Rock Creek Bowl

copy cat bowls
[with original]
made after lunch

There is something about using a good pot that makes me want to make it. What is that impulse? Maybe trying to figure out how it can be so good, work so well? Sometimes I need a springboard to get the pottery flowing.

For lunch today I fixed a fettuccine with egg and feta cheese. Something simple and nice for Stacey and I. Stacey was working on her jewelry in her little workshop outside our house and I wanted something hot, but quick. Well, it wasn't that quick but it was simply tasty! I chose a Rock Creek Bowl that was just the right size. It fit on the table between our plates held the 3/4 lb of fettuccine for the two of us. After I cooked and drained the pasta I put it in this bowl and poured the two beat eggs in and tossed. Then I covered the bowl with a big Philbeck goat plate and waited a couple of minutes, checked email, whatever. The I tossed it again and by now the egg was just cooked and covered the pasta. Yum.

I tossed in 3/4 c crumbled Feta cheese, plenty of black pepper, and salt. It was so good that we got a good look at the empty bowl and it's odd design and its 'desert storm' palette.

Rock Creek Pottery, circa 1998

It has a shino like glaze that is ladled on or poured on in these nice little areas that break up the space of the bowl quite nicely. It was slipped and salted to a smooth sheen. Then there are these amber dots that are somewhat quarantined within four quick little brush strokes that form a kind of square. These brush strokes are done in such a way that gives the squares a kind of speed or movement. It is sort of a bird's eye view, sort of a map. The bowl has a paradoxical visual weight but feels just right. [what I mean is] The outside of the bowl is cut evenly and disregards the inside profile. The inside of the bowl was ribbed into two 'zones'. Well, there are two areas formed by the ribbed ridge. The bottom inside of the bowl is almost flat and then sweeps up to the ridge line before it sweeps up to the rim. It is cut/trimmed almost all of the way from the foot ring, which is quickly and squarely done, to the rim. The clay is lightly salted, orange in spots and dry in spots. The clay seems to have some sand which breaks up the smooth surface and gives it a subtle texture where the clay is cut. There was another small pot fired and wadded inside the bowl and it left a nice three point mark.

Well, I guess that's why I had to try to make this pot. It's too soon to tell as to my success or failure. As in many good pots, the proportions are very subtle. The timing of the lunch , picking the bowl, and my abundance of soft clay ready to be turned, conspired with my desire for this bowl. Maybe the fettuccine had something to do with it, too? We potters, should try to eat better, and use the best pots available. It certainly doesn't hurt!