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ORGANIC PINCH POTS- 1961
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The pinched and squeezed forms that Clayton Bailey began to make in 1961 were suggested by the traditional pinch pot technique, and its potential for generating biological and gourd-like forms.

Bailey's innovation is the disciplined application of regularly spaced and radially symmetrical finger prints into the soft clay. This process yields organic vessel forms which are sometimes left open like a bowl, or sometimes turned upside-down and closed as in these two examples.

The closed forms often sport tiny bottle necks inspired by the work of his instructor, at the University of Wisconsin, Toshiko Takaezu. The resulting forms are like fossil organisms with flying buttresses. The viewer could wonder if they were made by man or made by nature.

Salt glaze was generally used on these forms to enrich the surfaces without hiding the finger prints and other natural features of the clay.

 

GOURD-LIKE PINCH POT- 1963

8" X 8" X 5"

salt glazed stoneware

FLARED PINCH BOWL- 1963

8" X 8" X 5"

salt glazed stoneware

CATERPILLAR WITH FLYING BUTTRESSES- 1961

30" X 6" X 6"

stoneware ceramic with iron wash