Alisa and Claus Clausen on sat 23 dec 00
Dear Mel,
I am thinking long and hard about this post. As always, I admire your =
very noble quest to do and seek
and lose and improve. =20
You have the experience to say peanut butter can full and so many =
teaspoons full and you know it will work.
In many areas of what I am doing, I spring with a slightly educated =
guess as to what sort of mess pile I am
building, and of course with hopes of surprise and joy, but accepting of =
the absolute pure garbage my=20
mixing can produce, Sometimes real pain in the neck garbage, because it =
wrecks things like kiln shelves
I need for the next mixing of mess mix.
However, a big however, at my stage of learning, there is a balance in =
there to use a gram scale, read Ian Currie's graphs,=20
keep records, listen closely to Tom and Ron, go by someone else's book, =
because then I have precise information that I can offer=20
others as a spring board to make their own mess piles out of.
I certainly believe in getting on with it. There is a great balance at =
least in my studio between study and winging both with=20
the pots and the later treatments. I always say talk does not make you =
a potter. Get in there and make
something. In time, I believe you are absolutely correct, I can swing =
more by the seat of my pants. For now, I am=20
thinking it is important to understand the flight rules before totally =
ditching the parachutes.
>this is how i do science. some will shudder/ what, no gram scale,
>no charts, graphs.?
>no, there are other methods...with experience, i know this will work.
>many folks spend more time with grids, books, samples etc. then
>the do with pots...the method becomes a great deal more important
>than being a potter. that is too bad in my sense of things.
>( i have tremendous respect for people that study and do chemistry
>and engineering...it is just not me.)
>
>as i teach, i try to let many folks know that there are many ways
>of experimenting.....it does not all have to be done by just
>chemistry or engineer majors. we all have the ability to search
>and see.
The persons who find the cure to aids or cancer types will find it =
because the work they have done
preceeding the current work they are exploring, will have given them the =
foundations to recognize the cure
when they stumble on it or achieve it. I feel this relative to what I =
am currently doing in my potter life. =20
Acheiving the understanding of the materials one is using to later give =
a wide educated margin to "winging it",
being able to recognize possibilities and potential as they occur under =
obscured circumstances.
When aids is finally cured, it will come from someone who is not
>looking for it. the rest that are looking, are probably in the same
>car, on the same road, going to the same place. someone will take
>a back road, stop and see trees, and there will be the answer.
>
Best regards,
Alisa in Denmark
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