Assignment 4: Contemporary Bowls - Timothy Spencer

 Since I've been throwing so many bowls, I've gotten to think a lot about each bit of the form of the bowl.  I admire this bowl  by Masayoshi Oya in a way that I never could, had I never thrown a bowl.  The slope of the curve is subtle and continuous, with no bumps or dips. The line is smooth, and the edge tapers up to a thin, comfortable lip.  The foot is small and elegant.  I enjoy the rusty sort of glaze as well, although it doesn't look very functional.

 I like this combination of throwing and handbuilding.  The throwing yeilds beautiful curved forms that I have difficulty achieving in handbuilding, but I enjoy how many ceramic artists adapt those forms and move them to make new forms that couldn't be achieved by one technique alone.  I hope to experiment with this more in the future.  This artist, Deborah Schwartzkopf, is particularly skilled at it, and I think the way these "Pouring Bowls" are intended to be held and used is unique and interesting.

This artist, Kristen Kieffer, is also very good at throwing and then modifying bowls by hand.  These are stamped with a decorative repeating pattern, and it looks like the edges and sides have been worked and indented in places as well.  The simple repetitive design is in some ways old fashioned, but simple and unique enough that it doesn't seem hackneyed.  I also appreciate the somewhat unique shape of the bowls, and how the mouth of the bowl is thinner than the belly, where it turns a sharp corner inward on it's way up.