Deborah Thuman on thu 3 jul 08
I agree with Mel and I disagree with Mel.
I take a clay class each semester at the local university. I've
learned to make my own clay, and then learned that I was better off
buying commercial clay. Making my own clay does some nasty things to
my lower back - and I'm limited by what the university has on hand
unless I'm willing to buy 50 pound bags of stuff, lug the bags into
the clay mixing room, and make clay.
I do expand my knowledge and horizons each semester. I do experiment.
I have a lot of failed experiments. I have a scrap bucket. I recycle
my clay but I don't have a pugmill.
I have played with making my own glazes. I'm right now reading
Mastering ^6 Glazes. I want to know why glazes work or don't work. I'd
like to have some of my own glazes eventually.
I do load the university kiln and I do fire it. Right now, buying my
own kiln is not economically feasible. I'd have to have a contractor,
environmental engineer and electrician as well as a separate building
if I want to have my own kiln. I have made my own decisions about
firing schedules that differ from my teacher's suggestions. I tend to
be more conservative in my firing.
I've also done raku firing and naked raku - something my teacher
doesn't like to do. When I attached myself to another class that was
doing a raku firing, I figured I was there to work just as the other
students and did my share of the work. This gives me a way to compare
the results from that firing and the last raku firing I did. I have
some ideas on what to adjust because there are some things I wasn't as
happy with after the second firing.
I have a full time job which means I can't take weekday classes. I can
only take the weekend class. I can do my own work, decide what I want
to learn and work from there. Because Jim works at the university, I
can take the class for free.
I'm doing the best I can with what I've got. I'm working on clay
projects this summer although I am not taking a summer class. I'll
fire the pieces the first week of the fall semester. I'm working on
using different shapes and making my work look better. I think I'm
making progress.
So... I agree with Mel that we need to know all the parts of the
process. I know I need to have control over my firing. I know that
when I used Pete's Copper Red glaze and had more than 40 pieces in the
kiln there was some wild changes to the class glaze on one of my pieces.
I also disagree with Mel. One does the best one can with the
circumstances one is facing. My choices are work with one teacher on
Saturdays, or don't play in the mud. Easy choice - I'm not about to
give up playing in the mud.
Deb Thuman
http://debthumansblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5888059
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