Pottery 2000-2009 (pre-blog)

I have been shy to post recently. I have applied for an administrative job at UBC and thought that it might hurt my chances if they knew how many real life distractions I have. I also had a bad experience with a post about the divorce (since removed) that my ex-wife objected to, although she had never read my blog while we were married. This current topic seemed safe on both counts, so I thought I would pick up the habit of blogging again with it.

I am slowly digitizing the family pictures, so that my ex-wife and I can share them post-divorce. I recently found a stack with pictures of pottery I made in the early days. I don't think I have really improved since this time, in fact these designs seem more innovative than what I am working on now. Luckily, I have my day job to pay the bills.

Below is an assortment from 2000 including a tea set and a water fountain in the shape of a duck. The salt shaker on the far left of the upper row of pictures was still in use at house when I left.

  

From 2001 and 2002, some candle holders and some small bowls where you can see I am experimenting with feet. The first picture below is one of the very few wheel thrown pieces I have made. I sent this one to my father and his wife in Kamloops, but the lid broke in transport. 

2004 seems like a it was a productive year. I kept the two below for a number of years. The three after that got given away. The "Sergeant Theta" bowl was a wedding gift to Peter Berg, a former PDF in the fuel cell modelling group I led. I am not sure what happened to the others. 

I only found one picture from 2005. There were years when it was difficult to organize free nights around work and family activities for the class at Britannia where I did pottery. This must have been one of them. The triangular form was made of three slabs the same shape attached together. I am interested in this kind of design now, and realized I could use my computational math skills to simulate the shapes generated from different templates and then use the tool to get the shapes I want. Mathematics meets Pottery! 

More pieces came from 2006. The one on the left was a present for my ex-wife and came with flowers in it. My daughter worked as a teenager for a flower store on Commercial Drive called the FlowerBox (which I recommend). The owner still recognizes me and I have taken my own vases in many times to have arrangements made that suit them. I kept the bud vase and salt shaker on the right for many years. Below that you can see some accents with the commercial red glaze I bought for the Britannia studio. There is the very large bowl with three feet that I thought was almost brilliant but slipped into the grotesque. 

    

    

From 2007, more red glaze and you can see I started moving into my default of pinch bowls and cups. It is what I do now when I don't have a plan when I go to the studio.

 

From 2007 there are a few pictures of other hobbies: candle making (which did not work for me) and embroidery. That is my own embroidery design for iris flowers. 

  

From 2008 and 2009,  pieces include a few things I made using purchased clay, underglaze and clear glaze. I really like the covered bowl in the upper picture. I am not sure what happened to that. 

 

There is still a gap between these pictures and 2012, when I first blogged pottery pictures "live". I will put them in another post when I find them as I sort through the old pictures, if they are interesting enough or at least have some potential for interesting commentary. Well, interesting by the standards of my blog...