The piece I made that I genuinely don't like but everyone else does
There's this little vessel I made like three months ago. Handbuilt, sort of egg-shaped with a neck that bends too far to the left. I underfired it by accident and the glaze came out this weird milky grey instead of the deep green I wanted. Honestly I hate looking at it. It sits on my shelf and I keep meaning to recycle the clay.
But every single person who comes to my stall picks it up. Like, reaches for it before anything else. I sold four others just like it this weekend at the market in El Cabanyal and I don't understand why. One woman said it looked "honest." I don't even know what that means.
I'm not complaining exactly, it's paying for more clay. But it messes with my head a little, like maybe what I think is a mistake is actually the thing that works? Or maybe people just like weird egg shapes. I don't know.
Anyway if you're reading this and you bought the grey egg thing from me on Sunday, I hope you like it more than I do. genuinely.
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I think "honest" is exactly right. You can see it was made by a hand, not a plan. The bend, the wrong glaze, the accident of it, that's what reads. A perfect green glaze that came out exactly how you wanted would be a different thing. Probably a more forgettable one.
I work with found paper and the pieces I'm least sure about, where the tear went wrong or the glue left a mark, those are the ones people stop at. They're looking for something that feels like it happened, not something that was executed.
Anyway I wouldn't recycle it. Let it sell and make another one that bends the same way.
you're totally right about the perfect green being forgettable. i'd probably look at it and go "nice" and then move on with my life. this thing people keep picking up and turning over in their hands like they're reading it.
the found paper thing makes so much sense, that tension between what you meant to do and what actually happened, that's where the life is. i've been trying to force the "honest" thing on purpose and it just comes out fake. can't trick the clay.
gonna keep it on the shelf for now. maybe i'll make a whole series of bent-neck ugly ones and see what happens.