FILL YOUR CUP!

During the spring Atlanta scouting visit w the BAP board (the “U.S. EC”), I was inspired to extend our hosts’ southern hospitality beyond hugs and enthusiastic welcoming.

I hope you enjoy your handmade, porcelain cup - made especially for you as a BAPlanta 2024 participant.

Please fill your cup with your beverage of choice - be it coffee or tea, or that rum and coke from the swag bag.

You can…

… drink hot or cold from your cup;

… microwave your cup.

… put your cup in your dishwasher.

… see how your cup was made on this page.

and yes - you should!

THE US- UK POTTERY CONNECTIONS

While community-focused solar project finance law is my “job”, ceramics is my “jam.”

I made pots full-time in my 20s; I recently returned to the world of professional potters. I am the third generation of Americans studio craftspeople, trained in the tradition of Bernard Leach, a 20th century potter who settled in St. Ives in Cornwall, England. Leach’s best friend was Shoji Hamada, a Japanese potter grounded in the “mingei” folk craft movement.

My high school ceramics teacher was a student of Prof. Warren Mackenzie at the University of Minnesota, who apprenticed at the Leach Pottery in St. Ives. Many of my closest friends and mentors studied with Mackenzie; each generation of makers tries to add to the tradition with our own commitment to making daily life special through well-crafted, unique handmade ceramics.

UK BAPer Tom Knowles-Jackson is a dear friend and a full-time potter. Tom was trained in a parallel tradition of English potter Michael Cardew. The US-UK ceramics connection continues to be a special relationship of its own kind.

MADE FROM PORCELAIN

All of these cups were made from using “recycled” clay - reclaiming dried clay or trimmings from carving the feet of cups and bowls. See more about that process below. I started using porcelain clay about 4 years ago, to allow for more vibrant glaze colors, as my now-urban residence required a cleaner electric kiln; when I lived in the country and fired using wood, I used a more rugged stoneware clay with a slightly more muted pallet.

The main ingredient in my porcelain clay also has a UK connection. It is a grolleg clay - a refined, pure porcelain clay mined in the Cornwall region. I love using this smooth, pure clay and the brighter color that is visible through my current glazes.

THROWING

I threw these cups on a treadle-powered pottery wheel that I’ve used since 1994. The cups are thrown “off the hump” - centering a large piece of clay and then measuring with my hands the right amount of clay for the next cup. Each piece is unique, and this fluid way of throwing allows me to explore small nuances of a shape, leaving the belly fuller than the previous cup, or perhaps making the top lip of the cup reach further out than the last pot.

I let my pots show that they are handmade. In some cases that means leaving tool marks or fingerprints, and in others it means they may embody that wabi-sabi idea of imperfect beauty. They might be a bit off of round, or show an imperfection in the clay. I embrace this as a sign that it was made by a human and not a machine.