Hendrix, Taylor J. on tue 2 dec 03
Howdy all,
Just finished glazing the last pieces for our open house this weekend.
We send them to the fire in the morning. As usual, I glazed at my
friend's studio, using her glazes. She has used these glazes for
awhile, collecting them over her 20 years of pots. A few of them I
really like, none are my friends. It's hard when you're not captain.
Take today for example. I have had a real hard time deciding on glazing
for my latest pots. Could be because I don't have any "Taylor" glazes
yet and so nothing comes to me when I'm at the wheel making the pieces.
Could be because Barb's studio is a bit cramped and I need my wings.
Who knows. Today I'm pressed for time, see. Got a kiln at the school
that needs turning up, got to get to work. Not knowing what to do can
paralyze me to inaction, but lately I have been of the mind to just grab
something and dunk it. Get it over with. So, I stirred up a glaze that
I hadn't used but once before, Lewing Blue-Green (funny, huh?), and
decided to glaze a vase with it. I commented to the room, "I sure hope
this Lewing fella doesn't screw up my vase." Barb still doesn't know
when she should take me seriously--"What? It's a good color."
"I know. Paul Lewing makes great glazes I'm sure." "PAUL Lewing? It's
Paul Lewing, is it? You just know everything now don't you, Taylor."
"Hm? Lewing the tile and glaze guy? Who doesn't know him?" Hehehehe.
Just can't get away from you people.
Don't really wanna.
Taylor, in Waco
Lee Love on sat 13 dec 03
----- Original Message -----
From: "Hendrix, Taylor J."
>Take today for example. I have had a real hard time deciding on glazing
>for my latest pots.
Hi Taylor,
One of the big changes in my work since my apprenticeship, something
I learned from my teacher, is that I know how a piece with be glazed before
I start making it. Much of my teacher's decoration is done before the pot
is glazed, because it is rope impressed inlay. But other work, because
the glazes only look right over a certain clay body or slip, you have to
think about how the pot will be glazes in the choosing of the clays and
slip.
I have to do the same because I use different clays and also
different slips and inlays under different glazes. One of the things
I have been doing is the negative of my teacher's technique. Where he put
a white inlay in an iron bearing clay, I put an ochre inlay on a light
colored clay.
For me personally, it has been helpful to have some idea of how a
work will look like when it is finished from the begining of its making.
--
Lee In Mashiko, Japan
Coming soon: Pots and woodblock prints from Mashiko: http://Mashiko.us
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Susan Giddings on sat 13 dec 03
Taylor,
I have to agree with Lee that the time will come when the quandry will leave you. Some of us can sometimes have a problem deciding WHAT to throw as well as once its come from bisque how on earth to finish it! Gosh I can remember the days when I'd wedge up balls of clay, throw and center one on the wheel and then sit back and wait (hope and pray more likely) that the clay would talk to me and tell me what it wanted to be. Well, I think, at least in my case, with experience comes desire to constantly improve. I know what I'm going to throw now when I start out for the studio. And I know precisely how it will be decorated, too. The image in my head is quite clear on all this - now. And as Lee has mentioned, knowing what you intend to make and what sort of decoration and glaze it will have helps to plan what and how you will throw it. Some times you just want to go for pure form. No decoration other than what the glaze will do. The graceful elegant curve of the piece will be a backdrop fior the subtle variations of color. The fire will leave it's mark and that's all you're shooting for. And sometimes you want a refined pattern, perhaps complex and repetitive -
maybe incised and maybe highlighted with slip (as in mishima).
I don't know how common it is, but I do know that you are not unique in having this dilemma. I think what got me out of it was having objectives in mind as to what I wanted to learn or practice. Or a new technique I read about and want to try. For me, it is just a constant stretch of what I can do, what I know and what I'm comfortable with. I confess, I like living on the edge! I tell students who voice this same problem to just look in their sketch book, or pick up a magazine and find something that intrigues them or in some way piques their interest. MAKE THAT. And don't be happy making one - make many until you end up with at least 3 you are happy with. Decorate them all differently and don't repeat what you do with decoration. Fire them differently even. If you need a comfort zone, then still make routine things and just play with different decoration or different glazing effects. Or do this all in some different order. Emphasize shape and leave glazing all the same. Or just play with decoration. You don't have to do it all at once! But if you make a concerted effort to take some part of this approach with at least a few of the items you make you'
re explorations will take you far. You will learn a lot! And you will find the "how do I finish it" quandry will fade and finally disappear.
Hope this helps.
Susan
------------------
Susan Giddings
Daytime phone: 860-687-4550
Cell phone: 860-930-8813
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