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* A Brief History * How the Ceramics Are Made * Caring For
Your T. Stone Bell or Planter *
A Brief History
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Greatly influenced by Kerouac’s On
the Road and Woody Guthrie’s Bound for Glory,
I left my Georgia home and moved to the West in 1980. I hitchhiked
around the country and worked various odd jobs (making artificial
snow, care-taking mountain lions, etc.) until I accidentally stumbled
upon Arcosanti, an experiment in urban design located in central
Arizona. Arcosanti was my home for nine years and it is there where
I learned how to make the ceramics I sell these days.
| Arcosanti was my “higher education”…a
place unusual, creative, and closely aligned with the desert
environment that surrounds it. Importantly, I met hundreds
of people from around the world who helped influence my art
and social views. Without Arco, I might not have had an opportunity
to visit such places as Denmark, Germany, and Poland. Nor
would I have been trained in ceramics. I apprenticed making
ceramic bells, stuck with it for a couple of years and then
managed the ceramic bell production at Arco for almost six
years…from 1989-1995. Paolo Soleri, (the man who developed
Arcosanti) and I had a stormy relationship over the designs
that would be carved on the bells. He preferred the designs
to be more angular and geometric…based on his drawings,
which, in retrospect, seems fair enough. But I was incapable
of following the “straight line” and developed
my own wiggly, spiky motifs. By 1995, I was ready to launch
my own ceramic business, using the same carving technique
I had learned, but developing original bell and planter shapes
and carving nothing but wiggly, spiky, snaky designs. With
Soleri’s blessing on this new enterprise, I left Arcosanti
and moved to Prescott. |
One of my wild jobs in 1981 |
Arcosanti |
In Prescott, I worked with other local artists in
starting two art “co-operative” galleries and tried my damnedest
to get more folks involved with community projects. (Mixed results there, I’m
afraid.) For four years I organized the “Free Movies on the Courthouse
Lawn”. With the help of local businesses and artists, we pooled money
to show classic and foreign films on summer evenings under the trees of downtown
Prescott. Ceramics is the way I make a living,
but I am also a painter, musician, and, most recently, an author. ( Grave
History – A Guidebook to Citizens’ Cemetery, Prescott,
Arizona…should be available in April ’06.) However,
my greatest love and interest is living in the desert where I enjoy
long hikes, studying the flora and fauna, and where I contemplate the
durability, fragility, and sublime beauty of a landscape without equal.
In my desire to be closer to that desert, I have now left Prescott
and moved down to the quiet town of Superior, an old mining town that
sits at the base of the Pinal Mountains and not too far from the Superstition
Mountains, Aravaipa Canyon, and other great wilderness locales. |
How the Ceramics Are Made
T. Stone Ceramics are made from stoneware
clay dug out of the hills of Arizona. The clay looks like a big pile
of dirt sitting in the backyard…but, a little at a time, it
is shoveled into a huge vat of water and stirred by hand until the
clay forms a milkshake thick “slip”. I make plaster molds
for casting the irregular shaped bells and planters, and cast the
pieces in the molds. When the slip-cast pieces dry enough, I pull
them from the molds, powder them with clays and oxides, then carve
designs into them using only a utility knife. Each carving is done “free
hand” and, on most pieces, there are two designs per piece…one
on each side. After the design is carved, each piece is signed and
dated with the month and year. It often looks like chicken scratching
because, naturally, my handwriting is sloppy. When the carved pieces
completely dry, they are fired in a gas kiln to 2300 degrees F. (In
the almost twenty years I’ve been doing this, including my
years at Arco, I have carved tens of thousands of pieces!)
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Although I use repeating
motifs (sun, snake, scorpion, lizard, spiked plant,
abstracts), because of the nature of carving them
by hand, no two ceramic pieces are exactly the same.
If you have a bell, I assemble each one and personally
cut out the metal fins and make the beads that hang
above the bell. Maybe one day I’ll wise up
and hire somebody to do those tasks.
Aside from the bells and planters, I also make various
sculptures such as spiked pots, face jugs and face
lamps. |
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Caring For Your T. Stone Bell or Planter
The bells and planters
I make are not glazed. That means they can absorb moisture. The planters
can be used inside or outside and if they get wet, it’s not
a big deal. They will hold up for years without deteriorating like
terra cotta planters do. However, the bells should be treated differently.
If they get wet and freeze then they can get hairline cracks that
prevent them from ever ringing properly again. If you live in a place
where it freezes, don’t leave the bells out in the weather.
If they can hang dry on a porch they should be fine. Also, don’t
leave the bells out where a strong wind can slam them around. These
are ceramic, after all, and can break. If it gets too windy, just
place a piece of wadded newspaper between the clapper and bell body
so it can’t ring. A nice soft or moderate breeze shouldn’t
hurt the bell at all. With proper treatment, these bells can ring
for years. I have several that I keep out year-round under the eaves
and they still ring. Just remember, even stoneware will break if
struck hard enough.
One
more item about the bells: sometimes the clappers
will hang crooked. This is easy to remedy…just
reach up, grasp the clapper and jiggle it around
a bit until it hangs properly. There is a “stabilizer” (ceramic
disc) inside every clapper, which helps keep it hanging
straight.
Check out this recent article about my ceramics at:
Phoenix Home and Garden Magazine.
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