Lily Krakowski on sat 8 mar 03
Glory be! Oh, golly!
Slip casting is banned from the calendar, even when the craftsman made his
own molds from his own sculptures. Extruded and ram-pressed stuff is in?
Commercial clay bodies and commercially made glazes are in? Slipcast is
OUT even when the craftsman made her own slip, and her own glazes! Now what
happens to my freeform bowls, and my more classically shaped bowls both slip
decorated which I make in slump or on hump molds?
It almost is too much! And how quickly something started in great fun is
turned into yet another Serious Matter where jurors, juries, and Priviledged
Opinions take over.
John and Eleanor: Your garage, your oil supplier, your church will gladly
give you a hassle free calendar. Happy New Year!
John Rodgers writes:
> Hi Eleanora!!
>
> Lets hear a BIG ONE for the slip casters!!!
>
> I've been a slip caster for years. I'm also like you - it seems at times
> non-slip casters don't have a clue!!!!
>
> I throw clay, I slip cast clay. I do my own work in both cases. I like
> what I do. It sells. Everything I have ever made has sold, slip cast or
> not. Slip casting has been the biggest part of my career. If you design
> and sculpt your own models, make your own molds, cast your own stuff,
> fire it and finish it.....Stand up and be proud. You have earned the
> right!!! Maybe a slip casters calendar would be in order to overcome the
> narrow view!!
>
> There is one hellava lot more work to get from design to finished work
> in slip casting than in squishing a bit of clay between you fingers on a
> wheel. I know. Like I said.... I do both. Most non-slipcasters get hung
> up on the idea of "pottery", but slip casting covers vast fields of
> endeavor. Slipcase hollow ware and flatware is only a very small part of
> the slip casting world. Quite frankly, I feel that non-slipcasters
> "can't get there from here" in many cases. There are pieces that simply
> can't be done any other way. There are many designs that never would
> have seen the light of day had they not been molded, then cast to
> express the form. One thing about slip casting. You can do all your own
> work, from design to finished medium, and there are many artists that
> can't do that. They have to send their designs to a foundry. You, on the
> other hand, can be proud of displaying your work and saying unabashedly
> ,"This work is mine, ALL mine!!"
>
> If you haven't discovered him, look up Edward Marshal Boehm of Trenton,
> NJ. ( now deceased) and read about him. His work was all slip cast
> porcelain, and there were literally hundreds of parts in his castings,
> all of which had to be assembled, cleaned, chased, and fired without
> cracking, then china painted and/or stained, and fired multiple times.
> His molds weighed up to 6000 lbs for each design that he created. His
> piece titled "Sugarbirds" had a mold set that weighed 6500 lbs. His work
> has sold in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, even when he was
> alive. And even today his piece "Three Ivorybilled Woodpeckers" is worth
> $150,000, even damaged. When Nixon went to China, he selected as a gift
> from America to the People of China, Boehms "Pair of Mute Swans". It
> made a spectacular hit with the Chinese. What could have been better
> than to give porcelain swans to China, the origin of porcelain in the
> first place. The value of the piece was between $150,000 and $200,000,
> but there aren't enough dollars to measure the kudos Nixon got from the
> Chinese for the gift. it was a coup on another level.
>
> I myself have porcelain pieces from my own studio that have their home
> in the Governors Office in the City of Akita, Akita Prefecture, on the
> island of Ogatamura, Japan. These slipcast porcelain pieces were
> selected as a gifts because the Governor there was fascinated by the
> Eskimo people of Alaska and had made a study of their history. The
> Governor there was thrilled to receive such gifts with the expression
> of something of the Eskimo culture, in slip cast porcelain, with which
> the Japanese have a long history.
>
> To show some of this, I'm working on my web site and it should be up
> shortly, and once it is up you will see some slip casting, I promise!
>
> Long live the Slip Casters!!
>
> John Rodgers
> Birmingham, AL
>
> Eleanora Eden wrote:
>
>> Just happened on the 2004 calendar request for submissions. It amazed me
>> to see that cast work is excluded. I'm tired to making the arguments and
>> won't do it here. Maybe its cause the present political situation is so
>> grim that I am especially saddened by the certainty many clayarters
>> seem to
>> have about categories of art. Walls, walls, walls.
>>
>> Eleanora
>>
>> Eleanora Eden 802 869-2003
>> Paradise Hill Road eeden@vermontel.net
>> Bellows Falls, VT 05101 www.eleanoraeden.com
>>
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>>
>
> __________________________________________________________________________
> ____
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
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>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
> melpots@pclink.com.
Lili Krakowski
P.O. Box #1
Constableville, N.Y.
(315) 942-5916/ 397-2389
Be of good courage....
Snail Scott on sun 9 mar 03
Although it doesn't seem reasonable to ban
cast work from the calendar, it is Lisa's
project, and she is doing all the work. So,
if she wants to ban ^8 work too, or yellow
work, or work with stripes, or whatever, I
won't argue. It's a decent thing she's doing
for everybody, and I'll let her make her own
decisions as she sees fit.
-Snail
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