Hiro Matsusaki on sun 9 mar 97
Different and Better Pots? I want the kiln. Give me the formula for one.
That's all I ask. What the pots got to do with kiln building, anyway?.
Plenty.
You want a new gas kiln to make your pots different and better. Right?
Forget it. It will not happen. Your new kiln is different and better from
the old one, for sure. But it will not make your pots any different or
better. Consider this. If you know what you are doing, you will fire the
new kiln the same way in oxidation and produce larger number of pots in one
shot. How should the pots be any better or different?
I talked about the three year time span in your decision for kiln building.
The new kiln was built practically overnight. Now what are you going to do?
Use it the same way, if you are a self-reliant sort. Just don't stack it as
tight as any communal kilns would force you to do. Otherwise your firing
frequency would be too low. No experimentation as a result. Normally, gas
kilns are built for highfire. For maximun flexibility. To use if for medium
or low fire, or even bisque will cut down on your electric bills. Gas is
cheaper than electricity. (Gas is sometimes used to generate the power,
O.K.?) How much savings you can achieve depend on the volume you produce.
Larger the volume, more economy in power bills. Even if you do not produce
in volume, the kiln will force you to change your method of production and
experimentation. Your pots may get larger (different) and better, as a
result, or worse (your workmanship may not catch up to the new level
demanded). A new kiln does not make you a better potter, anymore than a new
house makes you a better person. It's the same old you that eat the same
stuff to make the same pots.
The larger firing capacity of gas kiln, on the contrary, will magnify your
skill deficiencies or weaknesses.
Why? Initially, a new gas kiln will fire your pots exactly the same way as
with the old, if you so choose. Don't jump into reduction or high fire
translucent porcelain. But you will eventually start using different clay,
glaze, atmosphere, and so on. Experiment in an orderly fashion, if you want
to minimize the risk. If you are young and have time on your side, be
stubborn and try to do things which are known not to work. That's all right
with me.
I am a believer in proper balance and perspective.
I have observed that there are two types of potters. At one end are those
who can throw razor sharp pots. Trim, well balanced, perfectly symmetrical,
uniform walls, sharp, sharp forms. A magician in tall pots, large plates,
small teapots and nice mugs, and complex forms, etc. What they produce
require no decoration to dazzle the beholder. At the other end are those who
have excellent decorative skills. They can paint, make elaborate ornaments,
and dazzle the viewer by combination of rich colors and lifelike drawings.
Decoration may as well be on a sheet of paper or canvas to be appreciated.
The form is secondary. It's there to enhance the color image. Their skills
are unbelievable.
Rarely we see these two qualities in a single studio potter and artist.
Of course we have seen enough of the rare potter who combines the worst in
these two qualities in a volume production setting using a large fibre gas
kiln (built on the spot by an expert builder) and hords of unskilled
apprentices to throw pots and make decoration with only a couple of Oriental
brush strokes and reliable single glaze, and no stamps. Cheap. Cheap. But
that person sure can sell and sell, and get organized like hell. (Don't
forget, there is some risk in this, like loss of respect from other potters.
But there are new potters coming out all the time who don't know how a
horse's tail differ from the mane. In fairness, the two types of hair have
to be mixed to make a good pressure brush for ukiyoe (wood cut block)
printing, but the new potters have no inkling of the mass production
techniques of ukiyoe.) Other dispirited, disorganized, and traditional
potters naturally resent this sort of exploitation in all directions which
may bring in richness and beauty in that person's belongings or personal life
(like younger lovers or higher social stature). Needless to say, this sort
of happenings could do untold damages to the rest of the close-knit
community. It's like the free trade bringing in tons of cheap factory-made
stuff from an advanced foreign country to replace the domestic handcraft
market (in less developed society) where quality and tradition prevailed.
But that is what we call technology transfer, from where the values do not
exist other than the color of the money called progress, and hence the large
is beautiful, and heck with the traditional environment, which, despite the
disparaging connotations, has made the transfer possible in the first place.
A kind of Trojan horse, isn't it?
I digressed. You may not have realized it, but you have reached a sort of
balance or state of homeostasis (an ecological parlance meaning a state of
equilibrium, a natural state of balance in both animate and inanimate matters
which it will eventually reach, if left alone without outside interference.
In Zen, it is that state reached after meditation, I am not a monk so I
don't know the technical term, a floating boundary state in heaven, or
something, please do not quote me on this, but you get the idea, I hope.). A
larger volume of pots to be fired at any sitting means not only a
quantitative jump but also a qualitative change. Remember the previous
paragraph on the rare potter? Newer things must balance. Even in the same
old medium oxidization firing. Things are no longer the same.
After a while, during the three year period, new colors (decoration) must
match the new form (wheel or hand built) which are often much larger than
previously made. New throwing techniques like tall pots should be
cultivated. The larger number of pieces you can produce must find a new
market. Reduction glazes may dictate change in form or clay, The list can
go on and on. If the switchover is made one by one, and slow, things should
work out fine.
In three years, your cost of kiln building should have been amortized. And
the fuel savings alone should have paid for it. That's my rule of thumb.
Never forget the risk factor. The risk should be minimized. And you can do
it.
And your pots certainly should have become different and better.
HM
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