clayart - thread 'handmade tools'

I have to agree with Lili and Mel: part of a potter's education should be about simple tool making and repair. Every once and while I splurge and buy a new fetling knife, but I make over %95 of all the tools I use everyday. Possibly the best part is the ability to create and adapt your tools to the task at hand. I have probably 6 or 8 trimming tools of different types and sizes at my trimming wheel ready for whatever comes along. A quick look at a production tool is all the recipe you need in most circumstances. Everyone has their own limit to how much time they are willing to invest in making a tool before buying one, but I belive every potter should be able to (even if they chose not to) make their own simple tools like needles, trimming tools and wooden paddles. Keep your eyes open, there's free materials all around you! The next time you change your windshield wiper blades,
save the strips of stainless steel to make small loop tools. Scraps of fine hardwood (their small scraps are just the right size for most handtools) can be found in the dumpsters of woodworking shops and cabinetmakers. Throwing with your own handmade cherry rib is sweet! Think about it: the same hand/eye coordination that allows you to throw a pot will let you make the tool to trim the pot. The final result is a inexpensive, but never "cheap" tool whose quality can far surpass a production tool.

Chester

Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 17:25:06 -0400
From: Lili Krakowski <mlkrakowski@CITLINK.NET>
Subject: brushes and tools

Mel, while I agree with everything you say about tools (in this case
brushes) I think otherwise about investing in this and that.

Leaving aside that I read somewhere that Lucie Rie used "cheap Woolworth
brushes" (I expect to apply glaze) I shudder at this business about
"good
tools"

As you rightly say, brushes are far more specific tools than
is
generally
thought. When one goes to an Asian shop that specializes in brushes
they
ask: What do you want it for? And every bit of brush work has its own
brush, and some cost a fortune--but for the Master there is nothing
else.
For the average person? Come on!

Most of my handtools are home made. Some are adapted from wooden spoons
and
the like and some are carved (by me) from scraps of pretty woods gotten
from
woodworkers. others are made from steel strapping and old saber or
hacksaw
blades.

Now I neither pretend that these are as glorious as what Phil makes,
etc.
and that some of the Judson wooden tools aren't pertier. I do not
however
think they have limited my work.

I am very sad indeed that potting has become costly. I am sad indeed
that a
polished bit of wood costs $ 7
and a bit of saw blade stuck in a dowel
as
much.

Potting used to be cheap. Cheap. Poor people could afford to pot. I
think
Newbies get the impression that good tools =costly tools. So they are
intimidated.

There are people out there who are gifted, talented, and who make
minimum
wage. They want to learn about clay but they do not have the money.
For
them investing in good tools is not a possibility. Period.

And without wishing to offend Mel, Bamboo Karen, or anyone--get brushes
you
can afford. Ask the hairdresser and such like for old soft makeup
brushes
she no longer uses. EXPERIMENT with those brushes. Learn. Try.
Experiment.

The craft is more important than the tools. (Little Drummer Boy,or Le
Jongleur de Notre Dame and all that.) No million
dollar tool replaces
heart, brain, and hands. As far as I am concerned by a couple of
"Chinese"
brushes at a "craft store" . Learn how to use them. Have fun with
them.
You can do a whole lot of learning with them. Then, later on, move
up....

(Llewellyn. Ignore this. I know you are a good old potter, and not a
newbie. I was not addressing you.)

handmade tools

updated fri 9 apr 10

Dannon Rhudy on mon 22 oct 01

chris clarke on tue 23 oct 01

Chester Winowiecki on tue 3 may 05

Eric Serritella on tue 3 may 05

Jeff Guin on thu 8 apr 10