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Teapot, 9 inches in height, porcelain, with wooden handle. Frank Willet will sometimes go through a dozen or so different wooden forms before arriving upon one that works with the clay form.
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January 23, 2008
Found Wooden Handles
by James Marshall | Read Comments (2)
Artist Frank Willett's work reflects a fluid, organic geometry of simplified form. The glazed surfaces of this recent work enhance these looser, softly geometric forms and move across the surface in a shifting blend. He has been exploring some new teapot forms with elongated slab-built spouts and found wooden handles, a process that is described below:
The wire, rattan or bamboo handles prevalent on pots today first influenced Willett to make nonclay handles. But he preferred twisted, weathered tree roots, branches or driftwood to the more traditional materials. His choice of woods include driftwood from the California coast, cholla cactus, juniper, and piñon roots and branches, which are all found in New Mexico.
 He begins with the basic shape of a teapot, lidded jar or open bowl. After throwing the body of the pot, Willett applies tabs necessary to affix the wooden handle to the thrown form. The tabs have two or three holes in each, through which baling wire is threaded. For teapots and pitchers, he adds looser and more ragged handbuilt spouts. The spouts are made from slabs, and they add a visual bridge between the thrown form of the pot and the more organic handle shape.
After the pot is glaze fired—sometimes two or three times to acheive the fullness that he is searching for—the handle is chosen. At this point the stick will dictate whether to wrap wire around it or insert the wire in two holes in the underside. If he likes the stick too much to cover it with wire, he drills holes on the underside and glues the bunched wires into them.
Five-minute epoxy is injected into the holes and the wires are inserted. At this point Willett has to raise or lower the handle to create a visual balance between the pot and the handle. If wrapping is necessary, he grooves the high points of the wood handle for wrapping around the wooden form.
Sometimes the handles are sanded down or sandblasted and dipped in matt varnish or lacquer, which is wiped off to a very thin coating. Spray paint is used sometimes to make the wood similar in color to the glazed pot. He usually sprays and wipes off the paint, making it more a staining process than a painting process.
Read more about these related topics:
Functional Ceramics Functional Pottery Ceramic Art Techniques Ceramic Artists
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