Well now folks, may I present you with a tale of a pottery teacher, one of his creatively challenged students, and doubtless but one of their many obscure interests.
Once upon a time a university student in Armidale, NSW, Australia, enrolled in a pottery class at a local community college. For some reason or another. Aside from functional woodwork at school, he had never done anything creative. It was a relatively short course culminating in the production of a pottery item of choice. OK, I confess, the guy is me. And this is what I produced. It was meant to be somehow reminiscent of a kookaburra. Ewww. Enough said about my pottery abilities. Let’s move on.
My teacher, whose name is Rod, endured my rambling whilst I tried to smoothen the Mars-like surface of my pot. Amongst other things I told him of my interest in airships, and sometime later invited him to a film night at home with some friends. I borrowed a film from the national library. I think it was called ‘Shadow in the Clouds’.
Scroll forward a few more weeks and to my amazement Rod presented me with a high-tea setting of Zeppelin-inspired pieces. Now that’s what I call a teacher! It was fabulous, but he was apologetic about cracks in the glazing. Four decades later I am still waiting for bits to fall off.
I never did follow my pottery calling, but I did wind up at the Stadtisches Bodensee-Museum in Friedrichshafen, Germany for the Zeppelin-Sammlung Heinz Urban exhibition in 1986. And yes, it even included some crockery from one or more of the famous zeppelins. If only I wasn’t worried about bits falling off, I might have packed, and lent them, some of Rod’s work. It would have rounded-out their exhibition rather nicely, I think.
Now without further ado, here are some pics of the R800 airship collection comprising five plates, nine cups, one tea pot, one sugar bowl and lid, and one toast/cake rack.
G’day Roderick! Stay well
The following are related online links:
https://www.zeppelin-museum.de/