Really really old works

Going to go search in "my pictures" for something to plop into my blog.
You need some pottery to look at, I'm a thinkin'...

This piece, the only bust I've ever done, was completed in my first year of return to college.  My son was about this age at the time.  Unfortunately, there's this big crack in the clay on the forehead, which was obvious.  But I kept it around for a while, since the emotional attachment was pretty high.  Now it's gracing some landfill somewhere.  I am sorry I didn't take a hammer to it, always wondering about the permanence of my work that is less than the intended almost-perfection.  Like how archeologists will think of our culture with so many bad pots out there!

Fast forward till when I was about to graduate in ceramics, and I had developed a cone 6 clay body, and was enjoying making stains in it.  So this is one of the few vases I kept, since I was still really enjoying doing sculptures.  Guess which is more likely to be kept and moved from house to house however, down through time?

OK, this sculpture has been around longer than any of my kids.  And I actually am still good friends with the girl (woman now) with her back to me.  This earthenware was made around 7th grade (I won't tell you the year I was in 7th grade!).  It has tempera paint and a clear varnish on it.  I left this piece with my parents when I left home, and they used it for....

a doorstop

 for the next 30 years or so.  I finally rescued it.  By that time I'd sent many pieces that I thought were much prettier to them.  When I visited however, I was unhappily surprised that there weren't any in evidence, except the doorstop.

Though this plate was made (and dated) in 1981, I eat off of it almsot daily.  It's porcelain, and the blue blobs were pieces of lace infused with cobalt,  and I have no idea what the glaze was.  It's one of a kind, and feels really good to handle.

Do you have favorite pieces that you live with also?