Orton Cone Box Show - The Beginning

The Beginning

As a professor of ceramics at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, Bill Bracker had access to all of the ceramic department facilities, but he had a studio and salt kiln at his home because he wanted his students to use all the space they could in the university studio and kilns. One of the neighborhood kids, Jerry Evans, expressed an interest in pottery, so Bill allowed Jerry a limited amount of kiln space in exchange for helping keep the studio clean, performing other studio "grunt" work, and helping to fire the salt kiln. Jerry maximized his firing space by making tiny pots, much like the small draw rings he helped Bill make and pull from each firing. After just a few firings, Jerry proudly showed Bill a cigar box full of his miniature pots...enough pieces for an entire exhibit in one small box! Bill immediately thought of all the times he himself had stored draw rings, fired mud dauber nests, used cones, and small ceramic pieces in cone boxes. The cigar box full of Jerry's pots also reminded him of his ceramic "sketchpads," which were actually four shadow boxes filled with miniature versions of different forms and styles of his pottery.

In 1974, while doing a workshop at Drake University, Bill was encouraged by Lee Ferber and Richard Peeler, fellow ceramic teachers, to pursue the idea of a juried show for miniature ceramic pieces. A potter can have great slides of a not-so-great pot or lousy slides of a great pot, but a juror may never know until the actual piece is seen in person. A show of miniatures would be a perfect opportunity for a juror to adjudicate the actual pieces while still keeping shipping and handling costs down for artist entries. The question of size limitation was almost a foregone decision because of Bill's history with storing little pots in the Orton Standard Cone Boxes, a 3" x 3" x 6" box that potters quickly accumulated in almost every studio. Although he could get some support for the show through Purdue University (where he still taught), he knew he needed additional sponsorship. Approaching Orton Ceramic Foundation was the next logical step, both for sponsorship as well as approval for the size designation. The proposal was funded and the Orton Cone Box Show became a reality in 1975.