Steve Dalton on wed 4 feb 04
On Wednesday, February 4, 2004, at 02:13 PM, wayneinkeywest wrote:
> Ignore those ignorant youngsters. If they never learn the
> techniques that we all struggle so hard with,
> if they think that "buying them in jars" is going
> to cut it when they go out and try to make a
> living and then get laughed at, let them. They
> delude themselves. With age comes
> wisdom...or as grandpa used to say
> (in german) "too soon we get old, too
> late we get smart."
>
My potter teacher taught for over 30 years. Out of an average of
30 students per class for all of those years, I was the only one
to venture out to become a full time potter. I only have a 2 year
degree. I didn't get a BFA or anything like that. I didn't want it.
Mostly, I'm self taught.
We still contact each other every so often and I can tell you that
he's proud to get at least one student into his 'field'.
I prefer mixing my own glazes. If I had more room, I would venture
into my own locally dug clay. I built my own gas kiln, through trial
and error. I'm going to build a new wood kiln very soon, in fact, I
taught
myself to fire with wood. For my wood kiln, I'm going to cast
everything
for it. I have a lot of scrap brick.
In another reply, someone mentioned about being self reliant. I grow
as much of my own food as possible. I prefer homemade from scratch
than a box. I taught myself how to cook when I was 6. My grandmother
did her best to teach me how to can before she died.
I can rebuild a motor...I love blueprinting and forcing out 500 HP from
a Chevy 350. I can fix just about anything on a car, except
transmissions.
I'm also getting pretty good at home gunsmithing and welding.
Steve Dalton
Clear Creek Pottery
Snohomish, Wa
clearcreekpottery.com
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