[Clayart] Handmade discussion

[Snail Scott]

> On Aug 7, 2022, at 3:22 PM, RICHARD MAHAFFEY <rickmahaffey at comcast.net> wrote:
> Why not be honest and make a cup that takes advantages of the process of slip casting to make something that does not mimic a thrown piece.


I have a small kitchen collection of bowls and cups, each by a different maker…mostly. I have multiple items from just a few makers, including Paul Eschelman. Paul does slip casting only….no hand-formed add-ons or alteration, or evident marks of the hand. Clean, crisp modernist design with smooth, opaque monochrome glazes, contrasting with the red earthenware body. Like all the best design, the form and surfaces mesh perfectly with the properties of the process that made them, having a quality of seeming inevitability. Making them on a wheel, or by slab-forming, would be absurd and inappropriate. And they may be mold-formed, but doing so this well  is not possible without handwork or skill. It’s not the handwork that makes them excellent, though. It’s the excellence that makes them excellent, and they can sit next to Tony Clennell’s loppy, gestural, finger-marked, goopy-glazed and fire-kissed mugs with no apologies. 

-Snail