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Also unlike her husband, who preferred to turn his vessels to a mental
image, Arie would sit down with paper and pencil and painstakingly
plan out individual forms and design features. Some of her ware was
adorned with applied clay grape clusters and dogwood blossoms;
other ware had painted on it morning-glories and butterflies in
metallic oxide paints. As a result, Mrs. Meaders's work —based on
what she thought would sell, mediated by her own creative impulses
— has uniquely individualistic characteristics about it. Explains her
son, Lanier, widi more than a trace of pride, "The kind of stuff that
she makes isn't made anywhere else in the world. And there ain't
anything mat can be compared to it."
For the most part, Arie Meaders has retired today from potterymaking
and devotes her energies to a local civic organization, the
Mountaineer Friends, where she shares home cooking and canning
recipes, braids rugs, and crochets afghans for the Cleveland fall
festival. In spite of her absence from the shop, her art pottery is well
remembered by collectors and family friends.
Figure 43d. Five-gallon jardinier by Lanier in 1976. Spar glaze.