Hiro Matsusaki on fri 14 feb 97
Dear Nil, Sam and Other Clayarters:
I have an older CI wheel. Hardly abused (not much used), it was great. I
must speak here in past tense. Please understand. I used it in the living
room. Wonderful. It's still there. You will shortly see why. The wheel
was good, but the scenery outside was better--two windows looking out onto
snow-covered trees adjacent to a summer campground (closed rest of the year),
and the cars going by to an overfished trout pond neaby on the confiscated
property which used to be my organic market garden. I exaggerate, but you
get an idea. No comparison to small windows in the basement. Not that I
ever set up my studio there, or even dragged my wheel downstairs, like most
people do initially in their pottery career. I knew better. I knew I had to
improve my sense of beauty, before producing any pottery. So, I gazed out
into the picturesque scenary and spent more time contemplating my navel or
the center of the wheel than kneading or throwing clay. The silence of the
CI wheel was indeed a godsend. Other wheels had been all too noisy for my
taste. The noise was like "preponderance of evidence" for meditation to
nurture my aesthetic sense. And I made far less unsatisfactory pots that
way. The reason? I hardly made any pots. I never timed myself, so I don't
know. You must trust me. A few pots I made all turned out right.
Now my spouse occupies the living room to make handmade soap with beeswax.
Maybe once a month, more in the winter. Nothing in the summer. I haven't
counted. Wonderful stuff, it cleans and keeps my hands neat, tidy and
supple. The soap is great, but the fact that I hardly throw these days
helps. You see, I had to give up throwing in the living room on any regular
basis, since I was the one who encouraged this venture of soap making in the
first place. And I am allergic to anything non-organic artificial
substance--no detergents, no cheap perfume, etc. I have a wonderful excuse
to stay out of any burnout, nowadays. If I do not occupy a space, someone
will use it. Something had to give when resources are limited. Really?
Well, hell. I confess. It's just a bunch of bulls, I say.
Some observations and generalizations about the supposed improvements, pedals
and so forth. I don't know anything about the new pedal, but generally, if
it is true, commercialism is to blame. Not the pedal. Look at other things
in life. Whatever is cheper to produce gets marketed as new, new of news,
new and improved, and so on. What does it mean for a soap which is new on
newly improved? Some of you have tried first-hand. I know better. I am an
expert on soap. I spent a lot of time on soapmaking basics, chemistry,
history, etc., etc. All ins and outs. Better than any web sites. That's
why I do not bother with one myself...here you go again, the truth is that I
haven't had the time to get organized and venture into the web site busines.
I hate spend money on something that does not generate money.
I firmly believe things get better with age. The CI wheel is quiet, but it
is not soundless. But I cannot demand absolute silence. If I want to
meditate, maybe I need a soundless wheel. Intuitively, however, I know that
the new, bigger and the more expensive is not always better. Consider the
price differential, and the prestige of owning whatever is new. Then
subtract the eternal truth, that time can turn new into old quickly. In
pottery it does not work that way, you know. It takes ...of a time to be an
old potter. Read the recent thread on this subject.
Back to the main theme. Planned obsolescence was once the norm in the US
auto industry. Foreign (i.d. Japanese) competition put a halt to this
uniquely American nonsense, that wasted resources but that was in harmony and
in balance with (i.e. matched) the abundance of everything (bought from
natives for trinkets or otherwise stolen). No offense intended. I'm just
speaking the truth. Pardon me. ... Even today, and probably more so,
whatever saves production costs, two cents or two bits, will be passed on as
improvements. This declaration is absolutely true. Not mine, the maker's.
Only that it applies and benefits the maker, and not the user. Sometimes,
yes. But often no. The truth can cut both ways. Just remember please:
Wheels age slower still, than the age of average products on the market
would, since a potter's skill comes into play here, especially an old
potter's. Most products on the market today are idot proof, that's why they
sell.
In contrast, wheels do not make potters "potters" or whatever you think will
be made of. No more than kilns make potters pots "a good pot". Sorry Lou
for your flattop. I believe in you. We are talking about wheels here. But
potters can make wheels sing. Some noisily but others can be made more
silent. Either in harmony and in unison.
Hiro Matsusaki
I believe things get better with age. Lot of food items (alcohol included)
are like that. Take wet clay, well mixed with proper content. If there is
one thing potters agree on, well aged clay tops the list. The old trick of
peeing-in makes sense. There are both aerobic (oxygen loving) and anaerobic
(loves lack of oxygen to survive) bacteria in this world. Some in
underground caves can eat metal oxides and prosper. Typically copper can be
leached out for mining purposes, using such bacteria. Yes, its' done. I was
once an official translator for such scientific writings, with security
clearance. (This material must have been top national interest.)
Seriously, I mention this bull not only to entertain, but also to
authenticate my assertion. Ask any scientist worth a nickel. You see,
bacteria can utilize oxygen already combined with whatever matter present in
the immediate environment like water. Do you know where the content of honey
bucket went or came from? A simple pit in the field, where bacteria devoured
the nutritive matter contained. Without any human intervention to mix the
liqued at great expense to aerate or oxidizd.
?hWhen I used it, I just spread some old towls around it on the rug. I
hardly used any water for throwing pots up to eight inches high. I am
basically lazy, and hate cleaning up. My pants stayed clean, as well. So,
the shallow pan caught most of the wet stuff.
The pedal response was and I imagine is a tad slow at startup. Silent, but
not without some sound. I guess nothing is perfect in this world.
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