Randy Peckham on fri 20 jul 01
I have been a clayart lurker for months. I work as a mechanical engineer
by day, and run a small studio at night. I had my first clay experiences
with a local woman when I was 7, or 8. Her studio had a brook running
under it, everything was covered by damp brown clay, and there were frogs
in the recycle bins. Pretty cool place. Took a ceramics class in high
school, then went away to study engineering, Mrs. Wigren(High School
ceramics teacher) tried to convince me to go to Alfred, probably should
have listened. I didn't touch clay again for 15 years, though I often
dreamed of the day when I would have a studio in the backyard. Motivation
to do things purely for recreational purposes is coming harder for me as I
get older, as my house needs work, I have kids, a wife, stressful job,
three cars with over 100k on them, 3-400 trees that need transplanting
gardens to deal with, etc. Typical stuff.
Not quite two years ago, I went to my wife's cousin's studio, and used her
Brent Kickwheel. The relaxation I felt, and the feel of accomplishment as
I centered, and threw a bowl was immense. I decided that I needed to do
this for myself. At the time I was in the process of releasing some deep
redesigns on one of our PCB printers, and stresses at work were intense.
I needed something to take it away.
Her studio was paint-a-pot, plus some wheel throwing capacity, and it was
kind of holding it's own. My wife was interested, so we jumped. For what
most of my friends, and co-workers paid for their last car(I haven't paid
more than $500 for a car in ten years), we opened a small shop in our local
village, three electric wheels, two Skutt 1227 kilns, a ton of bisque etc..
Just jumped into it ignorant of everything. Now I have a definite need to
work with clay, and its not just recreation. Problem solved!
Anyway, I am continuously buying, and reading anything clay related. Due
to the extremely generous nature of all of you out there I have gained some
knowledge. I continue to study the archives, whenever I can. I have almost
all of Stephen Jepson's Videos. I use a few different techniques now, that
seem to fit my habds better, but they were a good start for me. I have
spent hours on the phone with Scott from Laguna, great guy. I got a
fantastic deal from Ilene Mahler on some porcelain clay, glaze, and stains,
thank you Ilene. I have a great blue glaze recipe from Cindy Strnad, and I
can't stress enough the appreciation I have for all of you clayarters, even
Rush, he's a riot. This is an extremely valuable tool for all of us
especially us newbies. Now, I finally have goods that are good enough to
sell, and I have more and more people making things in my place. Just in
the last six months my income from my work, classes, and clay studio time
has surpassed the income from the paint a pot section. This place is
actually starting to show a profit. I made a bathroom sink for my parents,
and am working on a custom fitted tile job to go with the sink. I have had
alot of interest, so since I have made a half dozen sinks 14-19" dia with
overflow. They are fun. The thing that is best about all of you, and clay
in general, is the feeling that I will never be at a loss for things to
improve, and experiment with. Seeing your work is inspriring, and the
ideas I get from you are awesome. I like to experiment around a bit. Kind
of hack right now. I use enough precision in my day job, I want to keep
clay a little less precise for a while at least. Get's me in trouble, but
so what? It is my therapy. On stressful days I think of the pots that I
will make at night. Maybe in twenty years, when the kids are out of
college, I will retire from engineering, and make pots full time. Maybe
even make money at it. My challenge now is form. I have the technique to
make most shapes, but not all of my pieces sing. This is the part that an
actual art education would be good for. Oh well, maybe after my kids get
out of school, that will be in about 20 years, and I will be about 50.
Any way, that's me. Now I have a couple of tidbits that some may find
interesting.
Recently I purchased a bag of vermiculite from a garden supply shop. I
wedged some into earthenware clay, and it was nice, with goldish/copper
flecks. I then wedged some, about 30% into stoneware clay from my scrap
bucket. I didn't really like the results. All of the vermiculite
particles bloated, and caused bubbles on the surface of the clay. The pot
was very light feeling, so I broke the pot apart, and inside was porous
from where the vermiculite was. It seems that more than just "burning out"
it had expanded, and left larger voids than it had occupied. I wonder if
these voids help to dissipate the stress from cooking, making it useful for
cooking over flames, or on burners. I didn't like it, because at cone 6 it
was very fragile, and "ugly" to me, but it may warrant more playing with.
I have also had many people see the pieces that I didn't smash, that are
still hanging around with tools in them etc, and they love the rustic
texture. One' man's failure is another man's treasure. I put the bag away
vowing to never use it again, because it polluted my scrap bin, and ruined
many pieces. I now understand the value of keeping experiments out of may
mainstream materials.
Another fun pit-fire thing I did recently was to use bricks to make a
tunnel under the pit, and hook up a blower to force air into the pit. What
a great fire, burned through many piles of scrap wood, and brush in about
three hours. I put all of my mistakes, and ugly pots in the pit, covered
with sawdust from dad's sawmill, and fired away. There were many nails,
and bits of other stuff in the wood, as well as glazes on the pots already,
so who knows what was really there. Anyway most of the pieces broke. I
think I turned the blower on too soon, and shocked everything. I fired for
about three hours, then there was just a lot of charcoal, and ash. I took
a shovel, and covered everything, as much as I could. Some of the pieces
had really nice colouring. Some reds(mostly from near the blower), some
metallic luster stuff(mostly from near the side of the pit away from the
air) Fun any ways, and worth repeating. Wait a little before starting the
blower next time. Maybe the clay with vermiculite would be a good clay to
try with this.
ILENE MAHLER on fri 20 jul 01
Watch out for this guy his first years of work are very ,very
promising.It is all of us older potters greatest joys is to help
newbies...Ilene in Conn...Maybe my kiln will be delivered Tues. next
week.....
Randy Peckham wrote:
>
> I have been a clayart lurker for months. I work as a mechanical engineer
> by day, and run a small studio at night. I had my first clay experiences
> with a local woman when I was 7, or 8. Her studio had a brook running
> under it, everything was covered by damp brown clay, and there were frogs
> in the recycle bins. Pretty cool place. Took a ceramics class in high
> school, then went away to study engineering, Mrs. Wigren(High School
> ceramics teacher) tried to convince me to go to Alfred, probably should
> have listened. I didn't touch clay again for 15 years, though I often
> dreamed of the day when I would have a studio in the backyard. Motivation
> to do things purely for recreational purposes is coming harder for me as I
> get older, as my house needs work, I have kids, a wife, stressful job,
> three cars with over 100k on them, 3-400 trees that need transplanting
> gardens to deal with, etc. Typical stuff.
>
> Not quite two years ago, I went to my wife's cousin's studio, and used her
> Brent Kickwheel. The relaxation I felt, and the feel of accomplishment as
> I centered, and threw a bowl was immense. I decided that I needed to do
> this for myself. At the time I was in the process of releasing some deep
> redesigns on one of our PCB printers, and stresses at work were intense.
> I needed something to take it away.
>
> Her studio was paint-a-pot, plus some wheel throwing capacity, and it was
> kind of holding it's own. My wife was interested, so we jumped. For what
> most of my friends, and co-workers paid for their last car(I haven't paid
> more than $500 for a car in ten years), we opened a small shop in our local
> village, three electric wheels, two Skutt 1227 kilns, a ton of bisque etc..
> Just jumped into it ignorant of everything. Now I have a definite need to
> work with clay, and its not just recreation. Problem solved!
>
> Anyway, I am continuously buying, and reading anything clay related. Due
> to the extremely generous nature of all of you out there I have gained some
> knowledge. I continue to study the archives, whenever I can. I have almost
> all of Stephen Jepson's Videos. I use a few different techniques now, that
> seem to fit my habds better, but they were a good start for me. I have
> spent hours on the phone with Scott from Laguna, great guy. I got a
> fantastic deal from Ilene Mahler on some porcelain clay, glaze, and stains,
> thank you Ilene. I have a great blue glaze recipe from Cindy Strnad, and I
> can't stress enough the appreciation I have for all of you clayarters, even
> Rush, he's a riot. This is an extremely valuable tool for all of us
> especially us newbies. Now, I finally have goods that are good enough to
> sell, and I have more and more people making things in my place. Just in
> the last six months my income from my work, classes, and clay studio time
> has surpassed the income from the paint a pot section. This place is
> actually starting to show a profit. I made a bathroom sink for my parents,
> and am working on a custom fitted tile job to go with the sink. I have had
> alot of interest, so since I have made a half dozen sinks 14-19" dia with
> overflow. They are fun. The thing that is best about all of you, and clay
> in general, is the feeling that I will never be at a loss for things to
> improve, and experiment with. Seeing your work is inspriring, and the
> ideas I get from you are awesome. I like to experiment around a bit. Kind
> of hack right now. I use enough precision in my day job, I want to keep
> clay a little less precise for a while at least. Get's me in trouble, but
> so what? It is my therapy. On stressful days I think of the pots that I
> will make at night. Maybe in twenty years, when the kids are out of
> college, I will retire from engineering, and make pots full time. Maybe
> even make money at it. My challenge now is form. I have the technique to
> make most shapes, but not all of my pieces sing. This is the part that an
> actual art education would be good for. Oh well, maybe after my kids get
> out of school, that will be in about 20 years, and I will be about 50.
>
> Any way, that's me. Now I have a couple of tidbits that some may find
> interesting.
>
> Recently I purchased a bag of vermiculite from a garden supply shop. I
> wedged some into earthenware clay, and it was nice, with goldish/copper
> flecks. I then wedged some, about 30% into stoneware clay from my scrap
> bucket. I didn't really like the results. All of the vermiculite
> particles bloated, and caused bubbles on the surface of the clay. The pot
> was very light feeling, so I broke the pot apart, and inside was porous
> from where the vermiculite was. It seems that more than just "burning out"
> it had expanded, and left larger voids than it had occupied. I wonder if
> these voids help to dissipate the stress from cooking, making it useful for
> cooking over flames, or on burners. I didn't like it, because at cone 6 it
> was very fragile, and "ugly" to me, but it may warrant more playing with.
> I have also had many people see the pieces that I didn't smash, that are
> still hanging around with tools in them etc, and they love the rustic
> texture. One' man's failure is another man's treasure. I put the bag away
> vowing to never use it again, because it polluted my scrap bin, and ruined
> many pieces. I now understand the value of keeping experiments out of may
> mainstream materials.
>
> Another fun pit-fire thing I did recently was to use bricks to make a
> tunnel under the pit, and hook up a blower to force air into the pit. What
> a great fire, burned through many piles of scrap wood, and brush in about
> three hours. I put all of my mistakes, and ugly pots in the pit, covered
> with sawdust from dad's sawmill, and fired away. There were many nails,
> and bits of other stuff in the wood, as well as glazes on the pots already,
> so who knows what was really there. Anyway most of the pieces broke. I
> think I turned the blower on too soon, and shocked everything. I fired for
> about three hours, then there was just a lot of charcoal, and ash. I took
> a shovel, and covered everything, as much as I could. Some of the pieces
> had really nice colouring. Some reds(mostly from near the blower), some
> metallic luster stuff(mostly from near the side of the pit away from the
> air) Fun any ways, and worth repeating. Wait a little before starting the
> blower next time. Maybe the clay with vermiculite would be a good clay to
> try with this.
>
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Liz Willoughby on sun 22 jul 01
Hello Randy,
I enjoyed reading your post very much. It reminded me of the real
value of clayart for people just like yourself. I admire your
courage to start a new career, even part-time, and the dedication
that you have for working in clay.
Your post also got me thinking about form, and how one gets to be
competent at making good forms. I started pottery when I was 34, say
third career, child rearing, nursing, and then pottery. This was 29
years ago, when there weren't that many MFA's around.
I believe that the best way to achieve good form is through work. I
also believe that one of the hardest parts of being a potter is not
being a competent potter, but one who's work has good form.
After taking a few part-time courses, which involved a lot of
self-teaching, I started taking as many workshops as possible. I
learned from the pros. Then I gradually started "seeing" instead of
just "looking". I still feel that this is one of the best ways to be
a good potter.
I am always concerned with form along with function. One just has to
make it interesting.
Remembering how I used to lie awake at night thinking of just "how
was I going to solve a particular design problem to make a functional
piece work, as well as make it look good."
Meticulously Loose Liz
p.s. I think most of us feel lucky if we get a couple of pieces from
each kiln load that really sing.
> The thing that is best about all of you, and clay
>in general, is the feeling that I will never be at a loss for things to
>improve, and experiment with. Seeing your work is inspriring, and the
>ideas I get from you are awesome. I like to experiment around a bit. Kind
>of hack right now. I use enough precision in my day job, I want to keep
>clay a little less precise for a while at least. Get's me in trouble, but
>so what? It is my therapy. On stressful days I think of the pots that I
>will make at night. Maybe in twenty years, when the kids are out of
>college, I will retire from engineering, and make pots full time. Maybe
>even make money at it. My challenge now is form. I have the technique to
>make most shapes, but not all of my pieces sing. This is the part that an
>actual art education would be good for. Oh well, maybe after my kids get
>out of school, that will be in about 20 years, and I will be about 50.
Liz Willoughby
RR 1
2903 Shelter Valley Rd.
Grafton, On.
Canada
K0K 2G0
e-mail lizwill@phc.igs.net
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