Earlier this month I participated in the Hamilton Potters’ Guild November sale. This is a long running sale with great marketing that attracts a lot of traffic. Photos below are from the Hamilton Guild’s Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/hamiltonpotters/?ref=br_tf

I have done guild or festival sales before but this was the first time at this venue. My goal with this sale was to get some exposure and to improve my display and create a more that attractive and cohesive look. My prior sales consisted of a whole range of work with conflicting esthetics. Some things were low fired and others were atmospherically fired. Some are functional others were sculptural.  The display resulted in a hodgepodge collection of this and that. The photo on the left is a spring sale I did earlier this year at another venue. The photo on the right is of my display at the Hamilton sale this month.

It still needs some work but I tried to limit the the kinds of work I do for the Hamilton sale to three kinds. I think two would be better and for the next one I will do the plates and the red vessels. The red vessels were my best selling item and I think it was due to the colour. There weren’t many other vendors selling bright colours like that even though people were shopping for Christmas stuff. Bellow are some tables of other vendors that participated in the sale that seemed to me to have a nice cohesive look. On the left is Greg Voisin;  https://www.facebook.com/Greg-Voisin-Pottery-107709119385305/ and on the right is Duncan Aired; https://www.airdpottery.com/

Must put my newly acquired furniture building skills to work and build a couple of shelving units together as well.

I thought for this post I would share some of my results from the WIP entry.

Well I finally got around to firing the amphorae. Most of them were bisqued, covered in a combination of glaze and or slip and atmospherically fired in a soda kiln.

A few others were bisque, glazed, fired in an electric kiln to mid-range temperatures, and then finally put through a third firing to attach the word or barcode decals.

You can see some of the amphorae all together below.

I have been thinking on how to group and display these things together. For me, my work only works well in multiples. I need groups. When you display objects together you have to consider the dialectic that pieces have with not only the viewer but among themselves as well. This, I need to work on. One artist I have been looking at that I feel displays his groupings wonderfully is David Hicks. Please see two examples courtesy of websites below each image.

https://cfileonline.org/exhibition-david-hicks-explores-the-liminal-space-between-us-our-world/

http://www.ranrandesign.com/blog/2014/5/9/david-hicks

From the article on him in Ceramics Monthly Jan 2014 he says he makes a few key objects that sets the tone of the collection and then deals with the objects as a group. From there he says it becomes a call and response process with additional pieces. If you wish to read the article yourself you can sign out a copy from the Sheridan Library.

The hanging mechanism is part of David Hicks consideration when he deals with the objects as a group. For me the aviation wire doesn’t suit the aesthetic I’m going but it is tempting to use because of the strength. I am looking into some possible alternatives and have had some very good suggestions from my instructors but am always open to more suggestions.

This past week the goal was to examine how the function affected the design of the amphorae form and to see if I could replicate some of the shapes. They varied greatly in shape and size as you can see below.

This chart was created by this archeologist dude (Heinrich Dressel) at the turn of the century. It is a classification of all the different amphorae found at Monte Testaccio in Rome. Monte Testaccio is a garbage dump that will be mentioned in a later post. Gotta save some fun for later. Anyways. The amphorae I’m looking at were made to transport both liquid and dry product. They had two handles. Some speculate the handles were designed to help secure the vessel during transport. The necks are narrow for pouring. Most had a pointed end which acted as a third handle when contents were being removed. The pointed end also allowed the vessel to stand upright if embedded in soft ground for storage before and after transport.

Here is one of my replicas. Surface treatment needs rethinking.

I was thinking about how these disposable amphorae are now displayed in museums and the song, Once in a Lifetime by the Talking Heads popped into my mind. I interpret the song as being about a person looking at where they are now and wondering how they ended up in a place far different  from their intention. If the transport amphora was a person, perhaps they would identify with this song. So with that in mind, I made a large amphora shape vessel and put part of the lyrics on it. Below is the first course of the song and a link to listen to the whole song.

And you may find yourself
Living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself
In another part of the world
And you may find yourself
Behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house
With a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself, well
How did I get here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IsSpAOD6K8

Part of the reason amphorae are studied are the stamps and other markings found on them. The stamps give the following info:

• The maker
• From where / to where
• By whom / to whom
• Transporter
• Contents
• Weight of the amphora
• Weight of the contents
• Date

All the good info needed for tax control and empire building. Once the amphorae had reached their destination the contents were put into smaller containers for distribution and the amphorae was thrown away. Since they were made to be thrown away. I feel the amphorae are just ancient packaging with the only difference being is that they lack branding. That is they are not designed with images or colours used to allure customers. They are strictly a B to B product. With this in mind I thought I would make an amphora that resembles no-name brand product. The bar code could substitute for the stamps. What do you think so far?

As part of our program, we are required to set up a blog site to catalog our inspirations and document our process. I hope you’ll follow my thought and please feel free to comment.

I really like the Roman amphorae.

• These are large terracotta transport jars used to distribute mostly wine or oil through the Roman Empire. The photo of the amphorae above are part of the Greek and Roman collection at the metropolitan museum in NY. Once these jars reached their destination they were thrown away as they were too costly to send back to their point of origin to be reused.
• Why I like them:
  • There are a variety of forms but all were designed not to stand.
  • Illustrates how value changes over time. They are essentially today’s plastic bottle or box cardboard box that was too costly to ship back to origin. They were It was simply cheaper to make new. Disposable garbage from the 1^st to 3^rd I think its funny that the garbage of one era becomes a treasure in another.
  • Tells us about trade and economy
  • Tells us about ancient consumerism and daily life by what they transported

If you wish to learn more about them please check out the links below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L4GLMY6unc

http://www.ipernity.com/doc/laurieannie/24443927

Come by later to see my take on the Amphorae.