Thinking Without Words

It's a question I used to ask my classmates in grade school, "Can you think without using words?"

Usually I got a quizzical look and something like, "You're crazy." Pretty soon, I quit asking.

I forgot about this until recently when, while watching a program about the Museum of Modern Art in New York, I suddenly had a vision for a piece of jewelry using a new plaster mold I had made for something else.

The program had nothing to do with jewelry. But my mind was in what I call, "Open Mode" meaning Receptive, Soaking it All Up, Free-flowing. A great variety of images from the museum collection were being presented in my head.

I think lots of artists do this. And it's not recognized as a 'normal' or prized ability; it's usually linked with autism or other 'abnormal' brain functions. Thank heavens there is more research being done about how the brain works.

If you are familiar with either the Temple Grandin book or the movie about her early years, you will know what I mean by thinking in images or pictures.
(www.templegrandin.com) 

I highly recommend reading The Autistic Brain; Thinking Across the Spectrum by her and Richard Panek. 

I'm not saying all artists are Autistic! There's even a test at the end of the book that you can take to see if you are. I just believe artists have functions of the brain that are different then others. And thank heavens for it.

Nobody really understands how artists think. I did talk about this subject with my art and Spanish students because I've always been very interested in how the mind works.

Sometimes, I would get some amazing answers from them. One girl visualized each month of the year in a different color as well as each day and number was a different color.  This would drive me raving mad, but it worked for her.

As a child, I had a lot of difficulty remembering which day of the week it was. Drove my mother crazy with my asking every day.  I finally came up with a visual I could remember:  I pictured the week as a ring. The ring was divided into halves. On the right hand side, were the 5 days of the week with Monday at the top, Friday at the bottom and Wednesday in the middle.  The other half of the ring was the weekend. Well, Saturday and Sunday were all my own; they were long days to me. Time traveled around and around the ring, so I always knew where I was and what day it was by visualizing myself on the ring.

The same technique worked for me when I rode the Seattle/Kingston ferry for work during the week a few years ago. I could leave my car on one of the two car decks, go up to the cabin and read or snack and return to my car without getting lost because I had pictured where it was in my mind. I had created a two-deck 'graphic' and a 'you are here' pin for where my car was that day.  

White Pear Salt Shaker - How it works

Interesting glaze experiment. The stem is underglaze black. the top 1/3 is transparent glaze. The bottom 2/3rds is Coyote Creamy Matt.

Very subtle.

I applied small points of black for interest.

It's not quite there yet, but getting close.

View of the bottom.

It was waxed for firing, but I set it on a stilt anyway because I wasn't sure how stable the Creamy Matt would be.

You can see the funnel for the salt that leads to the internal cavity.

The salt comes out through the tiny hole at the top of the cone shape.

This is how the shaker works:

A cutaway view of the hollow pear showing it with salt inside.

The thing in the center is like a funnel.

To fill an empty pear with salt, turn it over and pour the salt into the bottom funnel.

The salt all goes into the top of the pear.

After no more salt will go in, gently turn the pear over. All the salt will fall to the bottom around the funnel.

The salt comes out when the pear is shaken straight up and down.

The salt flies up into the top of the pear shape, then falls back down into the bottom section with some of it falling through the hole at the top of the funnel.

Remedy for Flying Slip

I dislike throwing with a wheel pan, but in my current small studio situation, I have to be neater than usual, so I've modified my old Rube Goldberg arrangement for catching flying slip from the wheel into a modification that works inside the larger wheel pan I have now.

The old way was to remove the pan and substitute this bucket/sponge/catch pan on the table of the wheel head. It's a bit messy, but allowed me to get closer to the wheel.

Get a smallish bucket with a bail. A plastic paint can works well.

Get a big sponge and slip it under the bail.

Get one of these shallow food pans--the kind you're supposed to microwave food in, but I don't relish the idea of baked plastic in my lunch, so I put the food in glass or clay and zap it. The tray should fit underneath the wheel with no interference.

Move it so the sponge touches the rim of the wheel, but doesn't interfere with the movement.

Fill the bucket with water to give it stability and weight.

When the wheel turns, the sponge catches the water flying off the rim, drips into the shallow plastic pan and keeps it out of the wheel-pan.

Empty the food tray once in a while when it gets close to full or when you finish throwing.

You can dispense with the food tray, if you wish or if it won't fit under the wheel. Then clean out the pan as usual.

How to make Japanese Rice Straw Rope

Attach the beginning loops to something stable like a door knob or chair finial. The beginning must not be allowed to twist.

After establishing the base of the loop by twisting it around a few times, separate into two equal strands of fiber. The two strands are twisted in the SAME direction and made into rope by twinning in the OPPOSITE direction. This creates the tension that keeps the rope from untwisting.

You can finish off the rope with a knot, bead, or weave it back into itself. Lots of possibilities!


(If you want to reproduce the instruction image, click on the jpeg and drag it to the desktop to save. Then either print it directly (MAC) or place it into a document like Word and print the image. The jpeg will print at about 6 x 8 inches on a landscape setting. Unfortunately, the graphic program I used to make the sheet is kaput - outstripped by technology - but you could either re-draw the instructions or re-align this copy.)


















You can use single strands of fiber to make a very fine rope or a grouping of strands to make this rope. In this country, raffia is the closest thing to rice straw and has the fiber strength. Check out basketry suppliers, arts & craft stores, needlework shops for sources of fiber.

Using raffia, the rope can be made of colored fibers or dyed to match a glaze. It works well on lugs, handles and as webbing on a pot. It can be used to attach a lid to a pot or loop over the top to hold a lid down. It works very well with rattan and natural twigs and wood as well. You're only limited by your imagination!






An excellent resource for a world of knots, this reprint of the original book can be found on many discount websites. I found mine in a used book store and couldn't pay for it fast enough!

Perfectly Fitting Jar Lid

This jar is made on the wheel; thrown as one piece, a hollow form. After the bottom and diameter are established, then the walls are brought up and closed at the top. The walls are purposely thrown a little thicker than usual in order to accommodate the cut for the interlocking lid flange and the base lip. It's also good to make the jar a bit taller, since the lid cutting operation will take some out of the middle.

This particular jar has a 'sprout' topknot type handle. The glaze is done with a splotch of green glaze on the bisqued piece, the application of wax resist over that, then the top and base are dipped in a contrasting glaze. No matter how well matched the lid and base are, there is always the 'perfect seat' of fit. Making a decoration travel from lid to base helps to make sure the lid is returned to this optimum fit.

Below is a diagram I developed to illustrate the technique for cutting lids from closed forms. If you click on the image, you can enlarge it for easier reading. With some computers, you can click the curser on the image, hold and drag the image to the desktop, then import it into a document for reference.

If you cut the lid flange at the base of the indentation, it is possible to remove the completed lid and inner flange. Just a bit of smoothing up is needed.

The base, still attached and centered on the batt, can be trimmed on the inside to create a 'shelf' for the lid flange to rest upon.

Unfortunately, I don't have any examples to photograph of the jars I've made using this approach, I've sold them all!

It is possible to reverse the cut--make it so that the lid slips down over the bottom flange--by cutting at the top of the indentation to release the lid, then inverting the lid into the base and after securing it, cutting the inner edge, leaving the outer surface undisturbed. The outer edge of the base may need some cutting adjustment on the inner lip so that the lid slips easily over. This is an example of an early try at the reverse cut.

Once you get the hang of the cutting and a feel for the thicknesses, either way is fine, but I prefer the first method because in my experience, it gives a truer fit. It is also possible to trim the inside (or outside, if you wish) of the base to make the walls thinner.