Handbuilding for the Garden
The real star that was born of this new technique, this study of coil building and its infinite possibilities, was the Garden Galo, or a Garden Rooster if you don’t speak Portuguese.
These last few weeks I took a handbuilding class at the Denver Clayroom. It was a garden-themed handbuilding class, and even though I have been doing this for 3 years I really wanted to learn something new, and if you can't already tell I love plants. Our very first class we started with a pinch pot, this is where almost all handbuilding classes start. It felt so nice to get back to the fundamentals of handbuilding that I ended up making a little frilly-rimmed pot I adore. With it's matching plate she is now home to a new orchid I just got from Fantasy Orchids this Mother's Day weekend! But anyways, I digress.
What really stood out to me about this class, was how I had never really delved into coil building before. Previous instruction was frustrating and I felt I either didn't like the style, or if I tried my pieces would end up fragile or be ridden with lumps and holes, unbeknownst to me I could fix all that.
First, Tess, our teacher, showed us how to use an extruder, while it is still a tool that confuses me for some reason, boy is it a much easier way to make coils than hand rolling coils. This tool was a game changer. I had meant to make a pitcher of some sort, but I ended up making a funky planter. It was inspired by another planter I had made in the past but building this one was fun and eye-opening. I ended up glazing it with a bunch of iridescent glazes and it’s now home to a yellow orchid my husband Matthew got for me recently!
The real star that was born of this new technique, this study of coil building and its infinite possibilities, was the Garden Galo, or a Garden Rooster if you don’t speak Portuguese. Originally I was building a mini pot, but as I watched Tess build a beautiful pitcher she had bent and shaped her coils into an unfinished piece and it reminded me of a chicken. I thought to myself, I could do that but make a rooster, reminiscent of the Galo de Barcelos, the rooster that can be found almost anywhere in Portugal, the rooster that you can find speckled around my home.
Building it, I honestly felt a little silly, I am unsure why. It was cartoonish, and I am not sure what I had in my mind about how I wanted to make it. As I built it though, hollow inside, with its crown and tail thinly shaped, I thought yes it's silly but I need to let myself be silly from time to time! I added legs and proclaimed to anyone who asked that it was tired. Probably a reflection of me, always tired, always wanting to put my legs up and rest. Once it was finally bisqued fired I wanted to choose a glaze that would make it stand out, I wanted it to be a brown rooster, that felt more garden-esque to me, not sure why. So I chose to color its body with tenmoku, a very famous rich brown glaze, almost every potter knows of this glaze. I finished its crown and tail off with a glaze at the studio called sunset orange and its legs a butterscotch yellow, and voila I now am the proud creator of the Garden Galo. Maybe I'll make some more. Maybe I'll let it be one of a kind. But for now I am in awe of its silly nature, how perfect the glazes came out, how its personality shines. And one day I hope to have a garden I can let it live in, but for now it will sit on my shelf, where the sun can let it shine in its own way and remind me that creativity can be fun and not always functional.
ps. I've linked all the pieces I made in this class above :)
