Ceramics & Pottery by
David Schlapobersky and Felicity Potter
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Ceramics & Pottery by David Schlapobersky and Felicity Potter
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by Wilma Cruise & Doreen Hemp DAVID SCHLAPOBERSKY
AND FELICITY POTTER Pots for people at a reasonable price appears to be a simple guiding principle for a potter, yet it points to a world of commitment on the part of David Schlapobersky and Felicity Potter. Their statement of belief embraces an approach to life that is derived from the English Craft tradition, one that implies that work and life are indivisible. The production of tableware takes place in a domestic environment and on a domestic scale: the home-studio defines the parameters within which the two potters function. It limits the scale of production and prevents its growth into anything approaching industrialization. It also ensures a dedication to each piece on the part of the two artist craftsmen: enshrined in the notion of pots for people is a sense that a personal commitment is conveyed in each handmade article, so that each pot is by implication a conduit of communication from craftsman to owner. This notion of the honest labour of the artist-craftsman can be traced to the pastoral ideologies of Leach and Cardew. This approach stresses the importance of utility, and in Schlapobersky and Potter's work usefulness is a major consideration. Functionalism is implicit in the principle of 'pots for people': cups and saucers and dinner services are made with utility in mind, and the work of Schlapobersky and Potter meets practical requirements in the fit of cup to saucer, the balance of handle to volume and the smooth surface of the glaze. Decorative motifs painted by Potter lend visual appeal to the tableware. In addition, large free-standing vessels are made by Schlapobersky and decorated by Potter. Tim Morris was initially very influential in the development of Schlapobersky and Potter's ceramics. The notion of making their pots with people in mind and their desire to give enjoyment were derived from Morris's thinking. His encouragement was instrumental in their setting up a production studio at Cresset House, a home to the mentally handicapped in Johannesburg, in 1972. ************************************************************************ "Do not go where the paths may lead, go instead to where there is no path and leave a trail". Ralph Waldo Emerson ************************************************************************
PORTRAIT
OF A POTTER By Brian Ubsdell
"THE
MAGIC OF FIRE" We are the sum of our experience and
all who have preceded us, and no one epitomises this better than David
Schlapobersky and Felicity Potter, the quintessential professional studio
potters. I met David and Felicity for the
first time recently and was struck by their fierce devotion to their craft and
their down-to-earth integrity and commitment to a life-style they admit is
founded on adversity and hard work but filled with rewards.
Together in seemingly perfect equilibrium, they create magic with fire,
clay and glaze, producing a dazzling array of wares, ranging from utilitarian
dinnerware and beautiful tactile planters to large decorative urns. David is responsible for all the
throwing and I was amazed at the grace of his larger forms which comprise of as
much as 100 kg of clay, robust yet elegant.
Felicity, who studied textile design and art, applies the many free
flowing design, her brush strokes fluid, confident and unrestrained, perhaps a
reflection of her gentle inner strength and serenity. David and Felicity's primary focus
is high fired reduced ware, and they are among the few full-time professional
potters who can boast such a high volume and quality output in South Africa
today. I was surprised to see the
wide spectrum of rich, glowing colours and designs on their work, having always
associated high fired reduce ware with iron rich brown glazes on delicate grey
or churn glazed wares. At the end of September David,
Felicity, her son James and her mother, Ruth Wolff, move to a new home in
Swellendam and a new chapter in their adventure.
The look forward to a better quality of life and working conditions in a
more secure, softer environment, in their new spacious barn studio complete with
hearth for warm winter fires. They
both express a sense of insecurity and loss having dismantled their kiln and
packed their possessions in preparation for the move, and although excited both
feel a little detached from their security base and for the first time in 23
years no pots are emerging from the studio. David's plans for the future include
the holding of hands-on workshops on various aspects of highfired pottery.
He stressed the need for potters to explore and learn and to connect with
each other sharing knowledge and ideas. I was inspired by them
and impressed by their humility in spite of their success. We all wish David and Felicity
success and happiness in this new phase of their lives. Anyone interested in stopping off at their new studio in Swellendam is welcome. ************************************************************************
************************************************************************ DAVID
SCHLAPOBERSKY AND FELICITY POTTER By Gail de Klerk National Ceramics Quarterly, Number 18, December 1991David
and Felicity are not only life partners, two highly principled people with an
unquestionable integrity, a great love, compassion and empathy for all
people, they are also partners in producing wonderful pots, pots made within the
strict discipline of reduced, high fired stoneware and porcelain. All the
throwing is done by David and the superb decorations by Felicity who studied Art
and Textile Design at the Technikon.
Cups and saucers, jugs
- large
and small, large platters, casseroles, planters, vases, all finely crafted, have
attained an honesty and finesse through a process of evolution
- a
cycle of progress gained from discussing shapes and decoration together, working
ideas through on paper and being ever mindful of the needs of their customers.
For David and Felicity making pots that enhance the everyday lives of
their owners is of prime importance, especially as they are truly professional
potters whose livelihood depends on sales. Adversity introduced
the couple to pottery.
Felicity's son, James, was hit by a car in Jan Smuts Avenue, an accident
which left him severely handicapped and in 1972 David and Felicity moved with
James and his brothers to Cressett House, a home for the handicapped, as house
parents, as it was a matter of prime importance to them that James received the
love and support of his family.
It was felt that many of the residents of the home would benefit from
doing pottery and David enrolled for classes in an effort to start the facility.
His first teacher was Gordon Wales, a founder member of A.P.S.A.
(Association of Potters of Southern Africa), who later emigrated to
Canada. German
measles proved to be a turning point in the lives of David and Felicity.
James' two brothers contracted this childhood illness and as there were a
few pregnant members of staff the family were asked to
move out of the home until they were germ free.
Taking the opportunity of being free from the responsibility of the home,
Felicity made contact with Tim Morris whom she met some years earlier and was
impressed by his work and a visit was arranged.
They discussed with Tim their plans to start a studio in Cresset House
and with the enthusiasm and generosity for which Tim was known, he embarked on
organising a major art exhibition, with contributions from leading artists, to
equip a studio.
Tim also shared his knowledge with them and in David's words, "Tim
lit a fire beneath them, a fire that still burns."
One of the important lessons he taught them was the value of repetitive
throwing - a discipline so necessary to refine a potters skill and this is a
discipline that they still practice today and is reflected in their cups and
saucers. Porcelain
cups and saucers that have evolved into enormously sound shapes.
Thin rims for a pleasing drink, handles that are well balanced, they sit
well on the saucer that is also easily lifted.
Cobalt decoration over a white feldspathic glaze or an iron pigment over
a warm celadon glaze before firing. By 1976
having established the studio at Cresset House whilst overseeing the farm and
bakery and being house parents to 12 children exhaustion forced them to
reconsider their lives and wanting to fulfil their commitment to provide a
family life for James, they made a major decision to move into their own home
and start their own studio.
It was important that this venture succeeded as it would be their only
income. After
a short period in a rented house they acquired their present home studio in
Parkview. Another
influence that has been important in the development of their work is that of
Ruth Wolff, Felicity's mother, a well known interior designer. The large
planters and vases, which enhance many homes reveal this input.
The harmony of shape achieved by masterful throwing and superb decoration
are evident in these pieces, a harmony that can only be achieved by the close
collaboration of these two artists. Encouraged,
once again by Tim Morris following the success of the Crocodile Ramble, David
and Felicity were, with other Johannesburg artists instrumental in starting the
Johannesburg Studio Route.
By opening their studio to the public, David and Felicity feel that they
can give back to the community by allowing them to see the potter at work and
thereby educating them in the process of making pots.
They especially enjoy the contact of other potters visiting their studio
and are always willing to present workshops in which they generously share their
extensive knowledge of pot making.
The
generosity of spirit that burns within them has also led them to be involved in
the Alexandra Art Center.
This center was started by the community of the township to encourage the
development of their artistic talents. Working Notes David
throws all the pots in either stoneware or porcelain which is made at the studio.
For his large planters up to five coils are added and pulled up in
sections until the planters are approximately 80cm high.
Platters, casseroles, lidded jars, large free standing vases are by some
of their stoneware repertoire.
Tea sets, dinnerware and small lidded boxed are usually thrown in
porcelain. After the bisque firing the pots are glazed with a basic feldspathic glaze, a celadon or a cobalt glaze. Felicity then applies her sensitive brush decoration using either a cobalt or iron and Rutile slip over the dry, unfired glaze. The work is fired in a reduction atmosphere to cone 12 (1320 degrees centigrade) in a 90 cubic foot gas kiln. ****************************************************************************
"Pottery is at once the simplest and most difficult of arts. It is the simplest because it is the most elemental; it is the most difficult because it is the most abstract. Historically it is among the first of the arts. The earliest vessels were shaped by hand from crude clay dug out of the earth, and such vessels were dried in the sun and the wind. Even at that stage, before man could write, before he had a literature or even a religion, he had this art, and the vessels then made can still move us by their expressive form. When fire was discovered, and man learned to make his pots hard and durable; and when the wheel was invented, and the potter could add rhythm and uprising movement to his concepts of form, then all the essentials of this most abstract art were present. The art evolved from its humble origins until, in the fifth century before Christ, it became the representative art of the most sensitive and intellectual race that the world has ever known. A Greek vase is the type of all classical harmony. Then eastward another great civilisation made pottery its
best-loved and most typical art, and even carried the art to rarer refinements
than the Greeks had attained. A Greek vase is static harmony, but the Chinese
vase, when once it has freed itself from the imposed influences of other
cultures and other techniques, achieves dynamic harmony; it is not only a
relation of numbers, but also a living movement. Not a crystal but a flower. The perfect types of pottery, represented in the art of Greece and China, have their approximations in other lands: in Peru and Mexico, in mediaeval England and Spain, in Italy of the Renaissance, in the eighteenth-century Germany - in fact the art is so fundamental, so bound up with the elementary needs of civilisation, that a national ethos must find its expression in this medium. Judge the art of a country, judge the fineness of its
sensibility, by its pottery; it is a sure touchstone. Pottery is pure art; it is
art freed from any imitative intention. Sculpture, to which it is most nearly
related, had from the first an imitative intention, and is perhaps to that
extent less free for the expression of the will to form than pottery; pottery is
plastic art in its most abstract essence. We must not be afraid of this word 'abstract'. All art is primarily abstract. For what is aesthetic experience, deprived of its incidental trappings and associations, but a response of the body and mind of man to invented or isolated harmonies? Art is an escape from chaos. It is movement ordained in numbers; it is mass confined in measure; it is the indetermination of matter seeking the rhythm of life". ************************************************************* "A great many people think they are thinking, when they are merely rearranging their prejudices". William James
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