25 Teapots in One Weekend

The first summer I spent at college (summers were a lot of fun at school) I took my second semester of ceramics. It was an eight week class — four weeks taught by a visiting artist from Minnesota, four weeks by a visiting artist from England. The first guy was great, but the second was truly special to me. He taught me how to make teapots.

Broad British accent, not very tall, he sort of looked like a young Bob Dylan in floppy Mediterranean leather sandals (I’d swear he had clay in his toes for the entire four weeks). He offered production advice that I took to heart and have carried with me ever since. He de-emphasized trimming and told us to let it flow more. And he demonstrated making lids, spouts, and handles, perhaps sensing a gap in our education that he felt he could address.

Early in the session, he announced he would make 25 teapots in one weekend. A kind of carnival atmosphere ensued that weekend and when you looked in on him you’d get the latest count from him as the numbers grew. It was very exciting! And he did it, and over the next couple of weeks he fired them and we students had a chance to watch him glaze them. And when he left, he may have left a few behind, but I think he took a lot of teapots with him back to England.