ROBAPO

(robots battling planned obsolescence) 

Clay robots have been marching about in my mind for many years now.  I see them as a natural progression from Fantastic Service and the rocketship series.  With encouragement from friends I realized it was time to get them out of my head and into reality. The idea here is to tell the stories of brave robots that have desperately attempted to stay relevant in our world of almost instantly obsolete technology by scavenging parts drilling new ports and hoarding potentially use full bits.
This post is little glimpse into the production of the first 2 characters off my small assembly line. 

All parts are thrown with a grogged cone 6 B-mix.  The main head shape was a large closed off form cut in half.

Silent but extremely observant.

Making the holes and ports with 10 to 15 % shrinkage in mind was a bit of a challenge.

Thinking about what tech elements to add and why has proven to be one of my favorite parts of the process.

Glazed and ready to be fired.

Gluing the bits in place.

Somewhat terrifying rear view.

When I find the right venue for a show I will let you know.  Suggestions welcome.  These two are currently available for purchase at the Kingsmill shop on Granville Island.

Pretty pictures of the potters pottering about.

I meant to do this post back in January, but I got busy with all of the other things that January got full of. Two lovely photographers, Ester Bueno and our friend Adele Thomas both asked if they could come by while we were at the Kingsmill Shop and take pictures of us working. Ester is working on a project photographing all kinds of artists and artisans in their workspaces and Adele is doing a project called My 366 Project where she has challenged herself to post a picture a day for a year.
Here is Adele's picture of us, we were January 4th:

We met Adele and her partner Carlo Ricci through Keith's brother Carson who volunteered with them at Pisco Sin Fronteras in Peru. They both do wonderful photography and film. They made the video on the Pisco homepage. Carson thought we'd get along because we are all the kind of crazy that thinks living for months on the road in an intermittently reliable old orange VW is an excellent way to go travelling, and he was right! They did 50,000 kms from South America to Vancouver and documented it gorgeously on their sites as "The Long Way Up".

Ester Bueno came in over a couple of days and photographed both of us as we worked. It was a good way to get your picture taken, I thought. Just ignore the camera and keep working! It's interesting to see your process afterwards through someone else's eyes. I am so glad she caught that awesome trimming spiral and I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing her pictures of other artisans at work.

Keith working on a pierced vase form

 Keith attaching legs to a rocketship sugar jar.

Carole trimming a bowl.

Carole trimming a bowl.

We are at the Kingsmill Shop for a couple more days, until the 7th, please drop and say "hi" if you're down on Granville Island!