primalmommy on fri 8 feb 08
We're all entitled to like what we like.
I'm not a fan of Opera. That doesn't mean it's stupid... or that I'm
stupid. Unlike my crabby student in intro-to-studio-art-for-non-majors,
who folds his arms and declares most art "Garbage", I know that there is
SOMETHING about Opera that could be rewarding, to me -- if I took the
time to learn about it, expose myself, and understand it. But it's not
very high on my priority list. So. Opera. Meh.
I assume nobody would close down the Opera house because Kelly Savino
doesn't get it. I suspect that artists/potters who do work that means
something to them aren't going to get ruffled or give a rat's ass if
everybody "gets it". Most mature makers have gotten past the popularity
contest. If we were just out to wow the masses we'd all be making wooden
yard butts and art-on-a-stick, anyway.
And Tony and Tony, I can't imagine teachers I know would stay away from
clayart because of differering opinions, or the occasional bull in the
china shop. Most of them barely have time to make their own work, much
less read clayart. (I'm convinced that I would still be able to do both,
as a prof... I'll have to get back to you on that).
For all the "gurus" --and some voices on clayart I miss, myself, who
have left -- there are new people waiting in the wings for a chance to
be helpful. For all who leave because the conversation doesn't challenge
them enough or offer new material, there are as many who leave because
so much of the discussion is over their heads or Ivor makes their heads
spin. (love ya, Ivor, but you're too smart for me.). Some only read the
contentious stuff and drama.. others are upset by it and want us all to
play nice. One clayarter told me "there are only five people worth
reading on clayart"... I said, "Yeah, everybody says that.. but they
would all pick a different five".
As for mel's woman in the basement, and efforts to level the playing
field for women/electric/non academic types... I applaud the effort, but
the way I see it, that battle is yesterday's news. I am sure there are
some sour old dawgs out there who think women can't build kilns or run
programs, but how long until they retire? and who 's really listening to
that crap anymore, anyway?
Nobody has to convince me that women can make stunning, exciting work in
clay. I've been surrounded by them all my life, the books are full of
them, I take their workshops. The little college girl from the Toledo
Potter's Guild is on the cover of this month's CM... nobody needed to
explain to her that she wasn't a man and likely wouldn't "make it".
Who's the chair of my department? Who's my editor at Clay Times? Who
runs the guilds all over the country? Somebody forgot to tell them that
the deck was stacked, too.
It's like explaining Civil Rights history to my kids, who could not
imagine such a thing as racism to begin with. Or telling my Molly that
women don't have to wear aprons and be housewives if they don't want
to... "I'd tell my mom you said so, but she's up on the roof with a
chainsaw right now, because dad's at work and a tree came down in the
storm"...
So, women potters are making great work in electric kilns? well... duh.
OK: Woodfiring.
There are not enough lifetimes, apparently, to "Master" every sort of
kiln. From my first electric kiln in 1989 to the start of school in '06,
I barely got started. I went from bottled glazes, to mixing my own. I
sorted out (pregnant, or nursing) the safest materials, bought bigger
kilns with pot money, learned to vent and ramp and slow cool, tested
like my hero Ababi and my shero Alisa, and came up with a stable of
reliable, interesting glazes that felt like they fit my work.
I became weary, though, of "shiny-ness". I learned that a lot of matt
glazes at ^6 are just underfired (thus unstable or soft). I finally got
some nice matts by slow cooling, but I still felt like there were notes
I wanted to play that this instrument couldn't reach.
Why -- beyond the obvious lack of funds or access -- should we be
satisfied with one tool? Half the palette of colors? I have a nice
elephant gun, but what if I want to hunt pheasant?
Now, magically, I have access to the college gas kiln and a lot of ^6
reduction glazes... a salt kiln that we built two summers ago.. and a
wood fired train kiln.
The first thing I learned was that a dorky pot fired in a wood kiln
became a dorky wood fired pot. No magic there. No "kiss of the ash" can
heal poor design or bad ideas.
The next thing I learned was that there are so many variables in firing
any atmospheric kiln that we are forever theorizing, tweaking, planning
for the next firing. Patrick and I debate theories over
Woodchuck-and-ale at the Side Track, and scan clayart for opinions.
Slow, smoky start? Type of wood? To stir or not to stir? This stoke hole
or that? Stacking, shelf height, wet wood, damper, hold, weather,
schedule? Clay, slip, glaze?
And that doesn't even CONSIDER kiln design, or the possibility of making
alterations to a kiln or flue that is not ours to mess with.
At first I wanted my pots in the front where the action seemed to be...
and after a long day and night of looking at my pots, red-hot through a
stoke hole, I got very invested. When we unloaded they looked awesome,
all covered with ash, but when I picked them up, Yikes!
Now what, for next time? I'm not willing to sand pots down and spray
them with armor-all... I meant to make work for daily use. Some were
overdone, some undercooked.. it soon became clear that learning this
kiln would take the kind of long term, day to day relationship David
Hendley has, or Tony, or students/teachers in "woody" programs where
they fire week after week, year round. And it would take way more than
the two years alloted an MFA student.
I guess the "front seat" will be OK for big gnarly amphoras with lots of
"blank canvas" for ash action. Teapots and hands-on work in the middle
area will do interesting things in a dance between glaze and ash... and
the far end is a crapshoot, so I'd go for stuff that either can be
refired or doesn't require vitrification.
School me, somebody. If we load it with hardwood at the end, when it
reaches temp, and then clam it up hard, will the already-landed ash get
a chance to melt, before new ash settles in the cool-down and stays
crunchy?
Would flashing slips smooth out the surface? (Karen Terpstra sprayed
something mysterious on my porcelain bowl for her wood kiln in LaCrosse
and it did something great.. but it was porcelain, and we're using
crunchy stoneware here.)
And can ANYBODY sell me Helmar Kaolin on line, in the middle of the
night when I can get around to it?
(I know all this is the woodie version of "I need a good ^6 blue
recipe".. lol)
Patrick and I are firing the wood in March, and I'm throwing for that
now. Though I have always understood the need to throw or build a
certain pot for a certain glaze or kiln, I have never experienced that
like I am now. Gas, salt, wood, this glaze or that require a different
pot to catch the drip, to bring out surface textture, to trap some
carbon, etc.
Unless I find (or one day build) others of my own, I have less than four
months to figure out these atmospheric kilns. My Toledo guild has a nice
gas kiln, but I'll be damned if I'll miss the opportunity to salt and
wood fire at EMU while I can, and learn as much as possible.
Maybe all I'll learn from my two year trip over the rainbow is that
there's no place like home... but all learning feeds over into every
other part of one's work, one way or another.
So that's my end of it, woodie without a clue.
Yours,
Kelly in Ohio... where Prof. Lee expressed his concern, in the EMU
studio late last night, that the sheer geographical challenge of my
commute and the interrupted, here-and-there availability of my work time
may prevent me from making a wide and coherent body of work for my MFA
show (which would ideally require full, uninterrupted immersion in
studio time.). I'm not buying it. Multitasking on stolen time is the way
I work, and always has been.
Example: Today, between doing loads of wet laundry from a flooded
basement, I had a huge handbuilt grain storage jar in progress, in a wok
perched on foam on the top of a barstool in the middle of my kitchen. I
talked my son through algebra while baking bread, making appointments on
a speaker phone, watching Molly go through her Tae Kwon Do forms...
washed hands again and again between food and clay, walking in circles
around the stool/ pot with paddle-and-anvil like the African women
circling the stumps. There's a rhythm. This top edge will stiffen in the
time it takes me to marinate this chicken.. this brown rice will cook in
the time it takes me to burnish the sides... and all the while kids with
homeschool questions underfoot, boys packing for winter scout camp and
my son's chinchilla perched on my shoulder. My studio is full of good
work 9and so is the kitchen the front hall, the car...
I just love when people tell me I can't do something.
(Hey Tony, remember when you said I'd never find a used pugmill on
potterbarter?) ;0)
http://www.primalpotter.com
http://www.primalmommy.com/blog.html
Lee on sat 9 feb 08
On Feb 9, 2008 1:24 PM, primalmommy wrote:
> We're all entitled to like what we like.
>
> I'm not a fan of Opera. That doesn't mean it's stupid...
I first read this as "I am not a fan of Oprah." Haha! (I am
dyslexic and read words as though they are images.)
Not a good comparision Opera to Wood Fire. Because woodfire
is much more diverse It ranges from Olsen FF that is all glazed work,
to primitive pit fire, to sagger, to yohen, etc Bizen is a
different from Echizen as Opera is from Yodelling. A better
comparision might be "I am not a fan of the human voice. I only like
cone 6 electric guitar." haha!
> As for mel's woman in the basement, and efforts to level the playing
The hobby community is huge here in Japan. I think a large hobby
base gives support to professional potters. I am not sure that
they develop many Henrietta Hamadas, but they sure to provide for a
greater pool of knowledgable appreciators of good pots.
> Nobody has to convince me that women can make stunning, exciting work in
> clay.
Jomon, the pots that have me awed most, were probably made by women.
> Kelly in Ohio... where Prof. Lee expressed his concern, in the EMU
I know you can do it. I built my kiln, put my studio together,
stocked my glaze room and made pots for my graduation show in less
than 3 months.
Just making pots for a show is a luxury!
--
Lee in Mashiko, Tochigi Japan
http://mashikopots.blogspot.com/
"Tea is nought but this: first you heat the water, then you make the
tea. Then you drink it properly. That is all you need to know."
--Sen No Rikyu
"Let the beauty we love be what we do." - Rumi
Lee on sun 10 feb 08
On Feb 9, 2008 1:24 PM, primalmommy wrote:
> We're all entitled to like what we like.
>
> I'm not a fan of Opera. That doesn't mean it's stupid... or that I'm
> stupid. Unlike my crabby student in intro-to-studio-art-for-non-majors,
> who folds his arms and declares most art "Garbage", I know that there is
> SOMETHING about Opera that could be rewarding, to me -- if I took the
> time to learn about it, expose myself, and understand it. But it's not
> very high on my priority list. So. Opera. Meh.
>
> I assume nobody would close down the Opera house because Kelly Savino
> doesn't get it. I suspect that artists/potters who do work that means
> something to them aren't going to get ruffled or give a rat's ass if
> everybody "gets it". Most mature makers have gotten past the popularity
> contest. If we were just out to wow the masses we'd all be making wooden
> yard butts and art-on-a-stick, anyway.
>
> And Tony and Tony, I can't imagine teachers I know would stay away from
> clayart because of differering opinions, or the occasional bull in the
> china shop. Most of them barely have time to make their own work, much
> less read clayart. (I'm convinced that I would still be able to do both,
> as a prof... I'll have to get back to you on that).
>
> For all the "gurus" --and some voices on clayart I miss, myself, who
> have left -- there are new people waiting in the wings for a chance to
> be helpful. For all who leave because the conversation doesn't challenge
> them enough or offer new material, there are as many who leave because
> so much of the discussion is over their heads or Ivor makes their heads
> spin. (love ya, Ivor, but you're too smart for me.). Some only read the
> contentious stuff and drama.. others are upset by it and want us all to
> play nice. One clayarter told me "there are only five people worth
> reading on clayart"... I said, "Yeah, everybody says that.. but they
> would all pick a different five".
>
> As for mel's woman in the basement, and efforts to level the playing
> field for women/electric/non academic types... I applaud the effort, but
> the way I see it, that battle is yesterday's news. I am sure there are
> some sour old dawgs out there who think women can't build kilns or run
> programs, but how long until they retire? and who 's really listening to
> that crap anymore, anyway?
>
> Nobody has to convince me that women can make stunning, exciting work in
> clay. I've been surrounded by them all my life, the books are full of
> them, I take their workshops. The little college girl from the Toledo
> Potter's Guild is on the cover of this month's CM... nobody needed to
> explain to her that she wasn't a man and likely wouldn't "make it".
> Who's the chair of my department? Who's my editor at Clay Times? Who
> runs the guilds all over the country? Somebody forgot to tell them that
> the deck was stacked, too.
>
> It's like explaining Civil Rights history to my kids, who could not
> imagine such a thing as racism to begin with. Or telling my Molly that
> women don't have to wear aprons and be housewives if they don't want
> to... "I'd tell my mom you said so, but she's up on the roof with a
> chainsaw right now, because dad's at work and a tree came down in the
> storm"...
>
> So, women potters are making great work in electric kilns? well... duh.
>
>
> OK: Woodfiring.
>
> There are not enough lifetimes, apparently, to "Master" every sort of
> kiln. From my first electric kiln in 1989 to the start of school in '06,
> I barely got started. I went from bottled glazes, to mixing my own. I
> sorted out (pregnant, or nursing) the safest materials, bought bigger
> kilns with pot money, learned to vent and ramp and slow cool, tested
> like my hero Ababi and my shero Alisa, and came up with a stable of
> reliable, interesting glazes that felt like they fit my work.
>
> I became weary, though, of "shiny-ness". I learned that a lot of matt
> glazes at ^6 are just underfired (thus unstable or soft). I finally got
> some nice matts by slow cooling, but I still felt like there were notes
> I wanted to play that this instrument couldn't reach.
>
> Why -- beyond the obvious lack of funds or access -- should we be
> satisfied with one tool? Half the palette of colors? I have a nice
> elephant gun, but what if I want to hunt pheasant?
>
> Now, magically, I have access to the college gas kiln and a lot of ^6
> reduction glazes... a salt kiln that we built two summers ago.. and a
> wood fired train kiln.
>
> The first thing I learned was that a dorky pot fired in a wood kiln
> became a dorky wood fired pot. No magic there. No "kiss of the ash" can
> heal poor design or bad ideas.
>
> The next thing I learned was that there are so many variables in firing
> any atmospheric kiln that we are forever theorizing, tweaking, planning
> for the next firing. Patrick and I debate theories over
> Woodchuck-and-ale at the Side Track, and scan clayart for opinions.
> Slow, smoky start? Type of wood? To stir or not to stir? This stoke hole
> or that? Stacking, shelf height, wet wood, damper, hold, weather,
> schedule? Clay, slip, glaze?
>
> And that doesn't even CONSIDER kiln design, or the possibility of making
> alterations to a kiln or flue that is not ours to mess with.
>
> At first I wanted my pots in the front where the action seemed to be...
> and after a long day and night of looking at my pots, red-hot through a
> stoke hole, I got very invested. When we unloaded they looked awesome,
> all covered with ash, but when I picked them up, Yikes!
>
> Now what, for next time? I'm not willing to sand pots down and spray
> them with armor-all... I meant to make work for daily use. Some were
> overdone, some undercooked.. it soon became clear that learning this
> kiln would take the kind of long term, day to day relationship David
> Hendley has, or Tony, or students/teachers in "woody" programs where
> they fire week after week, year round. And it would take way more than
> the two years alloted an MFA student.
>
> I guess the "front seat" will be OK for big gnarly amphoras with lots of
> "blank canvas" for ash action. Teapots and hands-on work in the middle
> area will do interesting things in a dance between glaze and ash... and
> the far end is a crapshoot, so I'd go for stuff that either can be
> refired or doesn't require vitrification.
>
> School me, somebody. If we load it with hardwood at the end, when it
> reaches temp, and then clam it up hard, will the already-landed ash get
> a chance to melt, before new ash settles in the cool-down and stays
> crunchy?
>
> Would flashing slips smooth out the surface? (Karen Terpstra sprayed
> something mysterious on my porcelain bowl for her wood kiln in LaCrosse
> and it did something great.. but it was porcelain, and we're using
> crunchy stoneware here.)
>
> And can ANYBODY sell me Helmar Kaolin on line, in the middle of the
> night when I can get around to it?
You can buy it from the source:
http://www.wendtpottery.com/helmer2.htm
http://www.wendtpottery.com/helmer.htm
--
Lee in Mashiko, Tochigi Japan
http://mashikopots.blogspot.com/
"Tea is nought but this: first you heat the water, then you make the
tea. Then you drink it properly. That is all you need to know."
--Sen No Rikyu
"Let the beauty we love be what we do." - Rumi
Fred Parker on sun 10 feb 08
On Fri, 8 Feb 2008 20:24:52 -0800, primalmommy
wrote:
>We're all entitled to like what we like.
>
>I'm not a fan of Opera. That doesn't mean it's stupid... or that I'm
>stupid. Unlike my crabby student in intro-to-studio-art-for-non-majors,
>who folds his arms and declares most art "Garbage", I know that there is
>SOMETHING about Opera that could be rewarding, to me -- if I took the
>time to learn about it, expose myself, and understand it. But it's not
>very high on my priority list.
Hey Kelley:
Sometime try von Weber's "Der Freischuz" in a dark room with a glass of
red wine.
Read the story first -- about the young lovers entwined in intense desire
for each other, so much so that he sold his soul to the Devil in return
for seven magic bullets that would ensure success... Imagine the hormone-
driven desire of youth, leading up to the casting of the magic bullets in
the Wolf's Glen. Listen as each newly formed bullet hits the pan inciting
a crescendo of swirling demons' screams and threats in that accursed
forest, all against the verbal background of the Dark One himself shouting
off a count with each new bullet (in German,. of course, which is scary
enough on its own). Hear the final shot ring out to determine who will
win the Pure Innocent, and discover who actually dies as the magic bullet
finds its own mark instead of the intended target.
If you can listen to this damn thing in a dark room without the hair on
the back of your neck standing on end, without shivers running up your
spine and/or without becoming a believer in the incredible power of opera
as a true Art Form, I will be greatly surprised.
On the other hand, you might not like it...
Fred Parker
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