Lili Krakowski on thu 29 nov 07
I was corrected about a previous comment. The film was called "Shogun".
Thank you, Correctors.
Many years ago two old Yankee women killed themselves during Spring
cleaning. No, not from despair at the soot on the kitchen ceiling. but
accidentally, by mixing chlorine bleach and ammonia. Till then I had not
known the mix makes mustard gas.
It would be dreamsville if no one could be a potter without knowing all
about materials. But that ain't happening! Anyone can go into any supply
house carrying a clay magazine and, as people do with cooking mags. rattle
of a shopping list for stuff to go into a desirable looking glaze! (By the
way: My clay mags which go back decades, carry many now-known-as-toxic
glaze recipes! No warnings! Available at your library! )
A book about science for the potter told of a dear little child in a dear
little school, with a wonderfully intentioned teacher, who made her adored
daddy a mug. The man loved apple juice, always kept a cup of it at his
side--and his loving child gave him lead poisoning and he died. Good
enough for ya'?
The other day, during the first salvo of this discussion, I made a list of
toxic materials to which I have been exposed.Lead and lead paint: from
soldering on pipes, pipes, furniture, lead glazes, lead crystal, toys. We
played with mercury from broken thermometers, painted our cuts with
mercurochrome, and used it as "war paint". Boric acid was used in lots of
medication, including petroleum jelly.
AT SAC I handled all sorts of lead with bare hands, I painted with white
lead, our kilns were unvented, and I made and used manganese laden clay.
Our electric kilns were unvented.
One could buy amphetamines, codeine, and other opiates over the counter.
Potassium permanganate was used to swab infected throats. In Brazil we
washed salad greens with potassium permanganate solution. We took
enterovioform for --well, you know--and it now is recognized as a
neurological threat, and off the US market.
Wearing safety goggles and work gloves I am cutting to the chase.
What is gained by keeping dangerous materials in a public studio? Or
exposing the public to glazes that may or may not leach dangerous materials?
Or this refrain of "This is perfectly safe if you know what you are doing'?
The point is too many do NOT know what they are doing, not at their current
stage, and, as I think of ClayArt as a Free University, and of us as
teachers, think we should err on the side of safety.
Yes, barium blues are glorious! And if and when made by INFORMED EXPERTS
who have each batch of glaze tested on a pot from each firing, the it all
can be safe. When Average Amateur does it....NO!
Of course everyone in clay, every beginner, every amateur, everyone
operating a teaching studio at any level should know it all, research it
all, but I think there is something vengeful and elitist in the "I'm
alright, Jack etc" attitude. "So you want to play with the big kids? Well,
it's risky, but I won't protect you."
Some years ago the blessed Monona Rossol published a list of safer glaze
ingredients. It is a list I follow.
We mourn the deaths of the Shaners and the Copers--and of painters and
graphic artists who died of lead poisoning. But too many among us
pooh-pooh current dangers. So the next generation--whoopdidoo-- probably
will be able to mourn X and Y who died of Z.
I desperately wish that the nurses, the doctors among us would speak up
about their experiences with and advice on the circulation of toxic
materials....
Lili Krakowski
Be of good courage
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