Winter Messages

I've been making some dishes similar to the piece below:

Wood-fired stoneware dish. I like the broad rim and the slightly dipped-in interior.

I also really enjoy how this shape has a bowled interior, but a straight exterior edge. I've also started rolling the rim, making it a little thicker than what is in the photo.

 I've been thinking about the potter Lester Breininger lately(I've linked an article by he and Greg Kramer since he doesn't have a website. A photo of him can be found here). Lester is a renowned potter and scholar who specializes in traditional Pennsylvania German red earthenware. He has very infamous  "porch sales" at his rather large and rambling home in Robesonia, Pennsylvania where people come from all over to see and buy his pottery. I picked up a few pieces about a year or so ago, and found that most of his dishes/plates have little messages or notes on the back. They're notes like, "it rained today" or, "It was sunny." 

Dish made by Lester Breininger Pottery.

The back of the dish reads, "Breininger Pottery/Robesonia, Pa./March 11, 2009/cloudy skies"

 I was told once about a "dirt dish" someone has that on the back was written something along the lines of "I made this for ---- who lives down the road and past the tree" which I also thought was kind of nice. So I decided to start writing some observations on my dishes. Here are my first few messages (sorry they're a little hard to read, I had just scratched them in and had not cleaned them up yet):

"Started to warm up today and the sun came out." Full date.

"Ice and some snow remains in the shade." I think I might just go with month and year.

I guess someday when the waster pile at my pottery studio is excavated hundreds of years from now (hahaha) people will have to piece together my funny messages. Remember potters, ceramics do not break down, so everything you make is likely to get dug up somewhere! Frightening thought isn't it? It makes me self conscious about the first pots I made...