Nina Jones on wed 1 sep 99
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Hi John,
One of the stigmas attached to slip cast forms is the possibility and the
suggestion of mass production and it's attachment to industry and hobby
ceramics, a category that serious potters/ceramicists--by addiction and/or
income-- want to be distinctly separated from. The term =22hobby=22 =
trivializes
something that comes too deeply from most potters' hearts and souls and =
industry
cuts into the financial bottom line (why buy my mug for =2410 when you can =
go to a
Dollar store and buy a ceramic mug for =241?)
Mold making and slip casting are not easy, and, for the individually run =
studio,
slip casting is even more time consuming than throwing (trust me: you can =
throw
10 pots in the time it takes to pour and remove one from the mold and =
cleaning
the seam lines from a slip cast form is way more tedious than trimming any
pot=21). But when you hand build or throw a form, you are so much more =
directly
and intimately involved in every aspect of creating the form. There are =
some
who draw an even finer line between hand building and throwing, because the
wheel is a mechanical aid in forming and can also facilitate mass production=
of
identical forms.
There are so many distinctions in evaluating the creative process (handbuilt=
v.
thrown v. slip cast=3B commercial glaze/clay v. artist made glaze/clay=3B
=22text-book=22 recipe v. individually formulated recipe=3B electric fired =
v. fuel
fired, etc.) and the standards of evaluation are determined by the =
traditions
dictating the rules and boundaries of whatever exhibit area (gallery, show,
fair) you are trying to enter.
But I think the stigma attached to molds is its connection to hobby ceramics=
and
industry-scale, mass-produced ceramic ware.
Nina D. Jones
Southside Chicago
=40 njones=40winston.com
=3E=3E=3E John Rodgers =3Cinua=40roadrunner.com=3E 08/31/99 10:51AM =
=3E=3E=3E
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
With all this discussion about molds vs thrown work, I would like to hear
any comments as to why and where this negative attitude about molds comes
from, especially among potters and others whos work is principally in the
more plastic clays, ie pottery clay as opposed to slipcast clays.
Though I do a good bit of throwing myself, I came into claywork via the
slipcast route and it was years before I got into thrown and handbuilt work.
I was practically thrown out of a show in Alaska once because my work was
slipcast. The jurist, one of Alaska's better known artists, was world
traveled as an artist, and educated. I would have expected better of him.
The work was my own, and I had done the original model in wax, made molds
from it, then slipcast the piece in pure white porcelain. The piece didn't
even get through the initial review of all entrants into the show. It was
rejected out of hand. I was told by the jurors assistants that the juror had
initially said that such work was not acceptable because it was from
commercial molds. When the assistants told him who I was, that they knew
personally of the origins of the work and that it was NOT from commercial
molds, he then said it was slipcast, and too commercial in nature. The
assistants didn't argue. The piece did not get entered, much less judged.
All this caused me a great deal of consternation and angst. It was my first
effort at that level. To be rejected was one thing, but for the reasons
given were quite another.
I later entered the piece in another show, with another juror. The piece was
allowed entry, but didn't place, and that was O.K. At the jurors critique,
he also had my work, even though it had not placed. The juror reviewed
various aspects of the different works. All manner of hand built work, and
thrown work was reviewed. And of course there were a lot of ooohhh's and
aaahhh's, and clapping. Then he turned to my work. Though it did not place,
it was selected for the critique because it was so different from anything
else there. The methods were so different. Fist time I ever heard a juror
give acknowledgement and credit for slipcast work. He admonished potters not
to be so proud of the their thrown works, because in the same way a mold
is to a slip cast piece, a wheel is to a thrown piece....both are simply
mechanisms to aid the artist to arrive at a finished form. They both allow
faster production. The decorating comes later, with glazes or whatever.
All this was an interesting series of events to go through. I learned a lot.
Today, I don't really care what anyone thinks about moldmaking or hand
thrown or hand built. All are methods to be used as tools as the clayartist
proceeds through his work. To me the finished piece is what is important. I
let others extol the virtues of this way or that way. For me, it's whatever
works to acheive the immediate goal that counts.
But, it would be interesting to hear more comments on the issue of where
these attitudes of molds vs throwing/hnadbuilding came from.
BTW, I finally decided on making the piece into a limited edition of 35
pieces. The studio sold 28 pieces in white bisque for =24175/ea and 7 pieces
in gold cladding at =24750/ea. So much for slipcasting vs thrown works.
John Rodgers
In New Mexico
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