clay: make utilitarian objects but make them beautiful

“These days personal taste has suffered a decline, colours have become garish, forms flimsy, and designs hideous. It is only natural that, surrounded by such objects, our sense of beauty should be dulled. An elite group of artists may produce objects that are aesthetically pleasing, but that in itself doesn’t make the world around us any more beautiful. On the contrary, the influence of the ugly and deformed continues to grow ever stronger. If it is our ideal to live in a world surrounded by beautiful things, in a virtual Kingdom of Beauty, then we must strive to raise the ordinary things of our daily lives to a higher level. The way to do this is not to place emphasis on appearance to the detriment of utility." 

—Soetsu Yanagi.

I went to the ceramics studio, but only to clean and clear the tables for Zan while I’m at the beach. However, I did manage to make four more cocktail cups and release and refine the cast of another soap dish and tea bowl, which joined the two cocktail cups I made the day before. Those new makes will be joining the two tea bowls, two butter dishes, one plate and one butter dish already in the kiln. I’m definitely not a production potter if this was all I was able to make in a month. I also looked at the two test tiles I glazed of my new brown glazes. The JB brown is not bad, but the Toshi brown looks awful. Was it because I didn't mix the glazes enough or was my application too thin? Re-test. Also I'm going to see what it would look on the clay bodies I'm building with now. Let me make some spoons to test.          

Meral says we can have a pop-up when I return from vacation, so I can get rid of these vases.

There are a few non-white vases on my kitchen window sill. I've curated to three. And my teapots I've collected, only two, are white as are my porcelain cup and vase collections. Last night I helped Patrick cull through the lifetime of stuff, some beloved and well used and a lot of junk of a client, who is going into memory care and an assisted living facility. It made me remember going through my own parents' household after their death and hence a bit sad but determined too to ruthlessly purge my own home and live only with the things I love.