Friday, February 6, 2015

BUT SHE CAN'T THROW...


All I could think of was “she can run, but she can’t throw.”

Well, yes, I could.
I could throw as well as my older brother; I could run and hit, too, but in those days, my skills weren’t enough to get me a slot on the Little League team—girls weren’t allowed to play organized baseball in the 1950s. The officials said it had something to do with protecting my “delicate internal organs,” but I suspect it was really about how I could play better than most boys at that age.
          Ah, but I digress.

Back in the sixth or seventh grade, I really could throw a baseball, but I couldn’t throw a pot.
          Art class was a trial for me—couldn’t draw, couldn’t make anything more than stick figures or rough facsimiles of flowers in vases; couldn’t sketch a house with curtains in the windows; couldn’t paint a fat Jersey beside her red barn.
         
I managed, though, to push out three items of fired pottery that remained in my parents’ houses for close to fifty years before coming to mine. I nearly chucked all three of ‘em, but found that I couldn’t do it.

The top photo is of something (we were never quite sure what it was supposed to be): a sugar dish? an odd container for a single flower bud?   Maybe it was an ashtray.
          I have no idea, but the shape of it appeals to me; I like the curve in its lines, the roundness of it.



And this one, which I think is a penguin, although I can’t be certain. I know for sure that I made it, for it has my initials (DHG) on the bottom. I have a vague recollection of a round table full of little birds, different colors and sizes, in the art room in my middle school. I remember, too, the fact that we couldn’t glaze the entire piece or it might stick to the bottom of the kiln—a concept that fascinated me for some reason.





This last piece—my piece de resistance—is a whisker-saver, a little trinket that my art teacher told us about. She was of Asian descent, and told us all that saving cat whiskers was certain good luck, and that there was a special item to store them in. We rolled three separate tubes, stuck them together with a little slip and pulled the bottoms into this trunk-like base.

          I actually had about five or six found whiskers in it, and had them all for a good long time, until I cleaning lady I had (when I had my hip replaced and couldn’t do housework for a couple of months) knocked it to the floor and never saw the whiskers...they were probably sucked up in the Electrolux.

26 comments:

  1. I like the idea of a whisker saver. I have an item made with some extruded tubes that I made in a ceramics class. I like the shape, but it doesn't hold water. I think I will start saving cat whiskers in it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And if you're a cat person, you know how infrequently we find cat whiskers -- so they're real treasures! Howard (my longhaired black cat) hardly ever sheds one...

      Delete
  2. I can see why your parent's kept these three items-- I found them delightful. Reminded me of items that my grandkids have made for me and I still proudly display pottery bowls, cups and containers of one sort or another -- as well as some very interesting sculptures.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's something sweet about things kids make....so I suppose my parents found my early trials delightful. I have a couple of things made for me, as well...and they're very dear to me!

      Delete
  3. That little red bird, no matter its classification, is just plain cute. I'd have kept it too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Cousin! (Not really, but since we both have Gould ancestors, I'm assuming that we're cousins on SOME level!) That little bird has grown on me, and it's now one of my favorite possessions!

      Delete
  4. Never heard of a whisker saver...what a great idea. So glad your parents treasured your creativity, even if the times kept you from being a baseball player. And you might still enjoy doing something artistic or crafty, who knows....the times changed for girls in baseball, so anything's possible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, Barbara, I do write books, so that might be my artistic bent! Goodness knows I wasn't good at gimp or batik or ... what was the one that involved twisting twine/rope?

      Delete
  5. An excellent post and fun title too. I collect bird feathers for fun and I like the look of your last piece as a way to display them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It would be PERFECT for feathers, Mike! And if you made it bigger (this is only about 3 inches high) it would support pretty substantial ones!

      Delete
  6. Well I certainly hope that your good luck did not run out when the whiskers disappeared!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not really, Sharon. Howard keeps making new whiskers for me, and I'm sure I've got a few old ones inbetween the floorboards!

      Delete
  7. Lovely little treasures to keep, I do like the whisker-saver idea.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think it's kind of neat, too, Dara! I wonder if the Egyptians saved cat whiskers...

      Delete
  8. I like that bowl, and if you didn't find many whiskers, you could always use the container as a vase for 3 stems of flowers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Jo -- and you'll be pleased to know that "great minds think alike...I've used it for a flower vase for scilla, which grows all over my front yard every spring...it's quite pretty!

      Delete
  9. A very entertaining slant on this week's theme. My favourite has to be the little red penguin which could be today a piece of modern folk art. I have never tried "throwing" pots, but I was hopeless at art. I never seemed to develop from a 5 year old' skill. So you did well!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wasn't sure it was a penguin, but everybody says it looks like one, so I'll accept it! Nice to know somebody else who had absolutely ZERO art talent...and I never got about a 12-year old talent, so that makes us pretty equal!

      Delete
  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love the whisker saver but I must confess when I first read it I thought it said whiskey-saver and thought that it was a strange shape for such an unnecessary object

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, Alan! I sat at my computer, read your response and just laughed out loud, Alan! You've left me weak, weeping!

      Delete
  12. Alan’s suggestion is brilliant! I do like all your pots and they remind me so much of my own early attempts in the school pottery room.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It would be fun, wouldn't it, to go back to those pottery rooms as adults, just to see what we could come up with!

      Delete
  13. I like the first bowl very much. The colour is lovely. I hope you're not hiding it away.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm NOT hiding it away! I move it about my house -- mostly in the living or dining rooms -- and put odds and ends in it: keys, a group of thimbles, buttons, etc. I like it, too...there's something nice about the curve of it! Thanks, Lorraine.

      Delete
  14. I've seen other works of art similar to your whisker saver but the openings are larger -- useful as a pencil holder and a vase or even both at the same time.

    ReplyDelete