issue 04: craft
concentric scraps
e. saffronia downing1 The potter presses their tool into the spinning surface’s soft side
2 Walking
3 I watch the ground
4 Circles
5 A red plastic spoon
6 Hygroscopic earth on a hot afternoon
7 Spinning surface
8 Shallow furrows
9 I pick up shapes from the spring grass
10 Silicon rib
11 Steel scraper
12 Spinning surface
13 Shallow furrows
14 The tool against my stable palm
15 Anecdotal archaeology: “Tennessee Potteries, Pots, and Potters”
16 Embossed stamps encircle the outside
17 Pin pricks
18 Screwhead impressions
19 Spinning
20 I come upon a display of Decker Pottery tools, largely from Paul Fink’s collection
21 A stylised cobalt tulip brushed beneath a salt-glaze surface
22 Spinning furrows
23 Concentrically etched
24 Compressed clay platelets
25 One common practice: cut credit card into carving tool
26 Slippery surfaces
27 Made up of usual kitchenware: crocks, jugs, churns, canning jars
28 Bricks tumbled smooth in Lake Michigan
29 Pink plastic shard
30 Silica and alumina
31 Identical to the parent rock from which it came
32 Pulling clay upwards
33 Decker’s distinctive round lip
34 As rocks erode slowly
35 Decorated in Albany slip
36 I take pictures of clay in the park
37 Iron-heavy soil
38 Spinning surface
39 Carved scrap of wood
40 Shallow furrows
41 Searching for shapes in the spring grass
Images, above: Display of Charles F. Decker pottery wooden tools, largely from Paul Fink’s collection. Courtesy Southern Pottery. Photo: Beverly Burbage.Below: E. Saffronia Downing, A Display of Downing Pottery Tool Materials (2021). Plastic, brick, metal, wood, photograph, polystyrene. Courtesy of the artist.
psst... page-based installations are best read in print!