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making more functional ware: "Well, I make churns, pitchers, flower
pots — something that people use, something mat working people
need." At his house he keeps several five- and six-gallon decorated
vases "just to look at" and vows that he will someday accumulate a
small collection of his different pieces.
Those alterations that have been made around the shop and pottery
yard have been mostly undertaken for convenience and saving time.
The electric pug mill now sits next to his wheel inside die ware shop,
where it is most accessible during work. The old clay mill, on the
other hand, is sunk into a decaying pile outside and, except for the
wrought-iron band that encircled the tub, has completely deteriorated.
Lanier has also replaced the original cast-iron stove that warmed
the shop in wintertime with a larger heater fashioned from two oildrums.
In the yard, the glazing rocks, eroded mrough years of turning,
have been abandoned like the clay mill to a corner out of the way of
traffic. Lanier expresses the intention now and then of having a new
bottom rock quarried, but presently contents himself with using commercial
glaze materials in place of the stone-ground variety. Because
he can substitute calcium carbonate "whiting" and a readily available
"patent glaze" for ground glass and settlin's in his ash glaze (the two
are still mixed together with local ashes), the problem is not a pressing
one.
Shortly after Cheever Meaders's old tunnel kiln was filmed in 1967,
it, too, deteriorated to the point where it had to be abandoned. Lanier
immediately constructed a new furnace that he maintained by means
of a partial rebuilding of the outside walls every two or three years.
With this new kiln, he experimented by adding oil burners, which,
when used in combination with wood firing, functioned reasonably
well. Beset by technical problems and the rising expense of fuel oil,
Lanier has since disassembled his burners and returned to wood-firing
alone. For the time being, at least, he is able to secure ample supplies
of scrap lumber for fuel from a local sawmill.
One final and perennial problem is finding turning clay. When
access to clay beds that he and his father had mined for over twentyfive
years was withdrawn, Lanier was forced to search further afield
for resources. Presently some of his clay comes from Banks County
around the town of Homer. Ocmulgee red clay and kaolin are
obtained in the Macon area and are now stored in barrels in die shop,