A long standing tradition in my family has always been awaiting the arrival of the JC Penney Christmas catalog. It was our "wish-book" for the entire family. From this we would make our Santa list. For me it was what was the newest and coolest GI Joe accessories. Penney's was always good at having an exclusive item that only they carried. Now mind you GI Joe's were 12" figures, not the little 3" figures of today. So when I got a submarine, it was HUGE! Now how do I bring all this around to ceramics, easy.
By the 70's I was rapidly expanding my interests in ceramics. I could walk into a ceramic shop (The "Patio Shop" in Salem,OR owned by Charlie and Wilda Green was my favorite) and spend literally hours looking at greenware. I could really care less about the finished samples. For me, I saw the greenware finished in my mind, how I would do it. My first ceramic "wish-book" was the Arnel's catalog. It's pages were heavy weight paper with crisp black and white photography of all the items they had. It was not huge by any means. But again, as I looked through each page I could see the pieces finished. My creative imagination was vast, and sometimes I would even see a variety of ways to finish one piece.
I was working on some research for my history of ceramics book and was looking through some old catalogs and issues of ceramic magazines of the early 70's. And there before me was a pristine copy of the Arnel's catalog. As I flipped through, I stopped at this spot(the page pictured above), page 46. I love every piece on this page. Today I would finish them differently then I would have in the 70's . . .I think. That train is awesome, and the tumbling snowmen and Santa's, would make great game pieces for a table top tic-tac-toe!
It's true, today I am the publisher of a ceramics magazine that offers painting techniques and prides itself as being full of color and ideas! But somehow "I" still long for a mold catalog of images done the way Arnel's did with their early editions. They were "the top dog" of all the catalogs. The page was matte black with high resolution shiny grey scale images of the pieces. Now back to reality. Don't worry, CERAKANVAS will always explode with bright vibrant color on every page! Now if only I can find the bisque for some of these pieces, I would get lost in the moment!
Go create something!
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