Alisa og Claus Clausen on wed 6 mar 02
Man, Ned and David, yes, positive reinforcement, validation. I need it.
I am trying and trying to make a good pouring, nice looking and overall
very usable and congenial teapot.
It is hard to do, it takes forever, I recycle more than I finish. Once I
think I get all the elements worked out,
it is dribbler, a stupid angle, a badly proportioned handle, ugly,
useless. The fired ones go out to the heap.
If I make 8 teapots, one or two are good enough to function properly, but
not even one is completely comfortable to
look at. So, that is my quest. A simple, well functioning and comfortable
teapot. I am smitten by Warren McKenzie's
teapots. I have tried to throw lower bodies because a tea drinker told me
that a flatter base is better for the leaves
to soak. But I did not like making over the top handles so much. I made
magazines for the lids to sit nicely in. I made lids with long flanges so
that they stay there. Longer spouts, tipped spouts, sliced off spouts, and
still, no "that's the one". It takes a long time just to decide how to
make the parts. Then much much longer to get
to get those parts to work.
I wonder, can you pour from a green pot and see already if it will be a
spitter, dribbler, so smash it now? That could save me.
I am working it out, working on it, reading about spouts, testing spouts,
asking Ned, reading John's site, and all I really want is a teapot that I
will use myself.
>I agree with David. Let professional potters dare to _use_, yes use,
>their own pots!
claybair on wed 6 mar 02
Alisa,
Don't give up on you teapots.
I love making them and in the past have had a fairly high failure rate.
Over time I am discovering what works (for me at least) and my ratio of
failed pots is getting smaller.
A few tips that work for me .......
I make sure my spout has a thin (approx.1/8") sharp edge inside and outside.
Doing this has resulted in non-dribblers.
When I throw a spout I smooth the interior usually with a pencil held in
place while using a thin metal rib on the outside. I find not having finger
impressions reduces the warpage upon firing. I learned this when I decided
to try throwing handles..... boy did they warp... to the point of pulling
off the pot!
Pouring from a green pot ......... don't know. I'd be concerned it would
soften the sharp edge.
Gayle Bair - Ever the recycler.... my failed teapots become garden art.
Bainbridge Island, WA
http://claybair.com
Alisa wrote>>
Man, Ned and David, yes, positive reinforcement, validation. I need it.
I am trying and trying to make a good pouring, nice looking and overall
very usable and congenial teapot.
It is hard to do, it takes forever, I recycle more than I finish. Once I
think I get all the elements worked out,
it is dribbler, a stupid angle, a badly proportioned handle, ugly,
useless. The fired ones go out to the heap.
If I make 8 teapots, one or two are good enough to function properly, but
not even one is completely comfortable to
look at. So, that is my quest. A simple, well functioning and comfortable
teapot. I am smitten by Warren McKenzie's
teapots. I have tried to throw lower bodies because a tea drinker told me
that a flatter base is better for the leaves
to soak. But I did not like making over the top handles so much. I made
magazines for the lids to sit nicely in. I made lids with long flanges so
that they stay there. Longer spouts, tipped spouts, sliced off spouts, and
still, no "that's the one". It takes a long time just to decide how to
make the parts. Then much much longer to get
to get those parts to work.
I wonder, can you pour from a green pot and see already if it will be a
spitter, dribbler, so smash it now? That could save me.
I am working it out, working on it, reading about spouts, testing spouts,
asking Ned, reading John's site, and all I really want is a teapot that I
will use myself.
Bacia Edelman on thu 7 mar 02
Alisa wrote about struggling with teapots.
>
>I wonder, can you pour from a green pot and see already if it will be a
>spitter, dribbler, so smash it now? That could save me.
If you are serious about this, you would probably lose the teapot.
Keep a pan underneath so you could recycle the clay.
Try to test a bisqued pot and that will give you a fairly
accurate story.
>>I agree with David. Let professional potters dare to _use_, yes use,
>>their own pots!
Well, professional or not, I thought that because people associate me
with teapots (though darnit, I make other things) I would offer
my two cents worth. I actually make functional teapots as well
as the ones that galleries or exhibits have accepted or sold.
Some of the functional ones even have lichen glaze on the exterior
with a food-safe glaze on the interior.
Some of the unusual ones could also be used if I make a lid across
the entire top of the flattened teapot.
Occasionally, ones I mean to be functional are not successful
because I am primarily a hand-builder and have made the spouts
too narrow or some such problem. One pours like it has Pieroni's
disease. Look that up in a Merck manual. I am not going to
explain.
Or, I have used the wrong high-fire clay for a woodfiring invitation
and the handbuilding came apart at base. I now have far better clays.
I didn't mean to give an autobiog here but maybe the guy on the
cover of CM doesn't always make pots in order to get on the
cover of CM. Actually, I wasn't crazy about his forms. Nobody
asked, did they?
Regards,
Bacia
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Bacia Edelman Madison, Wisconsin
http://users.skynet.be/russel.fouts/bacia.htm
http://www.silverhawk5.com/edelman/index.html
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