockery I collect comes from the U.S. I have a fascination for the old stoneware potteries of the Ohio and Illinois river valleys from the 1850's to 1910's. The pottery from there is of high production and quality craftsmanship. Usually these works were assembled in factories using teams of workers for various purposes. For example: a pot may be thrown by one person, assembled by another, fired by another, and glazed by someone else. These factories supplied much of the pioneers of the west with their dishes, storage jars and so forth. It is rare to come across pieces from this era. Below left is an example of a bean pot from that era. It comes from Peoria Pottery, that operated until 1904.

Another part of my collection are 2 large salt fired stoneware containers. These were used to store various goods both dried and wet and may have been re-used by the owner for many purposes. The one pictured below left is a storage container by Western Stoneware Company. It has a wooden lid and handle. It was given to me by artist Eric Nelsen of Vashon Island. Eric says that he found it in Seattle's Chinatown back in the 1970's in an abandoned warehouse space. The paper seal on the lid was unbroken when he found it and it had Chinese script written on it. Not knowing Chinese, but being curious led to opening the jar and to his surprise were a dozen shriveled hands inside completely dried. The hands even had fingernails and were devoid of smell. It was later surmised that these were monkey hands that had been used for medicinal purposes. Eric gave me the jar, because I mentioned that I liked antique crockery. The crock arrived sans monkey hands.

New works finished

Here are the sculptures I recently finished. They were built by coiling and pinching techniques made from low-fire earthenware clay. I decorated them with under glazes and stains. Pegasusunicorn giraffe detail.
Pegasusunicorn giraffe or pegiracorn.
Hippocats

Today in Kirkland I taught two great classes. This is not to brag. In fact , the only reason the classes were so much fun was because of the people in them.

At 4 till 6:30 PM is my Wheel World class. In this class we just explore clay. The ages generally range from 9 to 16. Of course, the focus is the wheel, but overall I am most intrigued by getting my students to understand the nature of clay as a way to learn about themselves and what they really want to know about this world. This might sound really wild --and it is! That is because a piece of clay has infinite possibilities and if we are able to strive for certain possibilities within the clay then we may use that as a metaphor for shaping our own lives. Lives with infinite possibilities shaped by the mind that controls the hands. So today's class was great. A pair of best friends returned to make Fairy houses and mushroom pads, 3 girls learned how to center their first pots on their own , and a boy of 10 learned the difficulty of working on the wheel and eventually found the sculptural tools, particularly the slab roller , a little more satisfying.

From 7 to 10 is my clay 101 class. It is an adult class, though in this session I have 5 people who are under 20. So today we explored the sculptural techniques of pinching and coiling. For the pinch projects I started off with a simple pinch pot, and talked about the importance of a foot. I added textures using various fabrics and stamps. I put on a handle and since I accidentallypoked a hole in the bottom of my cup, I showed them all how to repair a tear by patching the bottom. Then I carved my initials in the bottom and set it aside. From there I talked about all the possibilities of hollow pinch pots. Especially, how easy it is to make an owl or a hollow head shape for a person or animal. After that I talked about the two part- pinch pot and I put them together to make a whale. We explored pinch pots a little more and then moved on to coils. We used the SUPERDUPERCLAYEXTRUDER to make coils and then I showed them how they could make coil pots. I made a big clay skull that kind of looks like a mummy as an example, just for fun.

During the class we talked about all kinds of things. We talked about science, water, history, supernatural beings, and more. We did not talk politics. About half of the students were returning, and a few were new. Some were exploring clay for the first time. It was really fun for me to share my knowledge of clay with them with the hopes that they will continue to work in this medium and be inspired to create whatever their heart desires. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures....maybe next time around.

The class was a great mix --like clay. We'll see what happens....

sculpture supplies from the sky....

This was the last large owl I did. I used wax carving tools for detailed lines
My front yard looks like a sculpture garden....and so does the back.
I used found objects to accent the eyes and beaks.
This is a nest.....I rolled snowballs in a spiral to get this effect.
This is my self portrait. On the opposite shoulder sits a small owl. My portrait uses river stones as eyes. I made these sculptures in my yard in South Seattle. Snow is such a direct sculpture medium, you don't even have to fire it!! Of course it is only temporary, but everything is......in time.

Larger sculptures coming soon

One of the great things about teaching is that I often get some time off in between classes to make more art. In the last couple of weeks I have made several new sculptures of larger proportion that I hope to show soon. I made two very large pegasusunicorngiraffes that I plan on putting at SEATAC airport during the NCECA conference. I also made another large unicorn skull and a giant hippopotamus with cats all over it. I call the the hippo sculpture Hippocats as a pun on hypocrites.....and also since hippos usually have catbirds on their backs. I just fired them yesterday and so far-- so good.

I also recently inherited several large blocks of stone, some slabs of old growth walnut wood, and a few boxes of clay. These are great sculpture materials that I will be using this summer to carve and sculpt. Special thanks to Richard James who just moved to China after clearing out his sculpture studio space in West Seattle.

Picture coming soon.....

10,000 owls

I am so excited about art right now I have decided to make 10,000 owls. It will take me all year. I am also going to make a bunch of other stuff of course.....and NCECA is coming up soon.

I am curating a show at Fancy called Cascadia Now!! That I hope will be successful. It is in March for NCECA. It is a group show with a theme of regional independence in a future society. I'm leaving it up to the artists to interpret it however they want. There have been books written on Cascadia, and there is even a description in Wikipedia. So the idea is certainly not new. My idea was that when the US started off, there were only around 3 million citizens or so, and the state of Washington alone has 8 mil. There are lots of countries with smaller populations and since we share common politics, environment, and culture with our southern and northern neighbors it is only reasonable tat some day this region could become a nation.

Can Can

I've got a new show up at Fancy. Can Can is the latest installment of my beer can collection. Each can has a unique design painted in underglaze colors. Some of the cans are overglazed with gold lusters. I ended up making over 130 cans for the show. It is up till the first week of December.