mel jacobson on fri 29 jun 01
i have no opinion on what warren should or should not do.
they are his pots. as i have said before, he can sell them
from a stand on highway 36 if he wishes.
not my business.
i am tired however, of people bringing me pots to validate
as mackenzie's. rarely are they the real thing.
most are pots made by others. i can spot his good pots
in a heart beat, but have trouble with his bad ones...and there
are bad ones. he is not exempt from failures.
this entire subject about lost craftsmen is rather old.
it is an oriental idea from 1925. it really no longer applies.
it is 2001, and tom turnquist's letter jolted me to think
about what happens to pots after we are gone.
i am happy to put my stamp on my pots...stop confusion.
and, i made them, why not stamp them...just part of the process.
my customers respect that. and remember, the pots last for
a thousand years. i like that part.
i sign paintings on the back. never know where to put the
signature on the painted side. ruins the composition.
mel
From:
Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
web site: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
Earl Brunner on sat 30 jun 01
Tom, I have read a little about Mengei and Hamada, Leach, Yanagi. Since
Warren MacKenzie apparently is attempting to follow this philosophy in a
general way I believe he sets himself up for the disharmony or
discontinuity with his market. He might not like the way people go into
a feeding frenzy when they buy his pots, but he contributes to what he
doesn't like. He is perhaps one of the closest things we have to a
National Living Treasure in this country. If it bothers him, there is
probably not much he could do about it other than move to Japan. What he
is experiencing is cultural clash between, his chosen philosophy and the
culture he lives in.
Tom Wirt/Betsy Price wrote:
> When Mr. MacKenzie went back to not stamping his pots about 6 or 7
> years ago, the sign in his shop said that he was doing it because
> people were just buying the stamp. He wanted people to look at the
> pot and to shop all the potters represented in his shop...of course
> they all stamped their pots so the MacKenzie work could be told
> because it wasn't stamped.
>
> The telling story was when NCECA was in Minneapolis. He had a kiln
> opening just before the convention. Supposedly knowledge people
> stampeded his place, grabbed anything they could and ran. No
> contemplation, no consideration...just so "I'ze gots my MacKenzie".
> He
> was so disgusted at the behavior and greed of these people that he
> left after 10 minutes so he
> wouldn't have to watch it.
>
> Nancy told us about it after the fact.
>
> Tom Wirt
>
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--
Earl Brunner
http://coyote.accessnv.com/bruec/
bruec@anv.net
mel jacobson on sat 30 jun 01
i have been checking around the house at pots
made by warren mackenzie...i have a few, including
a complete set of dishes. none of them have any mark
at all. no signatures. the set of dishes was made in
1959.
this `no signature` thing has been going on for a long
time. i have rarely seen a mackenzie pot with a stamp
or signature. there are some, but not many.
he had a logo on his 53 chev once. i remember it parked
behind jones hall at the u of minnesota. (just under the drivers
side window.)
i have a hunch that elex mackenzie did some pot stamping
when she was finishing work. that is just a guess. warren did
all of the throwing in the early years, alex did the glazing and decorating.
the pottery went through a tremendous change when she died.
warren also had a fire and lost his studio and kiln some
years after her death. he had to rebuild everything.
so, he has paid the dues...many times. no one needs to be told
that he is one of america's icons. his work speaks for itself.
and, as a merchandiser, and a seller of pots, he has no equal.
i have taken a page from his book on selling. `it is not how
much you get for a pot, it is how fast can you sell it?`
there are a great many thousand dollar pots sitting on shelves collecting
dust all over the world. unsold.
not a pot in the mackenzie pottery sits around more than a few days
from the final firing.
when the fiscal year ends, and you do your profit and loss statement,
it does no good to say....`hey martha, we lost money again, but
remember when i sold that pot for sixteen hundred bucks, wasn't
that great?`
i do not think warren has ever had a year when he did not make
a good deal of money. that old scotsman still has his first buck.
he is one smart cookie. he is to be admired.
you do not need an m.b.a. to figure that one out.
mel
beat a path to your door. create mystique, make more
pots, sell more pots. there is a bottom line, even in
hand craft.
everyone talks about mackenzie, does it work?
you bet.
From:
Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
web site: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
Tom Wirt/Betsy Price on sat 30 jun 01
When Mr. MacKenzie went back to not stamping his pots about 6 or 7
years ago, the sign in his shop said that he was doing it because
people were just buying the stamp. He wanted people to look at the
pot and to shop all the potters represented in his shop...of course
they all stamped their pots so the MacKenzie work could be told
because it wasn't stamped.
The telling story was when NCECA was in Minneapolis. He had a kiln
opening just before the convention. Supposedly knowledge people
stampeded his place, grabbed anything they could and ran. No
contemplation, no consideration...just so "I'ze gots my MacKenzie".
He
was so disgusted at the behavior and greed of these people that he
left after 10 minutes so he
wouldn't have to watch it.
Nancy told us about it after the fact.
Tom Wirt
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