Empty Bowls at Moshier
We attended the Empty Bowls dinner event at Moshier Park Community Art Center in Burien this evening to celebrate Orcmid’s birthday, and there were hundreds of people there to make donations and get ceramic bowls full of good (truly) soup with bread and cookies. Mom and a few of her coffee friends were there too.
Dennis and I were so busy geeking out that I forgot to get a picture of Vicki throwing bowls. (Do I have that jargon right?)
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 26th, 2008 at 12:43 am. You can subscribe to comments on this post through its RSS feed.
on January 26, 2008 at 7:52 am Dave Fourputt wrote:
Throwing bowls?
I can only imagine what it would be like going to a bar with you (more stuff to throw there).
on January 26, 2008 at 11:30 am Doug wrote:
I swear, Dave, they call it throwing. Perhaps Dennis can tell us where that word comes from, being married to an expert in such matters.
on January 26, 2008 at 12:08 pm orcmid wrote:
Yes, they talk about throwing pots and have great expressions like “throwing off the hump,” and so on. I did get pix of Vicki throwing and I’ll get some up this weekend.
The YouTube video is a very complete depiction. Notice that the throwing around of the clay (which comes in bricks, not shown) at the beginning is called wedging. Whether the clay is thrown or pulled is a matter of language, but if you consider that the rotation of the wheel is a factor, maybe it is more like guiding and coaxing the clay.
Also, the black and white video of Shoji Hamada (which will make Vicki cry) finishing one piece, cutting it off the top of the mountain of clay, and then starting another, is what is meant by throwing off the hump. His wheel is turned by hand (or foot but I don’t think that is a kick wheel). Notice the use of a broom or brush at one point. Also, the potter in the first video (and Vicki) uses a batt, a flat piece placed on the wheel, and removes the batt and sets it aside with the piece on it so it will dry and separate automatically. The next piece is started by placing a clean batt on the wheel. Hamada just had the wheel, I think.
(Now, batt is from an old form of “to hit” so maybe the throwing of the ball of clay down on the center of the batt is what it is about.)
When they had the new wheels installation at Moshier, one of the contests was to see who could throw the most pots off of a hump of clay in a fixed time. (See, I even have the lingo because a potter sleeps next to me and I have no idea what I am talking about!)