The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, July 19, 1983 - Page 15
Potters form
tradition in clay
By Jackie Young
Porcelain plates, stoneware pots and
potters, working diligently at their
wheels, have been a part of the art fair
since it began in the 1950s.
The Ann Arbor Potters Guild, which
has a booth this year on the corner of
South and East University streets,
dates back 30 years when Harvey Lit-
tleton landed the group in a building
buried in a Maynard Street alley where
McDonald's is today.
A NON-PROFIT organization
limited to 40 members, the Guild
provides artists with a cheaper alter-
native than working in their own
studios. Guild artists work in a studio
near Division and Hill Streets in cram-
ped quarters making it essential that
the members get along well together,
said guild member Mary Chambers.
Pottery is hard physical labor, and
the Guild provides atmosphere making
work a lot easier, says a cooperative
Chambers while dipping a hand-crafted
pot into orange glaze. Chambers, a
Guild member, explains that after the
pot is fired in a special oven or kiln it
will turn red.
"A COPPER GLAZE," she says,
"can turn out to be red, green, or blue.
With different places in the kiln the
same color can look very different."
similar to chemicals in a lab. There's
Vanadium, Spodumene, Cryolite, and
Iron Oxide Red.
Members must have several years'
experience crafting clay and are
required to show their work as a guest
member for one year before joining,
said member Bobbi Stevens.
THE GUILD IS managed and funded
by members making profits from
selling their works during the Decem-
ber and summer art fairs. Members
are drawn from different backgrounds
and complement each other for a mix-
ture that is as crucial as form is to pot-
tery.
"Each person has very different
things that they like to make," said
Guild member Maggie Rotmon. "I like
making basket shapes on the wheel and
also hand building not using the wheel."
Working with clay also gives Rotmon
a tie to the past. "When I look at the
primitive work of early potters in
museums, I feel a strong bond with the
people. They had an advanced level of
skill which is still carried on today."
Some artists join the Guild for social
reasons, said Rotmon. "We support
each other with ideas. (We) share
ideas and information which is part of
why people join the potter's guild," ad-
ded Chambers.
"It's also nice to have someone
around that knows how to do something
that you don't know how to do."
Potters must also have some
chemistry knowledge to mix the wide
variety of glazes which are labeled
Daily Photo by ELIZABETH SCOTT
Members of the Potters Guild display works, similar to the one being made,
at the fair.
Guild links artists
(Continued from Page 3)
works in fairs the guild sponsors.
Associate members, however, can
display their work at the summer fair
by sharing a booth with an exhibiting
member.
audience or get some response. It's an
opportunity to meet people," Bartolo
said. And people enjoy meeting the ar-
tist too, she added. "It beats going to
Hudson's where you don't have the op-
portunity to learn about the work," she
said.
Guild members exhibit a wide range
of works including jewelry, quilting,
weaving, enameling, and watercolor.
But the organization's rules about
what can be exhibited are strict. It
requires that all works be handcrafted
without the aid of kits, and that any
machine work not dominate the ap-
pearance of the object.
THE GUILD'S members are divided
into "exhibiting members" and
"associate members." Only the
exhibiting members are allowed to sell
Although the other two groups in the
fair "jury" or judge works to decide
which artists can exhibit, the Guild
does not have a special selective
procedure for the fair. Instead, she
said, the organization has a more com-
plex quality check that operates all
year long.
Exhibiting members must have their
work reviewed periodically by a panel
of members and experts in their field.
"It is difficult to have never done a
fair before and have to fill a booth for
four days," she said.
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