mel jacobson on wed 10 may 06
one of the first things a potter learns in a japanese
pottery is that all the tools necessary to make a complex
pot are made before you start the throwing process.
like this:
bottle, tall neck, round bottom, foot ring. 16 inches tall, 9 inches
at the belly. foot ring of 5 inches. tapered to 3/4 of an inch deep.
so, you need calipers from a coat hanger that measures
the size, a throwing stick for the inside with the curved
profile of the bottle shaped to that unique form.
a clay chuck, air dried that will hold the shoulder of the
pot so that the pot can be trimmed/turned upside down.
( all the tools are made from scrap materials, coat hanger,
sticks, a branch of a tree, a sponge taped to a stick. junk
clay.) you never have to roam the isles of `trick tools`
at nceca to make any pot.)
so, here is how you make the chuck.
measure the depth of the neck and the width
of the shoulder of the bottle.
take a large lump of clay and throw
a deep wide cylinder of clay, maybe three
inches thick, no bottom, push your hand all the
way to the wheel head. open it up to the width of
the shoulder and deeper then the neck of your design and
remember to add for shrinkage. make a slight re/curve taper
that will fit the curve of the shoulder of the pot.
taper the outside with a heavy straight piece of wood.
make it perfect as you can use that taper to place
bowls on the outside as a chuck...see,you have made
an inside shoulder chuck and then every once in awhile
you will use the outside for a run of bowls you design.
let the chuck air dry. totally. when ready, you
score the bottom, add water and center this entire
chuck to your wheel head..tap center to perfect center
and you are ready to turn the 80 bottles that you made
yesterday. once it is stuck to your wheel head, it will
stay all day. (never bisque fire these chucks...makes them
impossible to work with.)
we made a new chuck for every design on our work schedule.
you made the chuck a couple of days before you start the
throwing..set it outside in the sun, then on top of the kiln to warm and
dry it totally.
of course no working japanese potter would make anything that
was `one of a kind`. everything would be designed weeks in advance
on paper.. maybe thirty variations would be thrown, looked at,
looked at again...then one would be selected..then tools would
be made and you would be looking at a production schedule of
maybe a thousand pots.
nothing is left to chance.
making `15 teapots with different sized covers, big and little
spouts, different sized ring feet is the hugest waste of human
effort i can think of. i have made the covers for my teapots
the same for 30 years. i can sit and make 100 covers and
bisque fire them...and every one will fit any teapot i make.
of course i can vary the shape of the 15 teapot bodies, change the
shape of the spouts a bit, and not a soul in the world would have
a clue i just did a production run of teapots. vary the glaze, add
a brush work design...and the entire vessel form changes. why make
all 15 with different size specs..think of the work just measuring every
cover to fit. and of course about four of them would be thrown
out because of ill fitting parts.
many potters that are poorly trained, just make tons of work for
themselves. lots of hours lost..just dinking around.
`oh damn, i have to trim just a bit of clay off this cover to make
it fit...oh, damn, what was that shrinking size? oh crap it shrunk
at a different rate than the teapot..damn, does not fit.`
what goes on in the minds of many potters is the `institutional`
concept of `if it is not totally different, unique each time, it
does not have value.` each pot is a valued one of a kind, unique
form that you have invented. that is total b.s.
it is a teapot for god's sake...to make tea. it is not the `mona lisa`.
make it the best way you can, with the most efficient technique
that you have. folks have been making teapots since the
world began. is yours going to stop the world of art? i think not.
and mine will not either.
of course, if you have no`efficient techniques` and are just
guessing...well your job is very daunting. and you will lose many
pieces and then can make up concepts about how the loss was a
part of the `art process, and the modernity of spacial concepts
of time and space, unique to my voice and universe`..amen.
and if you can make up enough verbal concepts that defend
your failures, well, then you never fail. you can talk your way
into success every time.
i rather like opening the kiln and seeing 15 beautiful teapots
complete, functional, and ready for my customers. and even
better, seeing the bank balance 15x80 = $1200 all sold.
like kurt wild yesterday, opening a kiln full of his great pieces.
all sold....1200, 1200, 800, 700.....total skill and technique.
each pot has value, because of his control of design, his efficient
technique and experience. that is how is `voice` works.
it sure was not guessing and hoping.
skill and understanding your materials are the first steps to
doing art/craft. experience then leads you farther down the
slope of creativity. i totally believe that many have it
backwards...you know `do your own thing`.
but, how do you defend no one ever wanting what your thing is?
mel
from: mel/minnetonka.mn.usa
website: http://my.pclink.com/~melpots3
Malcolm Schosha on wed 10 may 06
--- In clayart@yahoogroups.com, mel jacobson wrote:
>
> >
> let the chuck air dry. totally. when ready, you
> score the bottom, add water and center this entire
> chuck to your wheel head..tap center to perfect center
> and you are ready to turn the 80 bottles that you made
> yesterday. once it is stuck to your wheel head, it will
> stay all day. (never bisque fire these chucks...makes them
> impossible to work with.)
>
......................
Mel,
The chucks can be fired, but better not to throw them very thick.
They are held in place on the wheel with a rope of clay pressed in
place inside and outside. A ring very stiff of clay is pounded into
place around the mouth of the chuck, and trimmed down to the right
size for the pots to be trimmed. The set up process takes just a few
minutes, and the few chucks, in different sizes, last many years.
For pieces with a fairly wide mouth, they can be trimmed on a tall
cone of very stiff clay, and those are not fired. But they can be
reused too by cuting them off the wheel and wrapping them in plastic
right after using them.
Malcolm
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