Lily Krakowski on tue 7 oct 03
Alex: I think we tend to overlook how private a studio is. Even in a
shared studio, OUR space is OURS alone. My studio is the most private place
in my life; every other space is shared or at least others have access and
the use of it.
NO ONE is allowed in the studio. If someone needs to come in there, like to
fix something, I am gone. Will not be in same space.
You may not be so extreme, but maybe the dislocation you are experiencing is
just that. A private space is gone, the new space has not yet become
intimate. Also you have just moved into a new residence, and, although you
are living with a dear one, it still is a change demanding adaptation.
Very often we focus our anxieties about shared residences, new residences,
on one particular room, or aspect of the place.
May I suggest you just go in there, when no one else is in the apartment,
just go in, and sit there, and do nothing. Do not try to pot, do not try to
straighten things up, maybe you take a cup of coffee with you, maybe your
Walkman or Ceramics Monthly. But just sit there for an hour or so and get
the feel of the space. I think after a few sessions like that it will have
absorbed some of your essence, and will reflect it.
There was a wonderful series of books about cities, years ago, a French
series about (and called) The Spirit of the Place. All of us who HAVE
EXPERIENCED this peculiar feeling skeptics dismiss as superstition—that
places have a spirit of some kind…can relate to what you are feeling. Don’t
push it….it will be fine.
Lori: You might try using highly diluted food coloring and a brush to put
your designs on the slip. One of the troubles of transferring a drawing to
a pot (unless it is the flat part of a plate) is that the pot is round
--anyway 3 dimensional --and the paper is flat. You can buy one of those
gadgets they sell in fabric stores, one of those wheels with little tiny
tines, used to trace patterns. Run that over your drawing (the one on
paper) so that there are little holes, and then, as someone suggested use
“pounce”. In other words get some fine powder (charcoal is nice—not cookout
charcoal, but art-store charcoal) and rub it through the holes, and this
dotted line will show up. Then you connect the dots with your scratching
tool! However freehand drawing on the pot with a brush will, I think,
make you happier in the long run.
As to GLAZE:
CLAYART is not of one mind on this. Some feel that to be a real potter one
must do glaze. Others that we are artists and do whatever we do the way we
like to do, technical knowhow being limited to what we need to express
ourselves.
Having been schooled a potter, I was taught glaze from the first day at
SAC. I have come to think that as all glazes ARE known and the only time
really new stuff is out there is when a new material becomes available to
potters, or a new technology comes about, it is fine for those who do not
care to use given recipes, or commercial glazes.
To amaze myself I once mixed up ALL the c 6 zinc glazes I could find. When
I showed them to my glaze workshop we could barely see variations. Yes, of
course, there were some. But about 95% were so close that one would not have
been able to tell had they been on actual pots. HOWEVER when these glazes
were on different clay bodies the same glaze looked “totally” different on
each different body. Something to consider if one gets bored with the
glazes one has.
If/when one has the constant access to gas or oil or woodburning kilnsone
can enter a new dimension of glaze--the effect of reduction and ash. But,in
my opinion, firing, and the amazing possibilities of manipulation of flame,
is quite a ways from formulation of glaze. Of course a glaze has to be
adjusted to be compatible with the fire and vice versa, but again, the
actual formulation of the glazes is whisker close. Some years ago I tested
some celadons published in CM. All were lovely, all were incredibly close
in formulation, I liked one real well, the others not.
If you dislike glaze and the whole thing, don't torture yourself. Let those
of us who love it enjoy it, and use our results.
Lili Krakowski
Constableville, N.Y.
Be of good courage....
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