Jeff Seefeldt on fri 15 mar 02
I got a bit of a disappointment yesterday, a co worker of my fiancee'
offered to sell some of my pieces at the shop she also owns. I sent up 50
or so pieces, waterfall brown, Caribbean sea green / oatmeal, and red on
black. She's sending 2/3 of it back, you know what she wants??????? OPAL
BLUE!
If you have JH and RR's book, you have to try cranberry with black. The
transition between the two is a wonderful purplish gray.
Maybe I should have just kept every piece I ever made, glazed it blue and
sold it to her, rather than waiting until I was comfortable with my ability
and found some glazes that have character.
Jeff
Working Potter on fri 15 mar 02
Dear Jeff,
I went to several workshops and learned woodfiring and enjoyed it immensely
but when I sent some of the pieces to a gallery here, that handles my work,
they put them all in the backroom and told me to come get them, then the
next month asked for more blue pots!!!! I had similar reactions when I went
into a small group run gallery of which I was one of the artist/potters and
we never sold anything in earth colors in clay.There are so many lovely works
in natural tones but if that isn't the decorating trend we may have a big
personal collection hereabouts.
Misty
3/15/2002 12:17:17 PM Eastern Standard Time, jeffs@KSNI.NET writes:
>
> I got a bit of a disappointment yesterday, a co worker of my fiancee'
> offered to sell some of my pieces at the shop she also owns. I sent up 50
> or so pieces, waterfall brown, Caribbean sea green / oatmeal, and red on
> black. She's sending 2/3 of it back, you know what she wants??????? OPAL
> BLUE!
>
>
> If you have JH and RR's book, you have to try cranberry with black. The
> transition between the two is a wonderful purplish gray.
>
> Maybe I should have just kept every piece I ever made, glazed it blue and
> sold it to her, rather than waiting until I was comfortable with my ability
> and found some glazes that have character.
>
>
> Jeff
>
>
chris clarke on fri 15 mar 02
Don't worry about getting pieces back. I had a show at a gallery that I =
got very excited for. I worked up twenty five pieces. Many were large =
(24 inches) jars. Shino, small twig of bamboo in the handle. She =
emailed me to tell me they weren't the type of piece she had wanted. =
Okay. I moped for days. She kept them though because it cost me $200 =
to send the show pieces to her. Got a check about two weeks ago. =
People should not underestimate the public's taste (sometimes).
chris
temecula, california
chris@ccpots.com
www.ccpots.com
Les Crimp on fri 15 mar 02
Hi Misty -
I'm a woodfirer, too. The color "blue" never stopped us when we are firing.
We use a blue glaze.
All wood fired pottery does not necessarily have to be 'only' earth tones.
I use an opal blue glaze which works very well in my kiln. It looks great
in combination with a good temoku. I make sushi sets using these two
glazes, besides some others that work well, too.
Les Crimp on that Island in the Pacific.
lcrimp@shaw.ca
www.arrowsmithpottersguild.bc.ca
vince pitelka on sat 16 mar 02
> I went to several workshops and learned woodfiring and enjoyed it
immensely
> but when I sent some of the pieces to a gallery here, that handles my
work,
> they put them all in the backroom and told me to come get them, then the
> next month asked for more blue pots!!!! I had similar reactions when I
went
> into a small group run gallery of which I was one of the artist/potters
and
> we never sold anything in earth colors in clay.There are so many lovely
works
> in natural tones but if that isn't the decorating trend we may have a big
> personal collection hereabouts.
Misty -
A healthy appreciation of the wood-fired aesthetic usually requires some
experience with wood firing, some knowledge of the special qualities of
wood-fired wares, and/or a high degree of sensitivity to subtleties of color
and texture. We cannot expect the average gallery gift-shop consumer (or
gallery owner!) to automatically appreciate this aesthetic. It is up to us
to educate them. In fact, this is the responsibility of every artist if
they really want to sell their work. It is of course perfectly appropriate
for us to make whatever concessions to the market place we wish, but if we
surrender completely to the vagaries of the marketplace we have given up our
autonomy as artists.
Appreciation for the wood-fired aesthetic is on the rise, and that is indeed
encouraging.
Most of us have at some time spent time in the desert, marveling at the rich
subtleties of brown, tan, gray, black and white, or in the deciduous forests
of the Northeast in late autumn, where everything is painted in subtleties
of russet and brown. Wood-fired wares are the same way, although they can
certainly involve a lot of color as well.
It is important to realize that blue pots are appropriate for a
simple-minded aesthetic. THAT IS NOT AN INSULT. It means that appreciating
them is easy for almost anyone, and places little responsibility on the
viewer. Wood fired wares are much more of a challenge, but once learned,
the appreciation of them is infinitely more complex and rewarding. Some
people cannot handle that complexity.
In approaching galleries, do not just send them a batch of wood fired wares.
Educate them about woodfired wares. Show them pictures of the process and
results, with plenty of concise descriptive information, including the rich
history of wood-firing. Don't overload them, but give them the opportunity
to digest something of this remarkable work. Treat the work as the special
thing it is, and discuss the firing in terms of ceremony and ritual. You
have found the woodfiring process and the resulting work to be rich and
magical. Communicate that to the retailer and the consumer.
I can guarantee that if you handle this properly with your retailers you can
supercharge their enthusiasm for woodfired wares, which will give them a
fair chance of doing the same to the consumer. This is exactly what Joe
Bennion has done in his remote corner of Utah, and the same is true of many
woodfire and salt-fire potters all over the country.
Best wishes -
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Crafts
Tennessee Technological University
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
Home - vpitelka@dtccom.net
615/597-5376
Work - wpitelka@tntech.edu
615/597-6801 ext. 111, fax 615/597-6803
http://www.craftcenter.tntech.edu/
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