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chinese handbuilding!

updated sun 14 sep 03

 

Hendrix, Taylor J on wed 10 sep 03


Susan,

This is down right freaky. I have been reading back
issues of Ceramics Monthly and coming across articles
and letters that relate exactly with what people are
posting here on ClayArt these last few days.

I JUST finished the article "The Art of Yixing", by
Terese Tse Bartholomew, CM v40, n10 p. 38-45. Pages
44 and 45 show EXACTLY what you described in your
posting. Very very kewl.

Our very own Michelle Lowe often has two Chinese
artists doing workshops at her studio, Dessert
Dragon Pottery. As a matter of fact if anyone
is in the Phoenix area she is having another
Xiaoping workshop Sep 15-Oct 5. They do both sculpture
and Yixing pots. I'd go if I could! Check it out here:
http://www.desertdragonpottery.com/classes.html#xiaoping

Also for those of you keeping track of the creepy stuff:
Same CM issue, page 8 and following, Bob Crystal wrote a
letter "'How' Outweighs 'What'". Good letter for those=20
of us who have chimed in about the slip casting/jiggering
discussion.

Taylor, in Waco

-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Setley [mailto:ThirdRockFan@AOL.COM]=20
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2003 1:48 PM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Chinese handbuilding!


We had the most amazing demonstration last night at Craft Alliance. A
team of
Chinese potters -- all handbuilders -- came to demonstrate how they
work.

...

Susan Setley on wed 10 sep 03


We had the most amazing demonstration last night at Craft Alliance. A team of
Chinese potters -- all handbuilders -- came to demonstrate how they work.

It was absolutely fascinating. They come from the Xinging province and
typically use the special clays from that region, but they used standard
off-the-shelf earthenware last night.

They had bars of clay, about 1" by 2" by perhaps a foot long. This clay was
leather hard, and they subtly commented "we tend to use less water than you
do..." this was the understatement of the century!

The woman I watched most carefully would cut a slice about 1" wide off the
clay bar, and then, using a specialized heavy wooden mallet, and rotating the
piece quickly, pound it into a thin circle. She then took another piece of clay
and pounded it into a VERY thin slab. She wrapped that around the disk,
without slip (the disk was only for support) and joined the seams with only a drop
or two of water -- no slip.

It went on like that for a couple of hours, ending with the most exquisite
teapot, out of clay that was already leather hard when she started.

I will get their names tonight and post it, and get the website address. It
was the most amazing demonstration of handbuilding I've ever seen -- using a
paddle, she paddled the round column into a closed sphere. One of her teammates
made much larger spheres, presumably the same way. First she paddled the sides
in at the top of the column, then added a dry disk to fill it in, and paddled
it and worked it with a bamboo rib to smooth it completely. Then it was
removed from the supporting disk, and the bottom was closed in the same way.

The whole process was just amazing.

Russel Fouts on sat 13 sep 03


Susan

>> We had the most amazing demonstration last night at Craft Alliance. A team of
Chinese potters -- all handbuilders -- came to demonstrate how they
work. <<

What a great, inspiring post, wish there were pictures.

It's really amazing what you can do with some leather hard clays and
paddling. I was in a throwing workshop with John Colbeck at Peitro
Maddalena' place in Tuscany a couple of years ago and discovered that
Pietro's raku clay would do this. I could throw a spherical shape, let
it get leather hard (hard cheese hard would be more acurate) and then
paddle it to make the foot a LOT narrower, shape the sides into facets,
etc.

My own clay will do this and I discovered that Loafer's glory will also
do it. I'm sure most clays will do it if you catch them at the right
stage.

Russel
--

Russel Fouts
Mes Potes & Mes Pots
Brussels, Belgium
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Michelle Lowe on sat 13 sep 03


Yes, these are the same techniques used by Xiaoping Luo and Junya Shao in their classes here, completely different from anything I had learned in the prior twenty years I was in clay.

I am amazed still by their process of pounding the slabs out of partially dried 1-2" slices off the clay bag, they most certainly use it drier than we ever do. Their methods of building teapots result in the most perfectly round, nicely fitting lids and clean sophisticated finish I can ever imagine in handbuilding. The more recent classes here have focused on making 'wood-like' teapots (we call them wood teapots, but they are clay, made to look like wood!)...an interesting combination of the sophisticated techniques and some serious texture study. We have another series starting Monday evening here, and hoping to get enough people to do at least a couple afternoon figure sculpture classes also. Anyone in the Phoenix area interested, give me a call! Info is on the website-

http://www.desertdragonpottery.com/classes.html#xiaoping

As for clay, we have used mostly mid range or high fire stoneware, Xiaoping encourages us to use clay with sand in it, so we don't have to fight cracking (B-mix seems a bit more troublesome with this method, particularly in our dry climate I think). I am trying some colored cone 5 bmix, just for grins, ala Vince's colored clay workshop...call me masochistic! The Chinese clays seem to be a mid-range variety of colors, smooth but tempered clay, somehow.




At 09:43 AM 9/13/2003 +0200, Russel Fouts wrote:
>Susan
>
>>> We had the most amazing demonstration last night at Craft Alliance. A team of
>Chinese potters -- all handbuilders -- came to demonstrate how they
>work. <<
>
>What a great, inspiring post, wish there were pictures.
>
>It's really amazing what you can do with some leather hard clays and
>paddling. I was in a throwing workshop with John Colbeck at Peitro
>Maddalena' place in Tuscany a couple of years ago and discovered that
>Pietro's raku clay would do this. I could throw a spherical shape, let
>it get leather hard (hard cheese hard would be more acurate) and then
>paddle it to make the foot a LOT narrower, shape the sides into facets,
>etc.
>
>My own clay will do this and I discovered that Loafer's glory will also
>do it. I'm sure most clays will do it if you catch them at the right
>stage.
>
>Russel

-----------
Michelle Lowe potter in the Phoenix desert
http://www.desertdragonpottery.com
Mishy@desertdragonpottery.com
mishlowe@amug.org
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Susan Setley on sat 13 sep 03


In a message dated 9/13/03 10:43:54 AM, russel.fouts@SKYNET.BE writes:

<< It's really amazing what you can do with some leather hard clays and
paddling. I was in a throwing workshop with John Colbeck at Peitro
Maddalena' place in Tuscany a couple of years ago and discovered that
Pietro's raku clay would do this. I could throw a spherical shape, let
it get leather hard (hard cheese hard would be more acurate) >>

By the way, you're right... "cheesehard" is a better description of the
consistency of the clay bars. They did not talk about how they brought the clay to
that stage, and I didn't think to ask.... but as I said, they had bars of clay
about 1" x 2" by about a foot long. As far as I could tell, the cheese --
oops the CLAY what a freudian slip! -- was equally moist throughout.

I would THINK wrapping it tightly and leaving it for several days would be
the way, but ... they didn't have several days.

Anyone know an efficient way to get clay evenly to that stage?

Michelle Lowe on sat 13 sep 03


They just cut the pieces and set them out here to dry on a table in the studio for a few hours, or, if in a hurry, even out in the sun (can be brutal in the desert!), takes about an hour or even less, but we watch them and turn them, and don't let the edges get too crispy.

At 11:48 AM 9/13/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>In a message dated 9/13/03 10:43:54 AM, russel.fouts@SKYNET.BE writes:
>
><< It's really amazing what you can do with some leather hard clays and
>paddling. I was in a throwing workshop with John Colbeck at Peitro
>Maddalena' place in Tuscany a couple of years ago and discovered that
>Pietro's raku clay would do this. I could throw a spherical shape, let
>it get leather hard (hard cheese hard would be more acurate) >>
>
>By the way, you're right... "cheesehard" is a better description of the
>consistency of the clay bars. They did not talk about how they brought the clay to
>that stage, and I didn't think to ask.... but as I said, they had bars of clay
>about 1" x 2" by about a foot long. As far as I could tell, the cheese --
>oops the CLAY what a freudian slip! -- was equally moist throughout.
>
>I would THINK wrapping it tightly and leaving it for several days would be
>the way, but ... they didn't have several days.
>
>Anyone know an efficient way to get clay evenly to that stage?

-----------
Michelle Lowe potter in the Phoenix desert
http://www.desertdragonpottery.com
Mishy@desertdragonpottery.com
mishlowe@amug.org
\|/ |
-O- | |
/|\ | | |
|_|_|
____ |
\ /-----|-----
( )
<__>