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Welcome to

NEWARTPOTTERY.COM'S

"INFO ABOUT THE POTTER" Page



WHO:

NEWARTPOTTERY.COM is a one man operation. And that's me, Tim Eberhardt

WHEN:

Born in St. Louis 1948. BA from St. Louis University 1970. BFA in sculpture from San Francisco Art Institute 1979. Been devoted to making pots since 1993.

WHERE:

Home and studio is a building in south St. Louis. I live upstairs on the second floor and have two store fronts on the first floor. One store front used to be a "Mom and Pop" grocery store and is now the clay studio. The other store front used to be a barber shop and is now my office. I sell primarily at art pottery venues. And now, on the web. Schedule permiting, I do sell pots out of the studio by appointment.

HOW:

At this point in time, I do everything there is in producing a pot. Bags of dry materials come in my door and beautiful pots go out. "I mix the clay and I sell the pot," has long been one of my mottos. Although I believe I am on the verge of buying all my clay mixed, as it is a terrific amount of work mixing clay. Nearly all my pots are cone 10 porcelain fired in oxidation. Cone 10 means high fired and going up to 2400 degrees. I wish I could say I can predict what the pot will look like when it comes out of the kiln, but I can't. If I am making a group of the same pots I have an idea of the finished product. The heat of the kiln and glaze thickness and the way I work does not allow tight control. In a sense, I am a painter as much a potter. I am mixing and combining glazes on the spot as I work. If I am working and listening to the TV and a show about John Singer Sargent comes on, I suddenly get really loose with the glaze! Potters deride me for not being concerned enough with "the clay", that is, not emphasising the nature of the material. Rather, I think of the white porcelain surface and what I can do with color. Painters like the pots, but are put off by the medium. So, I am somewhere in the middle. Between a painter and a potter. Between art and craft.

WHY:

I have always been a realist. Accurate drawings, tight realist paintings and constructivist sculpture describe my creations before clay. I am still a realist as far as image is concerned. I try to capture nature in a pot; in a piece of vitrified clay frozen in time "forever." Well, at least till someone drops it. There is great joy in doing this.

My pieces are simple. At least in theory. Often on the bottom of early pots- and recent ones- I write, "Beauty is my main concern." That's at the heart of it. I, like most art potters historically, take my inspiration from nature. Ideas for pots are in my back yard. Early spring means peony pots, summer means chive and coneflower pots, winter means snow landscapes. There is no shortage of inspiration right outside the door. My concerns at this moment are landscape, weather and time of day. As the years pass by, I find myself making the same pots at the same times of year. And it is a visual treat to line up peony pots done each May for the last six years. Each pot is different, yet the same. The most recent ones are usually the most beautiful, but not always.

I have collected art pottery for the last twenty years. That was my initial inspiration for what I made. But now my notice of nature carries me away. I quit buying art pottery. It has gotten too expensive, (and I prefer my pots.) The last piece I bought three years ago was a primo piece of blue Wisteria. I paid $630. I said, "That's it; no more." Dealers are asking $1800. for that pot now.

The prices the old pots are bringing are the reason I can sell my pots. I can spend three days on a pot and feel confident I'll get paid what I expect. I sell primarily to art pottery collectors and since they collect the old stuff, they immediately and intuitively appreciate my pots. Well, most do. And the others will come around in time. They know the old stuff is scarce and expensive, and that makes my pots worthy of consideration. I make pots "in the spirit of" rather than "in the manner" of the art pottery movement. And most people realize that I am picking up the ball where the old potters dropped it in the middle of the last century. I'm just next in a long line of art potters. And I love it.



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