Craig Edwards on tue 23 dec 03
Hello: I'd like to weigh in on this one. It would have to be a kiln.
It's not ceramic until it has been fired. I can't remember who said it (
somebody on the list will) " need a little, know alot". In todays
society of consumerism we seem to think that we need all sorts of
equipment to make pots. Perhaps its to cover up something that we are
missing.
We don't need hardly anything to make pots that sing. Potters in
Africa make pots that can choke me up. There kiln may be little more
than a shallow hole in the ground with brush piled on top. The list go's
on and on. I am never amazed at the great pots that spring up out of
seemingly nothing. Nothing but talent. I am always humbled by this.
Perhaps a good exersize would be , what we don't need, to make great pots!
Humbly yours
Craig Edwards
New London MN
Hank Murrow on tue 23 dec 03
On Dec 23, 2003, at 8:06 AM, Susan Setley wrote:
>
> When asked by students I say I could pinch, coil, slab without a wheel.
> Could fire, glaze and finish my work and save for a wheel. I almost
> exclusivelywork on the wheel but if a choice HAD to be made - I'd go
> for the kiln. May
> have something to do with wanting to account for the results of my
> work.
Well, I could not resist this thread finally. I took my first class in
beginning ceramics in '58, and one week into the term Bob James said,
"Here is the priority order for the use of the kilns, ones who have
never fired first, then students outside the department, then art
majors, then ceramics majors, then grad students, then teaching
assistants, and last....faculty". I fired my first kiln (gas 5 cu ft
Alpine.....tough teacher!) at three weeks into my first term in
ceramics. Everything fell into place after that first firing......how
to glaze, reduction, the whole BoxofTricks! I hand built mostly for the
next two years, only building and mastering a kickwheel after leaving
school. I l;earned how to throw by doing 50 to 100 balls of clay/day,
recycling the whole mess each day... saving nothing (cannot emphasize
how important that is) for one whole summer. By the end of the summer I
could throw just about anything up to 10 #s and was ready to start
filling the boards with wares...and I did.
The kiln shaped my earliest ideas of what to make, so I had no
adjustment to make later on. When I built kilns, I always started with
the size and stacking pattern of shelves first, built the kiln around
that decision. Been working well for me for 46 years, and I wish much
the same for every one on the Clayart list this Christmas!
Cheers, Hank in Eugene..... with 157 degrees of shoulder extension, and
54 degrees of elbow extension and sutures removed one week after
rotator cuff surgery. Yay!
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