Jim's Jugs...

As the season here in Chautauqua is coming to a close I want to reflect on one of our more recent "first time" visiting faculty members...Jim McDowell. Jim's energy came at a good time for us all...near the end we were all wearing down and he was just the shot in the arm that we all needed. The above image is of one of his big face jugs that he is known for making. We fired this one in the Blaauw kiln in a cone 10 reduction. The below image is a few of his others speed drying under the heat lamps...that's how we squeeze in the week long classes here in the bubble.

Mr. McDowell did a great morning class exercise that I want to share with all of you gentle readers out there. He took his whole class out into the grass outside the studio...each student was instructed to get a a palm size ball of clay for each hand. He led the class in a very active pinch pot making exercise that resulted in each student making a funny little potato head face jug sort of thing. He had the class out there shaking their butts and getting loose and ready to get back into the studio to throw. A quiet morning it was not, and with Jim around there were no "quiet" mornings...you just got down to it and hit the ground running just like he did. Click on the images below to see the bigger picture...

Jim was a lot of fun and a great addition to our visiting faculty. I hope to be seeing him in the future since he is from my neck of the woods...Pittsburgh that is. We had a couple other super additions to the ceramic faculty this season as well...Chris Miller just off from being the Teaching Fellow at Alfred and Justin Lambert who makes great wood fired pottery and teaches down in Florida. We were also very pleased to have back Frank and Polly Martin, Jeff Greenham, Alec Karros, and my new old buddy Adam Paulik. Thanks to all those visiting faculty and to the hard work and diligence of our tech Dan Kuhn for a smooth and successful 09 season...here's one last Jim McDowell shot for the road...all praise...the season is over!