Vince Pitelka on sat 6 sep 03
> I still believe that I can make better pots by handbuilding than
> by throwing; definitely have more control. However, being able
> to do 10 decent pots a week vs. 1 or 2 has helped me on my
> road to understanding glazes.
> I would ask; would you carry your arguments about "handbuilt"
> vs slipcasting/rampressing to handbuilt vs thrown?
Earl -
When you are working on the wheel, you are still making your pots
individually one-at-a-time, determining every detail of surface and form by
your sense of aesthetics and utility, and the skill of your hands. It is
the same with handbuilding.
I wouldn't put too much store in what your friends said about not buying
handbuilt pots. To put it bluntly, they don't have a clue what they are
talking about. They are probably thinking about crude pinch pots and wonky
coil pots. Fine pinch pots and coil pots are things of wonder. We had
Michael Imes here at the Craft Center teaching a workshop this summer, and
his pinch pots are some of the most beautiful vessels I have seen.
And you can make handbuilt pots very fast if you learn how to do it that
way. There are lots of people doing slab-built utilitarian ware that is
beautiful to see and a joy to use. Coil-building is slower, but you can
learn to coil build very efficiently. I had the great good fortune to share
a studio in grad school with a Nigerian student named Sherinatu Fafunwa, and
she taught me the Nigerian method of coil construction, which can be done
very quickly. Even so, it isn't especially appropriate for high-volume
functional ware, because our culture is so different, in its expectations of
surface finish and uniformity. In comparison to wheel or slab, it is fairly
time consuming to make such pots by the coil method, and the technique is
perhaps better applied to very large vessels or to sculpture, which can be
built very efficiently with this method.
Best wishes -
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft
Tennessee Technological University
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
Home - vpitelka@dtccom.net
615/597-5376
Office - wpitelka@tntech.edu
615/597-6801 x111, FAX 615/597-6803
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka/
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