Craig Martell on thu 3 jan 02
Hey:
I can hear the staccato sound of fingertips on keyboards worldwide with
regard to the subject of "who has the recipe that will put me on the
map". No wait, it's just me.........typety typety typety!!!
My question is: Do we make too big a deal of THE glaze recipe? I think
so. But I do think we should be respectful of authors and originators of
recipes and formulas. I know from experience that it takes some time and
effort to learn about the craft and how to get to the point aimed at.
Speaking specifically of Ron and John's book, the strength of this work is
not just some nice recipes. Here are two guys that are very technically
astute that also make pots. They've written a book that will help potters
sort out stuff about understanding glaze recipes and formulas plus very
good info on how to deal with what you've mixed up in the studio and how to
solve problems on many levels. Mary Beth has already mentioned this but I
just can't help myself. My point is that if we look at the longer route to
glazes, which will give all of us more freedom to make and understand
recipes and formulas, R and J have given you a nice map to help you along
and that's the great strength here. I was honored to be one of the
reviewers of Mastering Glazes and I've read the book twice.
There are books that will help you organize and work your way through the
vast arsenal of materials available to all of us. The real challenge is
learning as many of the possible combinations of flux mixtures as possible
and how to understand their contributions to your glazes. Along with this
we need to understand how to add clay(alumina/silica) and straight silica
to glazes to make balanced, strong glass. Ian Currie's books are priceless
with regard to this stuff.
Mimi Obstler writes some very good stuff about the geological ties to the
minerals we use and how to work with and understand these materials.
My point is that the books I value are not recipe books. They are books
that lead us to a deeper understanding of the craft of potmaking,
glazemaking, firing, etc. We are all very fortunate in this day and age to
have so much written about the craft. Working with and understanding
materials is a lot easier now than when I started making pots 27 years ago
thanks to the efforts of many.
regards, Craig Martell in Oregon
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