06 August 2008

Influence and Tradition

Michael Cardew attributed his influences to medieval pottery and 17th century slipware. These photos and drawings are classic examples of the curves and transitions of medieval pots. Michael brought those ideas to Winchcombe...Ray Finch once told me that he felt that his life's work was about refining those ideas. I like to flatter myself by believing that my own work is part of the evolution of that tradition.



5 comments:

klineola said...

Nice images. I love the cross sectional shots. In the bottom image, the flared toped pots have a curious foot. It looks to me as if the bottoms of the pots are conical. Do you know if they were pinched that way when making the foot? Seems like a lot of effort, no? Were they added on? Thanks Dan.

Debbie Williamson said...

Influence and tradition evolving by your efforts ... thank you for what you do, Dan! And thanks for the window to the past - beautiful forms.

Dan Finnegan said...

Michael, I've long been intrigued by those pinched, rolled feet, but I've never had any success making my own version...I know that last time we met you had tried a few. I think that the shape under the foot has been turned, which surprises me. It seems like a lot of work for pots that must have been made by the millions!

Dan Finnegan said...

The more I look at the line drawings, the more I'm doubting my last remarks. The different shadings seem to indicate the thrown pot(the conical shape) as a separate element from the pinched foot? That seems like even more work!

Andrew Coombs said...

I've heard that the feet were added because the clay tended to be short -- lots of cracking in flat thrown bottoms. In Germany especially there is a lack of naturally occurring fluxes. I think the added feet were a solution to working with short clay -- those guys were way into local materials.