There is that famous set of talks delivered to women college students in Britain in 1928 by Virginia Woolf called "A Room of One's Own". I consider my wife a modern woman and more, but I was still surprised when she said,"I want a putty knife of my own."
We have a putty knife and I rarely use it. I have never used it with putty but we generally keep it in my tool box but sometimes elsewhere. "Why do you want a putty knife? I asked, thinking ours was too little or too big or too ugly or something. "'So I will know where mine is", she answered.
She is getting into slab building. It seems to be a grownup version of what we did in art class: roll the clay out into a flat sheet and make what you want of it. She wants to make bigger, flashier things. Enough with pots and bowls and dishes.
She is also getting into textures. For instance, get a plastic "knit" bag of oranges, dump the fruit and press the bag into clay. Makes a nice pattern. Same thing with rug backing or some jewelry. It is art, Buddy, and art is everywhere.
"A Room of One's Own" is a bookstore in Madison, WI, home of strong liberal thought. The talks and subsequent print (available free to whoever looks it up in Google in a PDF download) was aimed at getting rid of the idea that boys should be educated but not girls. I think boys need an education but all of us, the whole society, the whole civilization needs girls to be educated.
