Nestled into a towel-covered corner at the Venue yesterday, Lowery demonstrated how she transitions balls of clay thrown onto a potter’s wheel into spinning earthen vessels.
During the hour of pot throwing, she created a variety of bowls and vases. She also molded the body of a teapot, her current favorite product.
“I like the idea of functional sculpture,” she said.
Tea pots lend themselves to more complicated shapes, she said. It also helps that a teapot is something people can use frequently.
“I want people to have, you know, this intimate object that people use every day,” she said. “It’s a part of your daily life.”
Gabriel Colman, owner and curator of the Venue, Fine Arts and Gifts, said he included Lowery into the Venue’s Tuesday art education night because people almost fall into her artwork. They get absorbed in it, he said.
“It’s almost hypnotic,” he said.
Sitting in front of her wheel, before even starting, Lowery explained the process of what she would do.
Throwing down a large handful of clay, about a pound’s worth, her hands initially bounced over the watered surface of the earth.
The bumping ceased seconds later, and her hands smoothed the surface into a disk.
Due to the temporary nature of the demonstration, none of her works would be kept at the end of the night.
She also explained what she would have done if she were in her home studio working to create a permanent sculpture.
“Clay starts out as a natural form,” Lowery said.
Though her clay was manufactured, she said the “manufactured” aspect involved mixing varieties of naturally existing clay to control the consistency of the product.
Then it is thrown onto a wheel and manipulated by hand and the spin of her potter’s wheel until she achieves a shape she likes, she said.
“It takes many years to do this properly,” Lowery said.
Frequently, she grimaced and gestured to the structure’s “wobble.”
If she is not careful, she said the uneven surface leads to a less structurally-sound bowl or cup.
When the clay is almost finished being formed, it almost feels like leather, she said. From there she will alter it, adding any decorations she likes.
Then everything is air dried before being fired once in a kiln. This initial baking makes the object sturdy and safe to handle.
After that, she said she finishes the product with a glaze to make everything food-safe.
Everything is put back into the kiln, heated to just under 2,300 degrees. What results is a satin-textured, microwave- and dishwasher-safe product, Lowery said.
“After they fire in the kiln, then they are all finished and ready for use,” she said.
Yesterday was not the first time she did a pot-throwing demonstration.
Whether it was a bus-load of viewers watching her create pots back in her university days or the occasional time she did street performances, the reaction of the people watching is the same.
She said her favorite moment is when she pushes her hands into the revolving clay and the lump instantly climbs out of her hands.
“Oh, it’s like magic,” she said.
This is the case because, in her opinion, pottery is a universal art for people.
It is a human experience to get your hands dirty, she said.
“Everyone has touched clay in some way,” she said. “Today it’s play dough, but it used to be that kids played in mud.”
It gets better when it clicks in people that the thing they are watching her make is something they use on a daily basis.
Especially in today’s world where everything is manufactured and they have no interaction with the maker, she said.
“Like I said earlier,” Lowery said. “It is the magic of it.”
