Toni Martens on sat 8 apr 00
Antoinette Badenhorst wrote:
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Ivor, may be after this comment I will be very unpopular, but this
is my idea
> about feeding one with a spoon or give one a spoon to feed one
self. I do not
> think it is a good thing to just give away recipes, patents etc, etc.
> Although, I also try out others recipes that is taken up in books,
but most
> of the times have to adjust them.>
Hi Antoinette
Not going to 'cut your head off" but I strongly disagree with you. Oh
I understand where you are coming from, as you well know that is
the prevailing belief held here in South Africa.
Except that even in a teaching studio no one EVER gave me ANY
glaze information. It was a BIG secret NOT to be entrusted to
students and students who aquired kilns were looked on with
disaproval and pity because firing a kiln was also a BIG secret.
Well I learned to fire a kiln in a hit and miss way, but glaze
chemistry remained a mystery to me. I made countless recipes
from books. And opened the kiln on far too many disappointments(
thank goodness we potters tend to be suckers for punishment) I
had no idea that I could adjust those recipes to "fit" local materials.
It is only since I joined Clayart, some years ago, with it's generous
sharing of recipes and the incredible help and patience with my
butterfly brain of people like Tom Buck and Ron Roy, that I now
seldom open my kiln with a sinking heart, I know I am going to find
what I expected in there, well most of the time
To all you Clayarters out there who share so generously, blessings
to you, one and all.
Said recipes might not always 'translate' or travel, but with a little
tweaking, I now have some really lovely recipes.
Thank you, thank you for sharing that BIG secret
Toni Martens, Durban South Africa. Autumn is here and summer
faaaaaar away and I am a happy camper!
Antoinette Badenhorst on mon 10 apr 00
Hi Toni, the experiences that you describe, is so, oh so familiar to me! I do
not only think that teachers in South Africa keep information from students,
I think this happens over the world. I tried to be different and I put some
notes together for my students in the past. I tried to get an informal
teachers evaluating system going in the past. That would have measured a
teachers knowledge, student friendly studio environment etc. There was
practical problems to make it work, mostly a financial thing.
You said that you tried recipe after recipe without success, till you get on
clayart. Is it not true that clayart give us more than just a recipe? We also
learn, in particular from the persons you mentioned, why a recipe will work
the way it does. For some of those information we pay, others we share. Is
that not a confirmation of what I said? What is also true is that the person
that do not want to learn more about glazes, can just take a recipe and use
it, but then the responsibility of you as a "teacher" falls away and become
the user `s responsibility. The same can happen in the class environment. If
you as a teacher done your part, your responsibility is over.
Good to talk to you again.
Antoinette.
Antoinette Badenhorst
PO Box 552
Saltillo,MS
38866
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