primalmommy on thu 15 apr 04
I am posting to clayart from a different account, because my mail2world account is dating posts 1979 and I bet they are landing at the bottom of people's emails/archives.. somebody tell me if you find one there..
I've thinking these days about the ironies, snobberies, and cultural baggage surrounding
the notions of "decorative" and "functional" -- ideas that carry over to the way we make,
price, use, and value ceramics.
First, a little illustration:
In the days before plastic packaging and disposable everything, my farm grandma's trash
was either compost, table scraps for the beagles... or stuff for the burn barrel.
Every farm around here used to have a (functional) burn barrel. Also a big bonfire, spring and fall, to burn brush and produce ash for the garden.
Not any more. I am all for improving air quality, but it seems ironic that I could be arrested
for burning the dead sticks in my yard. I live in a raggedy little suburban neighborhood
framed in by semi trucks spewing black smog, and in the ever present shadow of Toledo
Edison's tall smokestacks.. the BP refinery.. the sunoco refinery... the Dundee cement
plant.. and y'all have read about the Davis Besse nuclear plant with its swiss-cheese
reactor head...
There IS a point to all this, and here it is: the township recently made an amendment to
the no-burning rule to allow for those "decorative" little chiminea things, the pot-bellied
fireplaces that sit on decks crackling warmly with supermarket "firelogs" for "ambiance" at
social gatherings. So I got me one ;0)
I have discovered that 1) kids love picking up sticks in the yard if they get to put them in a
fire, 2) I can make a four foor flame shoot out of the top of a chiminea, and 3) it really IS
nice to sit on the deck at the chill of early spring dusk with a nice crackling fire to stare at.
Perfectly legal. This is just one more on my list of ironies.
If I had, say, 25 hyperactive, barking, pooping Afghan Hounds in my yard, it would be
legal. My half dozen small, quiet laying hens, however, brought down the wrath of the
township's zoning board, threats of police confiscation, and a long and expensive battle to
challenge the ruling. Why? Because we are zoned residential, and chickens are "farm
animals', (functional) and thus prohibited. Because they are useful, eat bugs, and lay me
an enormous, orange-yolked, organic, grass fed egg every day, they are somehow an
embarrasment to the neighborhood.
I asked the board, "If I were raising, say, anteaters, or peacocks.. that would be legal?"
The guys in suits scratched their heads, concluded, yep, that would be legal.
The list continued. Decorative bird: cockatoo, peacock, etc -- legal. Functional: Chicken, illegal.
Technically, I could have a Vietnamese pot bellied pig, but not a pig intended for the
freezer.
I could have a dog -- even a big sheep dog or a hunting dog or some other no-farm-would-
be-without-one-dog... but nota sheep. A guinea pig, but not a rabbit. Decorative, but not
functional.
The only logic I can find her is that modern society -- (despite the front yard "wishing
wells" and concrete geese on the doorstep) -- is embarrassed by any reminder of our
rural past, or the hands-on work it took to sustain it. The professional, two-income
neighborhood that shares a back property line with my little blue-collar street has
matching mailboxes, decks and split-levels... the rules of the homeowner's association
state, "NO clotheslines... NO fences except split rail.. NO vegetable gardens, only
flowers..." (no functional, only decorative.)
Do you see a pattern? I can only imagine what they think, looking over the fence at my
dandelion-strewn yard, with rain barrels and rows of rusty tomato cages. Diapers flapped
on the clothesline for 8 years while I dug potatoes, baby in a sling, and my barefoot kids
chased chickens.. pit kiln smouldering in the background. It's like a national geographic
special... or the history channel... and no doubt "brings down the property values".
If your functional coffee mug is $12 people will gripe about the price. If it's a sculpture,
though, the higher you price it, the more folks want it. If it's a casserole, it's folky and
homey and nice... (and if it's good pottery besides, it might bring in a pretty good price
among folks who know handmade from walmart.) But it's not (nudge nudge, wink wink)
"art"... won't make the finer galleries.
"Functional" has an identity crisis. The things people used to be proud to know how to do
are becoming a curiosity.. "why in the world would you do THAT?" Hands, clothes,
people that do physical work are unfashionable. (A woman once quit my pottery class
rather than ruin her nails.)
Functional means making your own. Before I tuck in to bed tonight I will set up breakfast--
a crock-pot of rolled oats (by the 50 pound bag), plugged into the christmas light timer to
come on at 6am, with raisins and cinnamon, and apples I dried myself last fall. 5 pints of
yogurt will be ready by morning, and gone by thursday when I make more. For lunch it's
bread I baked, with peanut butter I made myself (10 pound box of peanuts) and jam from
the strawberries we all picked together last june. For supper, meatloaf from the deer my
hubby shot last fall, salad from the hoop house and stewed tomatoes from our own
garden.
I live a block from Walmart and a grocery store. I am not in a remote area, or even in the
country. I am not trying to be quaint, or romantic, or homespun. It's damn hard work
sometimes, but it's rewarding. It is what we can afford, since I chose to tuck my MA in a
file, give up a good job, and stay home to raise/school my little ones. I might have chosen
a life/path with more disposable income -- it's the way I grew up, after all -- but I didn't. I'm
not trying to change the world or make a counterculture statement.. but I am not
embarrassed by my choices, either.
I make both kinds of pots but in general we tend to value "functional" over "decorative"
around here. I don't want a vehicle that can't haul 5 bushels of peaches and a bale of straw
tied on top. I strive to be functional myself. I may not be a supermodel but I am good
breeding stock, and can throw a pot, skin an elk, operate a pressure cooker and a chain
saw, and carry on a conversation with my daughter's bevy of imaginary fairies. All at the
same time ;0) I wouldn't hate being functional AND decorative -- like some of Tony's nice
tableware ;0) -- but beautiful and useless I wouldn't trade for.
I am not out to bash folks who have chosen wealth. If I could, I would travel the world,
collect art, pots, fill my home with handmade dishes, textiles, furniture. Wealth does not make people shallow, or pretentious, or any of that. People are people, rich or poor.
But I find an authenticity in knowing whose hand made my casserole, my kickwheel, my
tofu, my quilt. And it worries me that my culture -- ok, world -- is so led by marketing to
value flash over function, new over old. The tradition Lee speaks of is buried treasure, like
the stories I collected while working as a folklorist: granny's kids, grandkids, great grands
were playing nintendo, watching cartoons, had no interest in the stories, their own roots,
their granny's living history lesson. It was only the middle aged who would come up to me,
tears in their eyes, and say, "I always meant to sit down with my mother/grandma/aunt
and listen, but now it's too late.. "
I wonder some day if we will ever again need to know how to prune a plum tree, can a
tomato, save garden seeds from year to year. Maybe not. But the beauty of knowing how
to make something is that you don't have to worry about that, much..
And there's another value in making by hand. It's that life is about process, not product. The minutes and hours and moments we pass, doing whatever it is we do, ARE life; there is no final exam, no "how did I do". We canbe an active participant in our lives -- creators of things, like David says, holding all the aces and making decisons for ourselves -- or we can spend our lives in jobs/roles we did not choose and do not enjoy so we can pay others to provide our daily needs for us.
When I wonder why folks want to make their own clay (it comes pre-packaged, y'know, and cheap) '.. I think of folks asking me why I would want to make tofu (also available pre-packaged and cheap.) Or teach my own kids or whatever.
but I bet of you looked at potters as a group you'd find a lot of people who do for themselves for the sheer joy, pride and reward of it..
I think that's a good thing.. my new motto: "be functional"..
Yours,
Kelly in Ohio
who completely loves Lili Krakowski and her sympathy for her fellow man, PITA or otherwise... if we admit that deep down we're all just a bunch of little kids playing at grown-up, it's a lot easier to cut each other some slack. if I can get in the right frame of mind (a fleeting but recurrent thing), I can look get flipped off by some tailgating maniac in traffic and think, "too bad he's got so much stress and tension and anger.. lucky me not to have such a frustrating life..."
Wes Rolley on sat 17 apr 04
At 09:46 PM 4/15/04 -0700, you wrote:
Kelly, nice post which I would like amplify.
>Every farm around here used to have a (functional) burn barrel. Also a big
>bonfire, spring and fall, to burn brush and produce ash for the garden.
One day when I was in grade school, my parents decided to give me a
half-birthday party. I never had a real birthday party, since my birth was
on December 24th and it was always overshadowed by a bigger
celebration. They invited a group of my young friends and we built a
bonfire to roast hotdogs and marshmallows as well as to keep warm. Part of
the wood in the fire came from an old apple tree that had died. The wood
had been stacked for several years in the weather. Everyone forgot that
while the tree was alive, it had poison ivy growing around its trunk. I
got a case of poison ivy from the smoke that was so bad I had to have
multiple cortisone shots, could not walk without blisters breaking, and it
took 3 bottles of calamine lotion to treat me 2 times. Might there be a
parallel to educated, responsible use of a glaze in this story?
And we also had local waste disposal sites with no porcelain, a Sears
catalog to read and which seemed to get tipped over on Halloween. Progress
is good.
>If I had, say, 25 hyperactive, barking, pooping Afghan Hounds in my yard,
>it would be legal. My half dozen small, quiet laying hens, however,
>brought down the wrath of the township's zoning board, threats of police
>confiscation, and a long and expensive battle to challenge the ruling.
>Why? Because we are zoned residential, and chickens are "farm animals',
>(functional) and thus prohibited. Because they are useful, eat bugs, and
>lay me an enormous, orange-yolked, organic, grass fed egg every day, they
>are somehow an embarrasment to the neighborhood.
And we have just had a neighbor protest our raising chickens to the City
Animal Control officer. Now, we are well within the limits of 15 chickens
on a 1/2 acre, fenced, screened with shrubs lot. So, they went to the Home
Owners Association with the complaint. I received a notice to fix the
problem with a reference to a clause in the home owners association rules
about not doing anything that could be a "nuisance." However, the same
home owners association refuses to get involved when the "nuisance" is a
barking dog or oversized pumps on a swimming pool that run for at least six
continuous, high pitched hours when the homeowners are at work and the next
door neighbor has to endure the sound, declaring this to be an "issue
between neighbors".
The world would be a great place is you could pick and choose the people
who will live in it. Of course, some of you might not pick me to live in
your world, but that is OK, I am happy in mine.
"Art and thought. That's what lasts. That's what continues to feed
people and give them an idea of something better."
-- Susan Sontag
Wesley C. Rolley
17211 Quail Court
Morgan Hill, CA 95037
(408)778-3024
pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on sun 18 apr 04
Hi Steve, Kelly, all...
So if the rationalle of the township had maybe taken into
consideration, the ineffeciency of the typical Burn
Barrell...
Why would or could they not simply publish a little
three-fold single-sheet pamphlet, have some Secretary made
at 'kinkos' even, or have
a page in the Sunday News Paper's 'Community' section, as
tells one how to elevate it on
bricks or something, and aerate the base or bottom of the
'Barrell', so the combustion may be more complete?
Why is 'government' so dead set against education and so
anxious to make rules and laws, and punishments for
infractions of them, as have for a pretext, the ignorance of
the governed?
What is the intent OF the 'law' anyway?
Why do they keep 'that'' so vague?
Why would one be a criminal, even if the intent is respected
and
satisfied?
Curious huh...?
Rhetorical questions maybe...
Phil
el vee
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Slatin"
> Actually, there is a rationale for permitting a chimnea
but not a burn barrel.
>
> Burn barrels sit directly on the earth, and tend not to
have sufficient ventilation
> to permit a quick, clean burn to the base of the barrel.
The smoldering fire
> you get as you approach the bottom of the barrel often
pollutes more densely
> than a quick, high-temperature fire, and it's typically
difficult to impossible to
> tell when you have completed your burn. Hours after you
see the last wisp
> of smoke you may still have enough heat and combustion to
start a fire
> OUTSIDE the barrel.
>
> Those decorative chimneas usually are lifted off of the
ground so there's
> no risk of starting a second fire, if you don't knock them
over, and they
> usually have a large opening for air intake close to the
level of the hearth,
> for faster burns and more complete combustion.
>
> (If you can cut the pieces short enough, blackberry bushes
are great
> tinder/starter source material for a chimnea, BTW.)
>
> Steve S (Who used to do 'burn barrel' exercises for his
employer)
>
> primalmommy wrote:
>
> There IS a point to all this, and here it is: the township
recently made an amendment to
> the no-burning rule to allow for those "decorative" little
chiminea things, the pot-bellied
> fireplaces that sit on decks crackling warmly with
supermarket "firelogs" for "ambiance" at
> social gatherings. So I got me one ;0)
> .
>
> ---------------------------------
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25¢
>
>
____________________________________________________________
__________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
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at melpots@pclink.com.
Steve Slatin on sun 18 apr 04
Actually, there is a rationale for permitting a chimnea but not a burn barrel.
Burn barrels sit directly on the earth, and tend not to have sufficient ventilation
to permit a quick, clean burn to the base of the barrel. The smoldering fire
you get as you approach the bottom of the barrel often pollutes more densely
than a quick, high-temperature fire, and it's typically difficult to impossible to
tell when you have completed your burn. Hours after you see the last wisp
of smoke you may still have enough heat and combustion to start a fire
OUTSIDE the barrel.
Those decorative chimneas usually are lifted off of the ground so there's
no risk of starting a second fire, if you don't knock them over, and they
usually have a large opening for air intake close to the level of the hearth,
for faster burns and more complete combustion.
(If you can cut the pieces short enough, blackberry bushes are great
tinder/starter source material for a chimnea, BTW.)
Steve S (Who used to do 'burn barrel' exercises for his employer)
primalmommy wrote:
There IS a point to all this, and here it is: the township recently made an amendment to
the no-burning rule to allow for those "decorative" little chiminea things, the pot-bellied
fireplaces that sit on decks crackling warmly with supermarket "firelogs" for "ambiance" at
social gatherings. So I got me one ;0)
.
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25¢
Steve Slatin on mon 19 apr 04
Phil --
I cannot speak for Kelly's location, but where I live the burn barrel
ban is relatively recent, and the rationale (they used the likelihood
of causing wildfires, I live in a dry zone) was well explained at the
time. But not everyone reads the newspaper, eh? And it was
local, and there's no TV station in our county. And they won't
repeat the justification too often, so sometimes someone asks me
why there's a burn barrel ban.
As you point out, citizens have a responsibility to learn about what's
going on. The government takes issues one at a time and hashes
out compromises. But if government was sending people to Kinkos
for brochures on why you can't spit on the sidewalk every time
someone wants to know, why you can't make a left turn on red
into a two-way street after a full stop but you can make a right
turn after the full stop, why jaywalking is illegal, etc. there would
be a steady stream of people running to Kinkos and your tax bill
would be much, much higher.
And, of course, some folks would make their complaint, get a brochure,
and then not read it but complain "These pointy-headed bureaucrats
have an explanation for every silly rule they have! Why should I pay
taxes for them to sit around dreaming up answers to my questions?"
-- Steve Slatin (Who, no kidding, just last weekend was approached in
a store and asked by a poorly dressed, poorly washed thuggish looking
fellow if I'd help him buy a shotgun for which he lacked ID.)
pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET wrote:
Hi Steve, Kelly, all...
So if the rationalle of the township had maybe taken into
consideration, the ineffeciency of the typical Burn
Barrell...
Why would or could they not simply publish a little
three-fold single-sheet pamphlet, have some Secretary made
at 'kinkos' even, or have
a page in the Sunday News Paper's 'Community' section, as
tells one how to elevate it on
bricks or something, and aerate the base or bottom of the
'Barrell', so the combustion may be more complete?
Why is 'government' so dead set against education and so
anxious to make rules and laws, and punishments for
infractions of them, as have for a pretext, the ignorance of
the governed?
What is the intent OF the 'law' anyway?
Why do they keep 'that'' so vague?
Why would one be a criminal, even if the intent is respected
and
satisfied?
Curious huh...?
Rhetorical questions maybe...
Phil
el vee
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Slatin"
> Actually, there is a rationale for permitting a chimnea
but not a burn barrel.
>
> Burn barrels sit directly on the earth, and tend not to
have sufficient ventilation
> to permit a quick, clean burn to the base of the barrel.
The smoldering fire
> you get as you approach the bottom of the barrel often
pollutes more densely
> than a quick, high-temperature fire, and it's typically
difficult to impossible to
> tell when you have completed your burn. Hours after you
see the last wisp
> of smoke you may still have enough heat and combustion to
start a fire
> OUTSIDE the barrel.
>
> Those decorative chimneas usually are lifted off of the
ground so there's
> no risk of starting a second fire, if you don't knock them
over, and they
> usually have a large opening for air intake close to the
level of the hearth,
> for faster burns and more complete combustion.
>
> (If you can cut the pieces short enough, blackberry bushes
are great
> tinder/starter source material for a chimnea, BTW.)
>
> Steve S (Who used to do 'burn barrel' exercises for his
employer)
>
> primalmommy
wrote:
>
> There IS a point to all this, and here it is: the township
recently made an amendment to
> the no-burning rule to allow for those "decorative" little
chiminea things, the pot-bellied
> fireplaces that sit on decks crackling warmly with
supermarket "firelogs" for "ambiance" at
> social gatherings. So I got me one ;0)
> .
>
> ---------------------------------
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25¢
>
>
____________________________________________________________
__________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your
subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached
at melpots@pclink.com.
______________________________________________________________________________
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclink.com.
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25¢
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