Donn Buchfinck on fri 13 nov 98
I just wanted to say that it really bothers me when people want to copyright
elements that go into pottery making.
I feel that HAND MADE has to stand for something
and for someone to buy something handmade means that they are getting
something of the maker.
I live in san francisco we have China town here, and I cannot even begin to
compeat with there range of high fired work that they make, it is of great
quality, copper reds, celedons, temmokus, iron saturates, all wonderfully
made, great form and dirt cheap.
2$ for a porcelain cup and saucer, celedon /chun blue. Hard to beat
I make what they cannot, that is what it means for me to make pottery. I
make what the production potteries cannot.
I find the real problem is that potters out there are trying to compeat with
industry, I went to a fair in Estes Park Colorado a couple of months ago,
and the work was aw full. I went to the big buyers fair here in sanfrancisco
and I was bothered by the quality of the work.
I think what would be useful to a lot of people to stop and look at the work,
really look at it, just because you make money from it doesn't mean there are
not problems with it. I find people go to their sales to get validation, and
after this happens then they are set in there ways, believing that what they
are doing is good because it sells. I have seen a lot of really bad pottery
out there selling. I am not saying make my pots they are better, I am saying
make your pots better.
back to the copyright thing, what would be left if you could copyright
pottery, think of it,
I copyright glaze A
and form B
then more and more and more
hey that pot looks a little like mine/ your using that slip decoration/ looks
a lot like this
hey that glaze seems to be looking like mine
hey I'm going to get my lawer
the world burns down in flames as the third world war is triggered by the
Chinese wanting control of all high fired pottery in the world, they have
been making the high fired stuff longer than anyone.
I was at a Warren Makienzie workshop in 87 and he told a story about this pot
he makes, it has a split rim and he said after a workshop a potter came up to
him and told him he couldn't make that pot anymore because it was their
personal form. We all laughed, but these people are out there. Huddling in
their studios hourding those rutile blue glazes recipes, chanting "I sell
therfore my work is good".
take a break out there, look at the work you are making, take a figure
drawing class, all those great Greek pots didn't become great because the
potters were looking at pots, they are great because the Greeks had a great
understanding of the human figure and it's proportions.
as to glazes, these glaze gurus out there can probably reproduce anything out
there. So don't get too caught up in the glaze thing. Its form and glaze
together in harmony that makes great pots.
Donn Buchfinck
Ernesto Burciaga on sat 14 nov 98
Well.....You/we can copyright just about anything we create. You can
register the copyright of your famly vacation. Yes I said it right.
works of art, ie photography is copyrighted the moment of exposure
(there a few exceptions).
The fun begins when you find a violator off your copyright. Find a
violator, find a lawyer, and prove the violation and then go to
court. Much time and money needed.
Ernesto
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