clifton wood on sat 22 mar 03
let me start by saying that i don't know the condition of pottery factories in china.
however, i am very familiar with work conditions in clothing factories.
we have sweat shops in the us... but there are concerted efforts by many in the
government to eliminate them.
this is not the case in china.
for example, young women and children are recruited from small, poor villages to
travel to large cities and work in sweat shops. they become part of a "company
town", working to pay off the "cost" of bringing them to town, training them. they
are often locked in during the day, and locked in at night.
if one of the women gets pregnant, which may be due to rape on the part of her
employers, her pregnancy is forcibly ended and she is sent back to the village, with
no money due to her remaining "debt".
this is the reason i try very hard to avoid buying clothing made in china, and am
careful when buying other goods.
if anyone knows about working conditions in the pottery factories, i'd really like to
hear about it.
after all, this is a human rights issue, not a political one... although our personal
livelihoods are critical, we can only be as free as the most enchained person
(thanks, mlk).
when you buy tennis shoes made in china, you are not helping workers in the us, you
are not helping workers in china... you are only making a few athletes richer and
telling the corporation that makes them that it's ok for them to get rich through the
suffering of others.
what a mess.
sabra wood
rochester ny
Kathi LeSueur on sat 22 mar 03
In the early 80's a potter I greatly admired was hired by Napco, a large
wholesale distributor to the gift market. I was living in Texas at the
time and knew the regional rep for the company. The idea was to take his
unique designs and have them produced off shore for the gift market.
Several month later I saw one of the pieces in, of all places, an H.E.B.
grocery store. The life was gone from the piece. The vigor of the
throwing did not come through in the mold. And, the glazes were dead.
When I talked to the rep later he said the line just wasn't sucessful.
I think one of the tricks to keeping your pieces from being copied is
to develop a look that is not easily reproduced. Reduction and salt
glazes just are not used by industry, so that look can't be easily
duplicated. Forms that can't easily be cast in molds or jiggered are
safer. but if you use simple forms and your glazes rely on Mason stains
expect to find your most popular pieces copied someday.
Kathi
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