Backstreet Gallery

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Geraldine’s unique hand-built pottery may fool you. It is so beautifully executed that one would think that it was wheel-thrown.

‘Pumpkin’ pots, so named for their shape, are formed around sphere shapes. Tennis balls, basket balls, and beach balls are some shapes used to create two hemispheres which are joined together. Her ‘Saturn’ pots are created the same way but by preparing shallower hemispheres, a flatter version of the pumpkin pot result. Joining the two parts results in a seam that must be worked and burnished. This process consolidates the molecules of silicon into a surface sheen. Geraldine designed her perfect tool, the “Thumper, a wooden block rounded to fit her hand with a flat edge that she thumps against the pot to eliminate the bumpy seam. She burnishes with polished stones or an ordinary plastic spoon. She may create textures with sandpaper, imprint with rocks or other tools while the clay is still moist. Pit firing her pots and vases fixes the beautiful sheen with a smoky finish that may partially expose the red clay she uses. She glazes some earth tone pots with underglazes. Some designs are painted with the under glaze, and receive a shiny glaze.

Read more about Geraldine here and come  celebrate her art at a reception in her honor at Backstreet, Nov. 12th, 3-5PM.