Stoneware Thermos
Long time readers will probably assume the title of this post is yet another typo and failure to proof by yours truly. You’d be justified, however (i think) it is actually correct. A little over a month ago I started following a thought along the same lines of the Porcelain Gumball Machine, The Pancaker, and the other good ole American Kitsch I like making from clay. This time it was a Stoneware Thermos. I was really excited about them when I made them. And was even more excited when I unloaded them last week. I had left most of them raw or at a minimum sprayed with flashing slips. They turned out rustic and exactly what I was hoping for. Only one had a true glaze on the outside which I intended to embellish with decals. I’m not so excited about the two above only because they leak (doh! crummy handbuilt craftmanship on my part…). But they gave me an opportunity to experiment with fashioning my first reed handles. I had gotten the jist from Joy Tanner’s blog and headed to Earth Guild this past weekend for reed. I still have more thinking to do on proportion and how to whip the ends, but I am liking where this was all headed…
Then, by chance, I bought a nice glossy periodical at Barnes and Nobles called “Arts of Asia”. I was flipping through and saw these bronze vessels called “You”, from the Western Zhou Dynasty, circa 11th or 10th century BC . So similar to the thermos, I can’t not believe that, there, staring at me, was the great-great-great…grandfather of the american thermos (yeah, even our vessels are immigrants). I can’t get enough, speculating on the evolution of ideas and vessels over time. My scanner is on the fritz (ok I trashed it, I supposed it’s a victim of one too many searches by TSA). Anyways these are photos of photos from the magazine. OK… so I really don’t know if these were used to drink from or what, the magazine was short on details for this vessel. The only thing google provides is that a “you” is the “Chinese art word for a liquid container with an arch-shaped handle”. BTW googling “bronze you”… the first result is a tanning company.
Bronze You, Western Zhou Dynasty, circa 11th or 10th century BC
