May Clay Club: Ikebana pots, functional and aesthetic requirements at Odyssey Clayworks in Asheville on May 11

May Clay Club will be next Wednesday, May 11th, at 6 pm at Odyssey ClayWorks in Asheville. Dian Magie has coordinated with Lynn Forbes to provide a special presentation about Ikebana pots. The program is titled, "Ikebana pots, functional and aesthetic requirements."

Lynn will provide an opportunity for a critique of Clay Clubbers' Ikebana pots. See the information below, and consider bringing Ikebana pots to May Clay Club for this special opportunity.

Lynn has studied Ichiyo School of Ikebana, a contemporary school, for 10 years. She has served as Vice President of the Ikebana International Chapter #74 in Asheville for the last 6 years and was instrumental in bringing the North American Regional Conference to Asheville in 2014 that included an exhibition of Ikebana and Ikebana pottery at Blue Spiral Gallery. She has exhibited her Ikebana arrangements at Art in Bloom at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts and the annual Ikebana exhibit at the NC Arboretum.

At the May 11th meeting Lynn will outline the functional and aesthetic qualities sought for Ikebana arrangements. This can be a lucrative niche market for potters as Ikebana exhibitors are always looking for new pots to best show off the creativity of arrangements. Tours of pottery studios and markets are held for Ikebana members. There are qualities of pottery that make them more desirable or rejected.

Members are invited to bring two pots that could be used for Ikebana, for Lynn to critique; a low flat vase or a tall vase. The low flat containers can be round, oval, square of rectangular in shape, small or large in size. Tall vases can have varying tops; torn tops are popular with advanced students.

See the document above for some basic Ikebana container designs.

As usual, we will have a potluck, so bring food to share. Dian Magie is helping to organize this meeting and will bring spring rolls, a large Asian salad, sake – think Asian for eats if you can. Clay Club is BYOB, so bring drink, too.

Directions: Odyssey ClayWorks is at 236 Clingman Avenue in Asheville. The Contact Page on the Odyssey website has a Google map you can use to get directions.

Questions? Contact Dian at dian.magie@gmail.com. You can also contact me at amy@amywallerpottery.com or 828-467-1183.

***Mitchell and Yancey area folks: if you're interested in carpooling, let me know.***