Smithsonian Contributions - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

138
Lanier removes churn from
wheelhead with lifters.
Puts handle and ear on
churn.
to death. And if he owes anything, or in
debt, hell lose everything he's got. But if
he worked for somebody else that knows
what they're doing for about five or six
years and then try it on his own, he'll
usually make a success of it.
C: Well I make my churns in two pieces.
That's a very common thing to a potter.
They do that in order to get the top heavy
enough for the churn to stand, to keep
them from warping about in die drying.
My brother, Wiley, the Browns worked
down here for my Uncle Bill, just about
all of 'em done that. I wouldn't make a
big churn without it.
I don't know what's going to happen to
the pott'ry interests through here.
There's nobody a-learning. They's none
of these young boysll learn it at all. Ah,
there's some of 'em did learn but they
won't work at it. There's too much of
somediing else for 'em to see. It's a. . .
you get at that wheel, go to making. . .
you've got to be diere at that wheel. You
can't get out here and look at the world
a-passing by. I've got one boy, he was up
here the other day, and he can make
right pretty little stuff, make pretty
pieces, but they're small. I don't know,
some people can learn and some can't.
I've seen boys come in here, and men,
do everything they could to learn, and
the more they'd do the less diey know.
L: Well, I've got some things here that are
called lifters. These things have been
used... I know I'm the third generation
that's using these same lifters.
Clay has to be somewhat softer to make
a handle than it does for a churn. You
have to stretch it out, like stretching