Joyce LEE on mon 11 oct 04
After having a really pretty fine week of throwing.....=20
following months of being able to throw Nothing worthwhile.....
when All Pots were wonky and/or at BEST
could be classified as "whimsical"...... months when I
felt that I'd either have to revive ancient
interests in slumped glass or hooking rugs or weaving......
each of which can involve great&beautiful work but didn't
feel like My Destiny........... well, after One Solid Week of
throwing decently with a feeling of control and major
growth.... drat if I haven't had a setback. Dratdratdrat and damn.
The leaning teabowls are back! How can one not make a straight-sided
teabowl?? Not talkin' classical teabowls..... but a Pepsi bowl
or a whatever-your-beverage-of-choice bowl. Disgusting.
I'm determined however not to return to extruding or slabs
until the throwing returns............. again. damndamndamn
and hell.
To make matters worse a carload of folks stopped on the way
to Mammoth this morning Very Early. Guess which pots
they want to reserve ... will pick up on the way back to L.A.
if they're glazed&ready to go?? Yes. There is no accounting
for taste. They took me by surprise or I'd never have let
them see my "recent work." Actually I didn't let them see
anything.... they came in laughing, enjoying their holiday....
four of them..... the Horrible Pots, which are much too awful
even for the UglyPotSpot, were sitting by the door on a
cart awaiting hammering before Wednesday's trip to the dump.
What could possibly have made them attractive to anybody?
I did better throwing in my beginning college class several years
ago! They're lumpy/dumpy/uneven sides/bad rims/bad bottoms.
In this case I think it was the mood of the young ladies that
affected their tastes. I'd fooled around with the pots.. not
trying to Save Them (knew better than that!)... adding odd
handles here and there..... etching weird birds on some......
unidentifiable plants on others (I can't draw either)... forming
lids that looked somewhat like ill-fitting hats on a few.. impossible
feet that didn't fit... even some faces .. winking
eyes etc. As I said,
I was just fooling around saying adios to a whole week's work
before getting them out of everybody's sight forever...=20
tadadump tadadump tadadump Big Time was, and is, their only
future. Seems as if you can sell anything if you label it a "plant
or flower" container, which is what my sign said, the one that
happened to land on the cart, also.
No, I'm not going to glaze and sell them... though the women
had the money in hand. As soon as they pulled out of the
drive, I had hammer in MY hand. Drat.
Joyce
In the Mojave wondering if I should call that nice potter in
the next town who said she wanted first dibs on my
equipment if I ever decided to sell.... as I head for the
kitchen for another cup of tea, then outside to bask in
the coolcool breeze and laugh at the westie chasing
the rabbits to, but not down, the rabbit holes under the
dead trees I won't have hauled away though they do,
indeed, mar the landscape. Tea, breeze, westie and
rabbits .... blue, blue sky..... silence...... except for
the flicker trying to peck his way through metal in hopes
of entering the house for the winter...... means it's
going to be a cold&early one...... I'm ready.
Ivor and Olive Lewis on tue 12 oct 04
Dear Joyce,
Seems you had a long, good spell before your pots, which I assume are
in the
12 Onz to 1 Lb range of before you encountered <<...lumpy/dumpy/uneven
sides/bad rims/bad bottoms....>>
Lots of things could contribute to this situation and I'm sure you
have enough experience to analyse the situation. But if you are open
to suggestions I prompt :-
Is this due to some form of inner tension ? Are you uptight about
something that is distracting you and leading to a loss of
concentration ?
Are there any reasons why your clay might be in an uneven condition ?
(Lumpy)
Do you have a clear conception of what you intend to throw ? If you
cannot hold that image in your minds eye (see first prompt .
Distraction can prevent visualisation) have you thought to make some
sketches of your design to view as you are working ? (Creating a
centre of attention)
Is there any reason why your clay is not being precisely centred or
opened so that the cavity is concentric with the outer contour
Uneven sides )
Are you unconsciously varying the pressure between your hands as you
lift the clay, experiencing a tremor or adjusting your body position
to relieve a cause of physical stress (.. Tiredness or exhaustion...)
Are you allowing relaxation time and making some attempt to stretch
and tone muscles that have been over worked.
I regret that 13,000 km prevent me from calling in and giving you a
bit of "on the job" help but until Scottie perfects his "Transmat"
machine this is the best I can do.
Hope you recover from the "Doldrums"
Sincere regards,
Ivor
Ivor Lewis.
Redhill,
S. Australia.
Darlene Yarnetsky-Mudcat Pottery on tue 12 oct 04
Joyce -
A few years back I went through a period of dizzy spells. Weeks of it.
Never found the cause, still reoccurs occasionally. Disaster at the
wheel. Shows lined up and piles of scrapped pots. While I kept
hammering away at it and learning to adjust, my sanity was to go to the
slab roller and play a little each morning. Eventually opened up whole
new worlds for myself. Don't cut yourself off from your slab roller and
extruder - keep throwing, you WILL figure out whatever the glitch is -
but let yourself create in other ways at the same time to let that
creative spirit out!
As far as taste, I have learned never to have anything visible in the
studio I don't want to sell. It is amazing what people want. One
person wanted my glaze test mice. Another thought my clay stamps were
shards and had picked out a whole handful to ask me for while I was
busy with someone else. We won't even talk about what they are wanting
out of the hammer pile.... :)
Hang in there. You are not alone!
Darlene Y., Madison Indiana
Laurie Kneppel on tue 12 oct 04
On Oct 12, 2004, at 8:38 AM, Darlene Yarnetsky-Mudcat Pottery wrote:
>
> As far as taste, I have learned never to have anything visible in the
> studio I don't want to sell. It is amazing what people want. One
> person wanted my glaze test mice. Another thought my clay stamps were
> shards and had picked out a whole handful to ask me for while I was
> busy with someone else. We won't even talk about what they are wanting
> out of the hammer pile.... :)
LOL! This gave me a good chuckle. Recently we had a neighborhood-wide
yard sale. I already knew better than to even THINK about trying to
sell pots at this sale so I put my yard sale "stuff" waaay out in the
driveway. My garage is my studio so i didn't want people "getting any
ideas". I live near the back of the neighborhood so traffic was a
little slow on my street. I decided since I was going to sit out there
anyway that I might as well throw some pots to pass the time. It also
was fun to gab with neighbors who stopped by to watch or to ask about
pottery or some who even knew how to throw, too. They totally
understood my not wanting to have to hear "I'll give you a quarter for
that big bowl back there" from people. So I was showing one neighbor a
horse sculpture I had just bisqued a couple days before - his little
daughter was amazed at how you could throw cylinders and chop them up
and assemble them into a horse-like thing. So a lady came up while we
were talking and wanted to buy the bisque horse. I explained to her it
was not finished, I still had to glaze it, but if she was interested I
was going to be doing an art festival on October 17th downtown. (I had
lots of flyers for this show in a handy spot on one of my yard sale
tables, in case people asked about pots) Oh dear, she said, she was
from out of town and just visiting her relatives for the day. I offered
to send a photo of the horse, but of course she wasn't that interested.
Still, i did tell her that perhaps her relatives might want to come to
the show and do a little Christmas shopping. She took a flyer.
Another person wanted to buy some glaze tests. Others wanted to know
how much for the greenware on the shelves. I thought about putting a
sheet over the whole thing, but instead - I kept passing out my show
flyers. Dozens of them.
Who knows if any of the people will come, but it was cheap advertising!
You just never know.
Laurie
Sacramento, CA
http://rockyraku.com
Potters Council, charter member
Sacramento Potters Group, member
Ivor and Olive Lewis on wed 13 oct 04
Dear Darlene Yarnetsky,
Dizzy spells can be caused by Labyrinthitis, things happening in your
ear when the semicircular canals malfunction. It can be treated and it
can be prevented. I was told, when I had a single serious episode (Had
a ride to the ER in the "Meat Wagon") that it was caused by excess
Salt in my diet. Took the meds for a week, laid of the Soy Sauce and
Miso, increased fluid intake. No recurrence in eight months. The salt
is deposited as Otoliths that block the canals and cause sensory
deprivation. Your eyes will not believe the messages and your mind
cannot integrate balance with vision.
Hope you get over this minor affliction
Best regards,
Ivor Lewis.
Redhill,
S. Australia.
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