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mixing clay/unified body of work

updated sun 7 oct 07

 

primalmommy on thu 4 oct 07


Thanks, all, for advice. I'm digging through my books as well, but I am
hoping for some "hands on" reviews that books can't provide.

David, what you suggest is just what Patrick did. (Clearly, he was YOUR
student!) He has screwed around with the studio "recipe" to get a clay
body that is kind of fluffy, easy to throw, and oddly pink. He let me
have some of his when he went home for the summer, and it was nice. It
still has more "tooth" than I'd like, though.

I have been bringing my own mystery-slop to school from home, to combine
with class recycle and some goldart. My own recycle is a combination:
about half Laguna's 850 buff stoneware (what they use in my class at the
Potter's Guild), and white stoneware (a b-mixy, pseudo-porcelain
substance) plus scraps of all kinds of assorted brown Laguna ^5 bodies
that I've kept wet in big rubber storage tubs over the years.

Sometimes, as Steve said, the porcelainous chunks don't rehydrate right,
and leave little bits of unmelted butter in the dough. If I ever do try
adding my porcelain slop, it will have to be drill-mixer consistency.

I mix my school clay wetter-than-can-be-used, and store it as long as
possible, after the hydration conversation we had here on clayart a
while back.

Sometimes it turns out good, sometimes not so much. It varies from batch
to batch. I am determined to nail down a few of the wild variables so I
can have a consistently useful and predictable clay body. I find I can
throw much lighter and higher with boxed clay than with school clay, as
weenie as that makes me sound.

Hubby hurt his back on a scissor-lift at work yesterday, so took a day
off today. He ran kids to ortho appointments and library, did my
banking, shipped my pots, and helped Ty study for an American History
test, so I could take my old bluebird pugmill apart. (It had developed a
couple of rust holes, and was extruding in random directions.) I relined
it with aluminum duct-pipe and then, when I went to do a pottery merit
badge with the scouts, Jeff drilled new holes and put it all back
together with shiny new bolts. So I'm back in the clay making business
at home, too.

I had a long conference with Diana, about planning for the mfa show. (I
have a copy of the floor layout for the gallery, and we get letters next
week to sign up for our dates.) My problem is probably no surprise to
people who know me (and my ADD) well: I can't seem to stop chasing
rabbits. I am turning out a lot of work, but it's of the
one-of-these-and-one-of-those variety.

I am not exactly losing interest in mid-series, as much as I am getting
really excited about the next new idea, and the next... to the point
where I literally jump out of bed some mornings, tiptoe past the kids'
doors (shhh, Lili, mustn't wake the homeschoolers) and run to the studio
to try something -- quick, before I lose it and am on to the next thing.
I work in such a hurry that, unless I stop myself, my wheel flies too
fast. When handbuilding I throw tools aside instead of putting them
down, as if performing some life-saving surgery with no seconds to lose.
It's absurd, but I can't seem to turn it down for long.

But I need to choose a unifying style for the work in my show, and I
know it, and time's a-wastin'. I have never been big on commitment. I
didn't marry until I was almost 30... not because I never fell in love,
but because I always did. An Oregon logger, a Tunisian engineer, a
soldier, an athlete, a political activist, a prof, a cowboy... and there
was always that next romance over the horizon, even more appealing.

So here I am with pots. When I finally married, it was to the right guy,
for all the right reasons... not the reasons I had always considered
(flashy? dangerous? visually exciting? impossible? challenging?) but for
more practical ones (good dad? good character? work ethic? sense of
humor? Will we have something to talk about when we're 80?) It was a
good move, and no looking back.

I suspect I will do the same with my body of work, this year... having
gone off on endless impractical flights of fancy, I will likely return
to a more settled, mature, classical kind of work where function wins
out over flash.

At least for my show. Then all bets are off.

It's time, though. I have 8 short months. Diana pointed out last night
that, pot-wise, my clock is ticking and it's time to settle on one of
the many options I have trucked out... rather than chasing off after
more and more innovation.

So that's my challenge. I'll keep you posted.

Yours
Kelly in Ohio... hoping that David Hendley and the Extrudinaires are
working on a new CD... I have about worn mine thin driving to and from
school.





http://www.primalpotter.com
http://www.primalmommy.com/blog.html


Be your own boss today! Go to Technical School. Click here.
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Lee Love on fri 5 oct 07


On 10/4/07, primalmommy wrote:
> Thanks, all, for advice. I'm digging through my books as well, but I am
> hoping for some "hands on" reviews that books can't provide.
>
> David, what you suggest is just what Patrick did. (Clearly, he was YOUR
> student!) He has screwed around with the studio "recipe" to get a clay
> body that is kind of fluffy, easy to throw, and oddly pink.

I had a chat with the clay boss at Continental the other day.
Low amounts of Iron will make the clay look like flesh crayolas. I
think he said their tableware clay has something like half as much
iron as their fireclay with iron. Yesterday, I mixed their
tableware with superwhite and got the color of Mogusa shino pink.
Today, I mixed their midrange with tableware clay and got the same
flesh colored clay. Doing both, with and without neph sye granules.

>He let me
> have some of his when he went home for the summer, and it was nice. It
> still has more "tooth" than I'd like, though.

The tableware clay is smoother. Mixed with superwhite, it feels
pretty much like porcelain.



--
Lee in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

http://mashikopots.blogspot.com/

"For a democracy of excellence, the goal is not to reduce things to a
common denominator but to raise things to a shared worth."
--Paolo Soleri

Kathy Forer on sat 6 oct 07


On Oct 5, 2007, at 12:23 AM, primalmommy wrote:

> I suspect I will do the same with my body of work, this year... having
> gone off on endless impractical flights of fancy, I will likely return
> to a more settled, mature, classical kind of work where function wins
> out over flash.
>
> At least for my show. Then all bets are off.
>
> It's time, though. I have 8 short months. Diana pointed out last night
> that, pot-wise, my clock is ticking and it's time to settle on one of
> the many options I have trucked out... rather than chasing off after
> more and more innovation.

There's a lot to be said in favor of returning to roots. Root
impulses, desires, the things that seduced and captivated in the
first place. Maybe it was a single form, maybe a color, composition
or sound, or possibly a utilitarian or purely decorative impulse.
You've explored many varied branches and need to focus and rediscover
now, again, "the force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age."

There are things that we go toward, visions or goals or things we can
almost taste. And there are the ways we get there. Education gets us
out of bad habits but that doesn't mean the original desires were
wrong-headed. They just want to be educated, led through shadows and
thickets even.

It's as much a process of rediscovery as discovery, even if we just
let go of what we once loved.

The way to go somewhere isn't to look at the end result, gluing
yourself to a goal often loses sight of the path. If you desire
looseness, freshness and spontaneity in your work, being carefree and
expressive won't always get you there. Same when you're looking for
something tight and analytical. Sometimes a rose is a rose is a rose
but then again it might not always be one.

School is a place of transformation. But when it's over you're on
your own again. What is your own?


Kathy
--
http://www.kathyforer.com

"How can you be alienated without ever having been connected? Think
back and remember how it was." -- Donald Barthelme, A Shower of Gold,
1964