ClayFest 2013

Saravi Arts

Avi Harriman and SarahLyn Brooks (husband and wife) have been dabbling off and on with pottery for thirty years. Recently they have decided to get serious! And have more fun.

Avi was introduced to clay and the creative process of throwing at Mt. San Antonio College outside Los Angeles, California. His creative journey took him to Mexico where he studied sculpture and bronze casting in San Miguel de Allende. His most recent studies have been at Maude Kerns with Thanbinh Doung a renowned and accomplished potter, who is an exacting teacher, and at the University of Oregon with Jason Solomon. Currently, he is exploring the magical world of crystal glazes and has the goal of becoming a Crystallière (one who is an avid, expert crystal glazer). His pottery is classic in line, often of goodly girth with stunning crystal glazes. He is also a novice glass artist who hopes to explore this media extensively one day.

SarahLyn began her clay journey at the University of La Verne in California. She took private lessons on wheel throwing from an accomplished teacher in Modesto California. and has attended Raku classes at the U of O. In July 2008 SarahLyn retired and began focusing her energies on the joint pottery venture, spending much of her time honing her throwing skills. She enjoys creating masks, using her face as the template, and exploring the hidden expressions within each face. She also has a passion for watercolor, finding joy in the dynamic of flowing colors.

SarahLyn and Avi as a team, bring their own particular unique flavor to the forms created. SarahLyn’s focus is primarily the creation of the pots while Avi’s energies have been predominantly with creating and perfecting the special crystalline glazes. They have the satisfaction of working together, bringing their own special flavor of beauty into the world.

SarahLyn and I

When it came to pottery SarahLyn and I had a very collaborative relationship.
She loved to throw pots but did not like to trim them. I enjoyed trimming so I often trimmed her pottery. Trimming is the second stage in the pottery process. After the pot is thrown on the wheel and allowed to dry to the leather hard stage the excess clay needs to be trimmed off to fine tune the form. In order to trim SarahLyn's pots I had to know two things. The first was what was her intent for the form?. Did she intend for the form to have a high center or low center? Was it a pot that was meant to sit up or sit down? If I was not careful I could alter her intent and then I would get a glare!

The second thing I needed to know was her throwing style and capabilities. Where did she leave enough clay for me to trim away and where was the pot too thin for me to alter it very much. If I left too much clay the pot would be heavy and if I took away too much in a thin spot the pot could break and then I would get a glare! She had to put her trust in me. There were a number of times when I didn't have time to trim my pots and I turned them over to her. I have to admit that the first time it was a strange experience but she did a great job. I have talked to many potters but very very few would allow someone else to trim the work that they had thrown.

The next stage in the pottery process is glazing. I was the one who knew how to mix and formulate the glazes so that was my job. We would then set all the pots out on the table and SarahLyn would come by and look at them. She would put small post-it notes by each pot telling me what color to glaze the pot or with a /mark what color to glaze the top and then the bottom.

The next step is firing the kiln. Again that was my job. But when the kiln was opened and we got to look at the finished pottery if they didn't meet her expectations I would get a snarky look and comment.

We then took our pottery to the show. I would set up the booth and the shelves and the carpeting and the lights. I would then step back and SarahLyn would put up all the pots in her own particular way. She would arrange all the pots and divide them up by color as opposed to the way I would do it which would be to divide them up by form or function. When I would walk throughout the show as it was being set up I noticed that the booths that were set up by women were set up by color and those that were set up by men were set up by form or function. When I mentioned this to SarahLyn she agreed and said yes but most of the pots are purchased by women and women were attracted to color.

The next two tasks that we divided up was talking to the customers and working the jobs at the pottery show. The pottery shows that we participate in are collective efforts by all the potters in the show. Since I was the chatterbox and she tended to be shy about presenting her work to the public I got to stay in the booth to talk to customers and she would do all the work shifts. When she would return from her work shift she would ask how we did and I would tell her we did well. “I sold a number pots and I restocked them from our backstock”. “I can see” she would say and proceeded to rearrange all of the pots that I had put on the shelves and pull others out of backstock to complete the arrangement to her liking.

Oh well, we each had our job to do in this collaborative effort!!