Melchert recalled, “I was dragging my feet on the theme for the idea for the (Slant Step) show, so my contribution was the Anti-Slant Step, an elongated root shape to be mounted on the wall. The day came to bring in what we’d made and install it. Once in place, it looked like an ordinary show of merchandise. On their way home, the gang from Marin County changed their minds and returned to the gallery. They took everything down and piled it in a heap on the floor. I remember walking in the next evening and gasping at the sight of our effort reduced to a pile on the floor. As friends arrived, the shared excitement grew into a wonderful celebration. My wife Mary Ann made a cake in the shape of the Slant Step. The energy in the space was so terrific that some of us returned on the following afternoons for the pleasure of hanging out together. The long, tubular shape on which I based the Anti-Slant Step was one I’d been toying with for some time. I intended to use this form for the 20 American Studio Potters show at the American Craft Museum in New York, an exhibition that would later travel to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. While doodling around, I watched the shape of a hollow root emerge, reminding me of the colored plaster wall vase my grandparents had when I was a kid.”