Product reviews

It's been a long month, but the holiday weekend gave me three lovely days to spend in the studio. On Saturday I showed a friend how to throw to a gauge, and in return she pulled out her Giffen Grip and told several of us we are free to use it whenever we want. The GG is a special platform that fits on the wheel head and holds whatever piece you need to trim at a steady center. I have only used it twice so far (trimming two large plates) and love it, love it, love it. The process of trimming went much faster without having to fiddle to center and hold the piece on center (sometimes I've used clay chucks that didn't hold their place, meaning I had to stop and recenter). If I were potting on a more professional basis, I'd say this item was well worth the $150+ price tag. As it is, I am very grateful that Dawn is willing to share--I jokingly told her she should charge 10 to 25 cents per item as a rental fee.

About a month ago I began compiling a reference document of profile drawings and photographs of different categories of Byzantine pottery. I was able to stop this tedious task when my copy of "Byzantine To Modern Pottery In The Aegean: An Introduction and Field Guide" by Juanita Vroom arrived. Don't get me wrong, this is not a "if you can buy only one book on Byzantine pottery, buy this one". But for someone concerned with matching vessel shapes to their decorative classification, this is invaluable. For example, because of clay availability I was working on recreating green and brown painted ware. I was able to look this up in Vroom's book, and see on one page a collection of profile illustrations showing the vessel shapes associated with this ware. I've since been able to get ahold of more red clay, so yesterday was throwing cup shapes for slip painted ware, which are noticeably different than the shapes for white ware. This is the volume that will live with me in the studio most of the time.

While Vroom's book will be living in the studio, my greenware is living in my livingroom. Things are starting to pile up, and I should have a full kiln load ready for bisque firing before the Christmas holiday. Unfortunately for me, the studio will be closed for a two week break beginning Dec 22.