Jeff Longtin on wed 27 aug 08
Reading the various "centering tool" comments has been a pleasure.
I threw on my first potters wheel at the age of 12. I coil built my first
real pot a few years later. I was able to throw a 10 inch cylinder by the age of
17. (we had a contest in our high school...I won.)
I went to Madison thinking Don Reitz would teach me how to make great pots.
(He didn't.)
What he did, however, was handout an assignment that would change my pottery
career forever. He said, "hand build something", and I was off.
At that point in my pottery development I thought all great pots were wheel
thrown. Don Rietz telling me to hand build something really changed my
perspective. I took it seriously.
That assignment resulted in a teapot form that still blows people away. It
will probably be my signature form and I have Don to thank for that. (Thanks to
great teachers!)
A few years later a mentor/potter friend suggested that it would be easier
to slip cast my teapot rather than hand build it. Again, another career
changing challenge.
That was twenty years ago and I'm still being challenged by the process.
(mold-making that is.) I still have my potters wheel, however.
No one NEEDS to learn to throw on the potters wheel but it is a great start
and a great tool. I've thought about buying a lathe for some of my forms but
then I remember, "I have a potters wheel.", and know that I can use it to
create what I need.
I turned to mold making/slip casting because it was a tool that served my
purpose. I use the potters wheel because it is a tool. I hand build because it
is a tool. (The centering tool is, again, just another tool.)
The end result is the goal. Great pots. Pots that get people excited about
pots.
take care all
Jeff Longtin
**************It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel
deal here.
(http://information.travel.aol.com/deals?ncid=aoltrv00050000000047)
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