Asynchronous Collaboration - The pots that won't happen again

Christopher left behind a selection of his Serra Bowls, all unfinished. He gifted me with one last and precious collaboration opportunity.

He made these bowls somewhere around 2019 and 2020, they have been sitting on the studio shelves collecting dust all these years, and all these years I’ve been staring at them, knowing that they either would stay there for eternity, end up in the trash, or have the chance to become good or bad finish pieces. All bowls came down to the table and got a good wash, I had to look at them for quite some time to find a connection and a direction.

I am not Christopher, so the idea of glazing/firing them the way he would have was scratched from the get go. I had to figure out how to use my process on his pieces, my very delicate process on his very masculine pieces. This is not for the faint of heart, connecting to a piece that you didn’t make takes time. Finding the rhythm of such pieces takes time. Some pieces are easier than others.

Besides the creative challenge, I had a logistic hurdle. I knew the pieces were made with cone 10 clay (IYKYK) and I only fire to cone 6 at home, so I had to find someone willing to devote their time and kiln space to fire these too many, and too big pieces. Thank goodness for clay friends.

As cathartic as this process was, it was a reminder that Christopher’s absence is permanent, and just like him, these pieces will never happen again.