Dave Lyons on wed 2 dec 09
Hello Clayart Folk,
I've been looking over my own pieces with pulled and extruded handles.
I'm also examining my collection of other potter's work, most with pulled
handles. The two most comfortable handles are pulled. The most comfortabl=
e
was on a mug I purchased from the Shinman Yamada pottery in Okinawa Japan.
The handle is minimalist in execution and resembles some extruded handles.
Conversely the two most uncomfortable handles are also pulled but they look
great. The most esthetically pleasing as well as being quite comfortable i=
s
also a pulled handle from Annette Gudim in Wisconsin Rapids.
My extruded handles are formed to be comfortable to my hand. Others also
comment on my handles as being comfortable as well as esthetically pleasing=
.
On close examination, my extruded handles mimic the visual standard that
Vince Pitelka espouses as "right" for pulled handles. He says that handles
are to be thicker at the top, tapered in width and thickness at the bottom,
no longer than it needs to be, and fitting the fingers. That is how I
modify my extruded pieces.
I postulate that the time spent in crafting an extrusion into a good
looking and comfortable handle is about the same amount (or more) of time
that one can pull a good looking and comfortable handle. A skilled eye will
still be able to tell the difference between extruded and pulled. If both
are comfortable and esthetically pleasing to the user...so what?
I use a roller, fettling knife, a needle tool, and my fingers to craft
handles from extruded pieces. I don't plop a simple extrusion on my mugs,
jugs, and pitchers. The extrusion is only the beginning. All in all, both
pulling a handle as well as crafting a good extruded handle is part of the
craft that I am trying to master in becoming a complete potter.
Dave Lyons
The New Pittsville Pottery
Larry Kruzan on wed 2 dec 09
A few days ago there was a little brush-up about handles with lots of views
expressed. I firmly fall into the camp that prefers pulled handles but
understand that there is more than one way to skin a cat (apologies to cat
lovers).
Way too often beginners see extruded, cut, or thrown handles as a simpler,
or easier method to achieve a handle. HERE IS WHERE I DRAW A LINE! Taking a
thrown form (whatever it is) and making an attachment needs to given as muc=
h
thought and development as the rest of the piece.
In my personal collection, I have mugs (the item I seem to buy most often)
that sport handles made in every way, cast, pulled, cut thrown and sculpted=
.
One of my favorite mugs from Bruce Howdel has a handle that was thrown and
cut - I watched him make it when I was in school and he was an "artist in
residence". The handle "fits" the piece.
I also have another mug that was made by a classmate that I value because i=
t
reminds me of our friendship, but, she extruded the handle because she neve=
r
took the time to master the art of pulling handles. Sadly, this fine little
mug is cursed with a poorly fitting, poorly sized handle that makes its use
uncomfortable.
I also have a mug with an extruded handle that was ever so slightly
stretched by the maker thinning it from top to bottom. This handle fits my
hand well and it is used often. The shape complements the graceful form of
the mug, its negative space mirroring the shape.
This afternoon I discovered three pics posted in a public forum that
illustrate how not to use an extruded handle. If you follow these links you
will see how the maker had the skill to throw a nice, simple cup but sadly
choose to extrude a round clay stick and apply it as a handle. The shape of
the "handle" does not compliment the shape of the cup - in fact it just
looks like your typical 99 cent Wal-Mart cup.
http://www.lostcreekpottery.com/DSCN0863[1].jpg
http://www.lostcreekpottery.com/DSCN0864[1].jpg
http://www.lostcreekpottery.com/DSCN0865[1].jpg
I am not saying that a pulled handle would have made this into a $25 mug,
but it would have been an improvement.
"Think" about WHY your attachment is being attached - just why is it there?
"Think" about HOW it will be used and attached - why put a curved handle on
a straight sided cup?. "Think" about what your attachment "SAYS" about you
and your piece. Ask yourself if you have spent as much time developing your
handle as you did the form it is attached to.
Don't be like my friend who spent four years learning to throw a wonderful
mug but just a couple hours figuring out the easiest handle they could come
up with. Develop the complete form, from lip to foot, it's all important.
Larry Kruzan
Lost Creek Pottery
www.lostcreekpottery.com
Vince Pitelka on wed 2 dec 09
Larry Kruzan provided this link:
and said:
"I am not saying that a pulled handle would have made this into a $25 mug,
but it would have been an improvement."
Larry -
So how is it that this person learned how to make a decent cup shape and
trim a decent foot, but never the first thing about how to make a handle?
Those handles go wrong in almost every way possible - they are round, and
thus hard to grasp when you lift the cup to your lips. The cup will want t=
o
swing sideways. As you point out, they are simple extrusions, unmodulated
along their length. Plus the attachments are very awkward.
Below is the list of handle guidelines I posted in a response to a message
Des Howard posted, and I am repeating it here for anyone interested. These
are not rules, of course. They are just helpful guidelines based on my own
experience observing, making, and using ceramic cups and mugs for 40 years
and teaching studio ceramics for 25 years. Anyone can take them or leave
them, but I hope people will at least carefully think about them. I have
been working on a much longer handout on handles, and expect to post it on
my website within a week or so.
A Twelve-Step Program to Better Handles:
1) A handle on a mug or pitcher should be no longer than it needs to be. I=
n
other words, a handle should never move the hand further from the center of
gravity than is necessary.
2) Handles generally look best when they taper both in thickness and width
from the top to the bottom, from the bottom to the top, or from both ends t=
o
the center. You can easily pull or handbuild handles in any of these
configurations
3) Un-modified extruded handles demean your mugs/cups because they look
machine-made.
4) Handles with a round cross-section give you little to hold on to. When
you raise the mug upwards towards your lips, it wants to swing sideways
because your hand has no purchase on the handle. Handles with a round
cross-section are found on 99-cent Walmart mugs. They do not belong on goo=
d
handmade mugs.
5) The most comfortable utilitarian handle has a flattened oval
cross-section. Such a handle can be pulled in the space between the thumb
and the side of the hand, or can be handbuilt from a flattened carrot-shape=
d
coil of clay.
6) A handle should never have sharp ridges on the inside or outside. Both
are important. One or two fingers contact the inside surface, and the oute=
r
surface of the third finger generally rests against the outside of the
handle. Both must be comfortable in contact with our fingers.
7) The attachment points on a handle should reassure the user of its utilit=
y
and sturdiness.
8) Consider the negative space formed by the handle. That's a big part of
the aesthetics of the mug or pitcher.
9) The handle creates a line, and that line does not stop where the handle
ends. Where does the implied line go? What does it point towards? How doe=
s
that line work with the overall profile of the pot?
10) Thumb stops (those cancerous warts that sometimes appear on top of
handles just below the attachment point) are an insult to your pots and to
the user unless they contribute to comfort and utility.
11) The handle should not make a frilly sculptural statement unless you
decide that the sculptural statement is important than function and utility=
.
Curlicue attachments went out twenty-five years ago.
12) Remember above all that aesthetics are informed by millennia of utility=
.
In other words, if all or part of a utilitarian pot looks like it will not
function well, then it probably will look awkward and unresolved. We can't
always explain this, but most people can see it.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft
Tennessee Tech University
vpitelka@dtccom.net; wpitelka@tntech.edu
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka
Des & Jan Howard on thu 3 dec 09
Vince
7 out of 12 correct answers isn't too bad.
But I wouldn't want doing my book-keeping. :)
>Vince Pitelka wrote:
> A Twelve-Step Program to Better Handles:
> 1) A handle on a mug or pitcher should be no longer than it needs to be. =
In
> other words, a handle should never move the hand further from the center =
of
> gravity than is necessary.
Very correct from a function viewpoint & also from a
form viewpoint.
> 2) Handles generally look best when they taper both in thickness and widt=
h
> from the top to the bottom, from the bottom to the top, or from both ends=
to
> the center. You can easily pull or handbuild handles in any of these
> configurations
I'm using a salted mug by **** at the moment, handle
identical to your description, passable. A way of doing
things, not the only way.
> 3) Un-modified extruded handles demean your mugs/cups because they look
> machine-made.
I make wheel produced mugs & jiggered mugs & pressed
mugs, whether the handle is pulled or extruded matters
not philosophically, they ARE machine made.
> 4) Handles with a round cross-section give you little to hold on to. When
> you raise the mug upwards towards your lips, it wants to swing sideways
> because your hand has no purchase on the handle. Handles with a round
> cross-section are found on 99-cent Walmart mugs. They do not belong on g=
ood
> handmade mugs.
Lack of function in a round cross section is as you say.
> 5) The most comfortable utilitarian handle has a flattened oval
> cross-section. Such a handle can be pulled in the space between the thum=
b
> and the side of the hand, or can be handbuilt from a flattened carrot-sha=
ped
> coil of clay.
As you say, the most comfortable utilitarian handle has
a flattened oval cross-section. That doesn't
automatically mean a pulled handle.
> 6) A handle should never have sharp ridges on the inside or outside. Bot=
h
> are important. One or two fingers contact the inside surface, and the ou=
ter
> surface of the third finger generally rests against the outside of the
> handle. Both must be comfortable in contact with our fingers.
Agreed
> 7) The attachment points on a handle should reassure the user of its util=
ity
> and sturdiness.
Agreed
> 8) Consider the negative space formed by the handle. That's a big part o=
f
> the aesthetics of the mug or pitcher.
Agreed
> 9) The handle creates a line, and that line does not stop where the handl=
e
> ends. Where does the implied line go? What does it point towards? How d=
oes
> that line work with the overall profile of the pot?
Agreed
> 10) Thumb stops (those cancerous warts that sometimes appear on top of
> handles just below the attachment point) are an insult to your pots and t=
o
> the user unless they contribute to comfort and utility.
Don't hold back Vince!
Comfort is part of utility. Form is a major player,
sometimes they're not warts but beauty spots.
> 11) The handle should not make a frilly sculptural statement unless you
> decide that the sculptural statement is important than function and utili=
ty.
> Curlicue attachments went out twenty-five years ago.
Making ceramics by hand, as an industrial proposition,
went out years ago.
Curlicue attachments? Depends!
Function, utility & form must all be considered.
> 12) Remember above all that aesthetics are informed by millennia of utili=
ty.
> In other words, if all or part of a utilitarian pot looks like it will no=
t
> function well, then it probably will look awkward and unresolved. We can=
't
> always explain this, but most people can see it.
Aesthetics aren't only informed by utility. The ways in
which certain pots are utilised could be cultural.
Chinese wine pots used for European tea brewing,
Chinese & Korean rice bowls used for Japanese tea
rituals, jugs used as vases.
The cups Larry referenced were pretty ordinary even
without the handle. The handle has too large a diameter
for the cup size. The handle & attachment appear to be
poorly modelled from an industrial form. I doubt a
pulled handle could have contributed much.
Des
--
Des & Jan Howard
Lue Pottery
Lue NSW
Australia
2850
02 6373 6419
www.luepottery.hwy.com.au
-32.656072 149.840624
Randall Moody on fri 4 dec 09
Is it just me or does anyone else think that some are missing the point tha=
t
the issue isn't extruded blanks that are then pulled or altered but the
issue is extruded and unaltered handles that are simply stuck to the side o=
f
the cup or piece? Am I missing something? ... other than the regular things
that I miss.:)
--Randall in Atlanta--
Maurice Weitman on fri 4 dec 09
Hello, Dave,
I enjoyed your mini-treatise on handles that you've known and loved.
And I agree that an extruded handle can be made to be as
aesthetically compelling and functional as those pulled from a plug.
You don't say, and I wonder what forms you extrude as your blank
canvases for your handles. Do you use one of those that seek to
mimic the spines and valleys of pulled handles, or just a round or
oval blank?
I haven't found extruding handles to be much of a time-saver, though,
when compared to coiled blanks or pulled from plugs.
And I'm dyin' to see those you reference, the good ones and those not
so great. Are there images of your and other's work you can point us
to?
I found only one image of Annette Gudim's pots on the web:
, and I must
say that the handles on those mugs don't inspire me much. Of course,
I could have been distracted by the unfortunate prefab bamboo jobbie
on the teapot. The pots themselves are quite nice, but as an example
of handles, they make me want to keep looking.
Thanks!
Regards,
Maurice
At 22:40 -0600 on 12/2/09, Dave Lyons wrote:
>Hello Clayart Folk,
> I've been looking over my own pieces with pulled and extruded handles.
>I'm also examining my collection of other potter's work, most with pulled
>handles. The two most comfortable handles are pulled. The most comfortab=
le
>was on a mug I purchased from the Shinman Yamada pottery in Okinawa Japan.
>The handle is minimalist in execution and resembles some extruded handles.
>Conversely the two most uncomfortable handles are also pulled but they loo=
k
>great. The most esthetically pleasing as well as being quite comfortable =
is
>also a pulled handle from Annette Gudim in Wisconsin Rapids.
> My extruded handles are formed to be comfortable to my hand. Others al=
so
>comment on my handles as being comfortable as well as esthetically pleasin=
g.
>On close examination, my extruded handles mimic the visual standard that
>Vince Pitelka espouses as "right" for pulled handles. He says that handle=
s
>are to be thicker at the top, tapered in width and thickness at the bottom=
,
>no longer than it needs to be, and fitting the fingers. That is how I
>modify my extruded pieces.
> I postulate that the time spent in crafting an extrusion into a good
>looking and comfortable handle is about the same amount (or more) of time
>that one can pull a good looking and comfortable handle. A skilled eye wil=
l
>still be able to tell the difference between extruded and pulled. If both
>are comfortable and esthetically pleasing to the user...so what?
Clyde Tullis on sun 6 dec 09
I made pretty crappy handles for years, pulling the handle off a large ki=
=3D
nd
of yam shape, cutting the top end with a fettling knife and then attachin=
=3D
g
it to the pot. Then I watched John Glick pull one directly off the piece,=
=3D
went home, used that method and never turned back. Interesting that John=
=3D
Glick is a true master of using extrusions.
Lee Love on sun 6 dec 09
On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 9:14 PM, Randall Moody wro=
=3D
te:
> issue is extruded and unaltered handles that are simply stuck to the side=
=3D
of
> the cup or piece? Am I missing something? ... other than the regular thin=
=3D
gs
> that I miss.:)
You hit the key: it is how the technique is used, mindlessly or
with skill.
--=3D20
--
Lee, a Mashiko potter in Minneapolis
http://mashikopots.blogspot.com/
"Ta tIr na n-=3DF3g ar chul an tI=3D97tIr dlainn trina ch=3DE9ile"=3D97tha=
t is, "T=3D
he
land of eternal youth is behind the house, a beautiful land fluent
within itself." -- John O'Donohue
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