Cary Tennis

I just found an old issue of the Sun from back in January. It is a great literary publication. In it I stumbled upon and advice column by a man named Cary Tennis. He writes this column "Since You Asked" for salon.com and recently published a collection of these in a book which is available on his website. I was blown away by his sincerity and clear insight into problems both great and small that we as humans encounter every day. Some of the questions are incredibly serious and sad and contain all the greatest grief and anger that a person can feel and some are lighthearted and silly, like what to do about the guy at work who leaves politically conservative literature in the bathroom stall. This is a link to a video of him reading a piece at a workshop in San Fransisco. I think that it speaks to art makers as a whole and not just to writers. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Rundlets

It's Friday again. The weeks are moving so fast now. I only have about 3 more weeks of making pots left and then I will push myself unceremoniously out of the nest. Its pretty great. This past week I made a few of what Joseph calls my "Turban Jars". They are just a hard shouldered jar with a few little lugs. They do have a wonderful flat surface for decorating. The other new form I made which this week were Rundlets (or runlet defending on who you ask). These are a relatively easy throw but so much different than any other pots we make. An interesting tidbit: a rundlet was an old English unit of measurement. They were a specific sized wine cask that held about 68.1913782 Liters. These rundlets, although they don't hold nary as much wine, were made in much the same way as the the big ill-fated ball jar I made at Matt's a little over a year ago. I started the slip trailing on the size up from these and managed to ruin a few pots before I settled on this design. That is often how it goes with new shapes and patterns. It takes a few tries before something fills the space in a way that is actually pleasing to look at.

Tomorrow I am off to the mountains to do some house work. Hope every one has a great weekend!