Ceramics and Architecture - Allen Schill

ceramics, stoneware, glazed, vase, decoration, decorative motifs

Small Vase (very narrow neck, five organic motifs), 1973. 9.0 cm. diameter, 9.5 cm. ht.. Stoneware. (id#1711)

Thrown on the potter's wheel to attain the shape. Once thoroughly air-dried, a wax resist was applied with a small brush to establish the decorative motifs. The piece was immersed in the soupy glaze, which would adhere to the unwaxed portions and drain off the parts with the wax resist. Once the glaze was sufficiently dry, the piece was fired in a kiln at stoneware temperature. The organic motifs visible here are a corn plant at left, a scorpion in the enter, and a trilobite at right. On the far side one would see an arachnid and a butterfly.

Medium Vase (narrow neck, calligraphic motifs, three views), 1973. 10.6 cm. diameter, 14.0 cm. ht.. Stoneware. (id#1713)

Thrown on the potter's wheel for its basic shape. Once thoroughly air-dried, a wax resist was applied with a small brush to establish the decorative motifs. The piece was immersed in the glaze, which would adhere to the unwaxed portions and drain off the parts with the wax resist. When the glaze was sufficiently dry, the piece was fired in a kiln at stoneware temperature. By the way, as I did not know any real Chinese or Japanese characters, these decorative motifs mean nothing as characters, and are my own invention. I only wanted to imitate the style of authentic characters. Since then, however, I have seen artifacts of central Asia (from 1000 years ago and more) which, due to a local fascination with the styles seen in the cultures to their east, imitated Chinese characters instead of using their own alphabets. So, fakery and imitation have been a part of art history for millennia.

Medium Vase (wide mouth, oval glaze motif), 1973. 9.6 cm. diameter, 9.3 cm. ht.. Stoneware. (id#1712)

Thrown on the potter's wheel to attain its shape. Once thoroughly air-dried, a wax resist was applied with a small brush to establish the decorative motifs, here, a series of egg shapes.. The piece was immersed in the soupy glaze, which would adhere to the unwaxed portions and drain off the parts with the wax resist. Once the glaze was sufficiently dry, the piece was fired in a kiln at stoneware temperature.

ceramics, stoneware, glazed, vase, decoration, decorative motifs, incised

Lamp Base (tall skinny plants motif), 1973. 13.0 cm. diameter, 21.8 cm. ht.. Stoneware. (id#1714)

Thrown on the potter's wheel to attain the shape. While the clay was still soft, I incised a design in the sides with a dull pencil point. Once thoroughly air-dried, a wax resist was applied with a small brush to establish the decorative motifs, following the incisions already made. There's a schematic sun at the top (with solar flares) where the light-bulb fixture is inserted, and a bit of grass at the bottom. The piece was immersed in the glaze - which would adhere to the unwaxed portions and drain off the parts with the wax resist. When the glaze was sufficiently dry, the piece was fired in a kiln at stoneware temperature. I still have this lamp next to my bed.

ceramics, stoneware, glazed, hanging planter

Hanging Planter (acorn cap shape), 1973. 18.5 cm. diameter, 12.2 cm. ht.. Stoneware. (id#1715)

Thrown on the potter's wheel to attain its shape. While still soft, the clay was perforated with three large holes along the rim (to eventually suspend the planter), and an array of tiny holes in the bottom to allow drainage. When thoroughly air-dried, the piece was dunked in the glaze. Once the glaze was sufficiently dry, the piece was fired in a kiln at stoneware temperature.

Medium Vase (classic pear shape), 1973. 12.4 cm. diameter, 17.8 cm. ht.. Stoneware. (id#1717)

Thrown on a potter's wheel for the shape. When thoroughly dry, the piece was immersed in the glaze. When that was dry, the piece was fired in a kiln at stoneware temperature.

Piggy Bank, 1973. 17.2 x 10.0 x 12.5 cm. ht.. Stoneware. (id#1710)

This was done with the classic technique of draping strips of newspaper over a pear-shaped balloon, and then applying clay all over it, and adding details by hand, and cutting an aperture on top and on bottom for coins. Like all these pieces, it was fired first without any glaze, then again after the glaze had been applied. The glaze resembles clay, but of a thin, soupy consistency. When it is fired, it imparts the colors particular to that glaze formula. I think my usual glaze was called oak for its greenish-brown color

ceramics, modeling clay, sculpture, sculpted heads

Conehead and Roundhead, ca. 1996. DAF modeling compound. (CH: 7.0 x 2.0 x 2.0 cm. ca., id#1729; RH: 3.0 x 3.0 x 3.0 cm. ca., id#1719)

We didn't have DAF when I was a kid - just play-dough and modeling clay, like plasticine. But when I moved to Italy I discovered DAF, and made a few little projects with my stepson, who was six at the time. (He made a very good conehead, too.) Did you know that play-dough was invented in the 1930s, but not as something to play with - it was made to clean the coal residue that accumulated on wallpaper in the days of coal heating! With the shift to gas heating, or to radiators heated by oil burners, the demand for this cleaning product plummeted. But then someone in the manufacturing company heard of a nursery school teacher who had already been using this wall-cleaning putty for her little kids' art projects. They adapted the product, added bright colors, and the rest was history.

architecture, house plan, architectural drawing, blueprint, high school project

Pentagonal House Plan (Elevation), 1968-69. 80 x 100 cm. ca.. Pen and ink on paper. (id#1732B)

In my last year of high school I took a class in architectural drawing, and made a couple of sets of house plans. One plan I no longer have - for a two-story house with a rectangular plan, and a façade chiefly of wood and glass. But this plan, with a pentagonal design, I have kept. This is the elevation, or side view.

At the time I had been thinking seriously about going for an architecture degree - I had applied to programs leading to the Masters in Architecture at Syracuse University and at Carnegie-Mellon. I was much enthused by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and his philosophy of building - that a house or other building should seem to grow from its site, and to belong to it. My father had run a construction business for several years after the end of the Second World War. (His own father had been a builder as well.) Pop was not an architect, but he knew how things were built, so he would draw up plans in blueprint and have an architect sign off on them.

Pentagonal House Plan (Main and Ground Floors), 1968-69. 80 x 100 cm. ca.. Pen and ink on paper. (id#1732C)

Here's the drawing for the ground floor and main floor. Since the entire house was supported by cantilevers extending from a narrow base, the ground floor was essentially an entryway and utility area. The main floor included the kitchen and dining areas, the laundry room, and a big living room.

Pentagonal House Plan (Upper Floor), 1968-69. 80 x 100 cm. ca.. Pen and ink on paper. (id#1732D)

This is the design for the the upper floor, with bedrooms and bathrooms. All the bedrooms had skylights, since I loved the idea of being able to see the sky while you read in bed, drift off to sleep, or whatever you do at night.

Pentagonal House Plan (Corner and Base Construction), 1968-69. 80 x 100 cm. ca.. Pen and ink on paper. (id#1732E)

Here is a detail showing the construction of the base and how it supports the house.

Pentagonal House Plan (Roof Plan), 1968-69. 80 x 100 cm. ca.. Pen and ink on paper. (id#1732A)

Finally, the roof plan. My thanks to Mr. Sheinwold, a swell guy and an excellent teacher, who conducted our architectural drawing class at Islip High School.

Ceramics and Architecture

I've only occasionally been engaged with ceramics and architecture. In my last year at Columbia College, intending to get certification as an art teacher, I enrolled in a few classes at Teachers College. One was a ceramics class, where we worked in stoneware - as distinct from earthenware, which uses another type of clay and is fired at a lower temperature in the kiln. Stoneware is also much more durable.

In our first class, our professor demonstrated the use of the potter's wheel, in this case turned by a large, very heavy wheel at the base, which was propelled by repeatedly pushing away with the heel. Once set in motion, the momentum of the wheel kept the upper, smaller wheel (where objects were "thrown" or shaped) turning for a good long time, requiring only an occasional kick when it started to slow down.

Starting with a big ball of clay, he gradually threw an enormous bowl - at least 24" in diameter and 16" high - with sides no more than about 3/8" thick near the base, and thinner near the top. (All the while with a tobacco pipe clenched in his teeth.) It was an awesome display of skill. When he was done, he put his pipe down, took a thin wire stretched between two corks, and mercilessly sliced through the clay from the upper edge to the base. We were then even more aghast that he would so casually destroy what he had made. He pointed out minor defects in the bowl - slight inconsistencies of thickness, an occasional bubble. Then he said, "Whatever you make with stoneware is going to last 50,000 years. So make sure it's worth keeping."

In my last year of high school, when I was considering a career in architecture, I took a class in architectural drawing, where during the semester I drew up plans for two residential houses. The plans were done with technical pen and ink on large sheets of tracing paper. We had a blueprint printer mounted on the wall at the back of the classroom. You just had to feed your completed drawing in the long horizontal slot, then press start, and a same-size blueprint would emerge, along with your drawing.

The drawings for my first project somehow have been lost somewhere along the wayside of life. It was a two-story house with a modern style, lots of wood and glass, and a balcony in the front. Its floor plan was a conventional rectangle. But my second project had a pentagonal floor plan, and I have kept these drawings in a big cardboard tube for all this time. It was also a bit more adventurous in its design, the whole house being balanced on a cylindrical base much smaller than the house above it, supporting it with five steel cantilevers (and a bit suggestive of a flying saucer perched on its landing gear). The house, with prominent wooden and glass elements, and balconies all around on both main levels, had large picture windows all around, and - my favorite touch - skylights all over the top floor, where the bedrooms were situated. The setting for the house was a partially wooded section of the grounds of our high school, with a stream running nearby. I held firmly to Frank Lloyd Wright's dictum that a house should be integrated with its setting, that it should appear to belong there and to grow from it organically.