This weekend brought many visitors to Breckenridge to pan for gold in the center of town, to dress up in old-time outfits, and to celebrate the history of this amazing town.
Many visitors stopped by the studio, and on Sunday evening the local TV aired a video shot in my studio.
But on camera, I was totally wrong about the history of pinch pots!
Given that I recently co-led the family program at the Metropolitan Museum, called 'Potsabilities', I ought to have remembered my facts. The pottery-making tradition is not really quite 35,00 years old! Perhaps that number represents the number of ceramic pieces in the museum's collection??
In truth, the oldest clay pots were made about 12,000 - 17,000 years ago: the Jomon pottery in Japan. And the earliest ceramic objects may be the Venus figures from about 31,000 years ago.
And so, for not-so-accurate numbers that I gave during my interview, I send apologies to my program director at the Met Museum, Dr. Mike Norris...
Perhaps it was the high altitude, or the excitement of being on-camera, that created the fuzzy memory for the facts??
In any case, the TV spot may have generated some more interest for the workshops this week. I think that these are now full. And I am looking forward to seeing what magical pinch pots and imaginery animals, these workshop participants will create..
Now, as I tap these keys, the barrels for the 'smokings' are on their way up from Denver in my brother's truck... So I think I had better get into the studio and make some more works to go into those barrels for next week's smoke-firings...
After the smoke-fires, applying the 23 k. gold leaf will be final step....
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