tony clennell on thu 20 dec 07
thanx for the welcome home from many Clayarters. Alamo Dale coined it for
me. You come home and your mind is swimming with influence. I tried to
answer it in a post to my blog along with some images. It really comes down
to the clay you have at hand.Presenters so often skip the most important
part in the process- the clay. Clay from a plastic bag gives a certain look,
clay dug from the ground yet another. I think attention paid to your clay is
the strongest foundation to build a body of work upon. Take a look at the
pots. They are unquestionably by me but see the difference the clay makes.
As always I'm interested in what ya think. The saggar clay gave me a more
sculptural look and the porcelain a look more suited to useful pots with an
edge.
Firing our Geil today- It cost us $18,000 10 years ago when the Cdn dollar
was a 65 cent dollar. this firing is # 230 glaze firing/230 bisque. If you
figure a firing has minimal $3000/4000 worth of work in it that means close
to a million bucks in pots9 don't get too excited some were wholesaled and
some were landfill so I ain't rich. The point I'm making is don't let hank
scare you off a $25,000 beautiful kiln perfectly designed for those of us
getting older. The clay is most important to the making but the kiln is the
heart of the studio. Great pots badly fired are worthless. How much would a
back hoe operator spend on a backhoe, a taxi driver their taxi, a pizza
store their oven, -you get the picture. Buy quality and look after it and
it'll just keep paying ya back.
Best,
Tony
P.S A good time for Canadians to buy US products. They are great quality and
our buck is strong. Another thing I learned in China- buy American!
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http://sourcherrypottery.com
http://smokieclennell.blogspot.com
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