Sam Tomich on sun 8 oct 06
Hurray! I just got caught up on Clayart after doing papers and presentations
in college. I used the delete key which is something I never do. I have been
on Clayart since Joe and Richard were moderating, but I am truly your newbie
lurker. I've snipped some things I wanted to reply to-here goes:
On 09/22/2006 11:25 PM, "mel jacobson" wrote:
> sometimes, when i feel all puffed up
> with hi tech stuff...oxyprobe, pyrometer,
> pug mill, and a great wheel. clay from continental
> in a box.
>
> i look at my picture of an african woman.
> in the dust, hands and clay.
>
> i send this challenge to potters.
>
> make the pot she has just made, on the ground,
> with coils. try and get that gesture, shape and
> of course that same size.
> then fire it with sticks and straw.
> make it work.
>
> if you want to feel really humble,
> do that project. that same pot...to scale.
> with just your hands. maybe even go dig your own
> clay.
I just want to be accepted for the potter I am, not someone's own
particulars like do I mix my own clays and feeling like REAL potters do such
and such or so and so and live on a farm and dig their own clay and that
whole back to nature stuff of the sixties or whatever. I am a potter of the
new millenium and if I like microwave ovens to cook with and short cuts of
all kinds, so just bear with me.
On 10/04/2006 10:43 PM, "Lee Love" wrote:
> "Email lists about pottery is like eating a picture of a mochi cake."
>
> -- Clay Mudman
I just loved this, Lee, because for all the time I have lurked here the
information I have read just doesn't sink in until I need it and have asked
for the bazillionth time.
On 09/27/2006 6:56 AM, "Snail Scott" wrote:
> I also do multiple firings in which the first firing is
> to full vitrification, and subsequent firings are lower.
> I have some work which was fired four times, none
> of which was a bisque firing. This allows me to
> use lower-fire glazes together with higher ones,
> working my way back down the temperature scale
> for each new surface element: Stoneware glaze
> firing, then low-fire glaze firing, then (maybe)
> another low-fire layer to tweak the first application,
Does this mean I can fire at cone 10 then refire at ^6 to use my more
colorful stuff?? I want to somehow use my engobes on top of a cone ten
glaze. I know engobes won't stick, but I am thinking there has to be a way.
On 10/01/2006 2:21 PM, "Fred Parker" wrote:
> When the whole load is finished I will have spent two days and conjured up
> unique glaze combinations for almost every piece involved. I will be both
> exhausted and elated -- and eager to get on with it so I can see what the
> result will be. All in all, I will have expended as much or more energy
> in glazing as in all of making the otems and bisqueing them, and I will be
> left wondering if everyone goes through this or is there a better way?
>
> I suspect potters who meet deadlines, earn a living from sales and
> generally qualify as "real" potters have better ways of accomplishing good
> results. If anyone would comment I would be most grateful...
>
> Regards,
>
> Fred Parker
>
Fred, I do this too. And I just chalk it up to learning my glazes.
Eventually I will know them well enough to know what I will put on them
beforehand. I have ideas for projects which I am unsure of what forms to use
my glazing ideas on too.
On 09/26/2006 7:42 PM, "primalmommy" wrote:
> So when a student makes the same awful pots day after day, it's time to
> show up with good ones and explain what makes them good -- then show
> them the flaws in their own. The ones who want to learn and improve will
> not thank a teacher for saying "good job!" about every dorky dog dish,
> especially if they are paying for instruction.
Arrrgh! I purposefully started back to college with the idea of improving my
throwing and there is a new ceramics instructor who doesn't critique,
doesn't do demonstrations and when I ask for input I get,"You are such a
good thrower, I shouldn't even talk to you." I have asked for help throwing
mugs and other small things because I have so neglected that part of my
throwing that I can't do it anymore. I usually sit down to the wheel with 6
pounds of clay and throw a bowl or a vase and I am in such a rut! She tells
me,"Just stick to throwing big things." I have tried pulling her over to my
wheel where I have thrown a terrible small bowl which is an eigth of an inch
on one wall and a three-quarters on the other side and she gives me her
mantra - stick to throwing big things. This is the only place to learn clay
on the entire island.
On 10/05/2006 3:13 PM, "Vince Pitelka" wrote:
> C. -
> I appreciate your comments, except for the second sentence. Cliche
> college-talk? Come on. Exactly the same things you say about good and bad
> artist's statements can be said about good and bad teaching, and any teacher
> worth her/his salt would never allow a student to get away obscuring their
> language with artspeak in a critique or artist's statement.
>
> Periodically, comments surface on Clayart implying that college instructors
> are purposefully teaching artspeak, and I always wonder where such
> misconceptions originate. Every college art teacher I have known has worked
> hard to get students to communicate clearly.
> - Vince
I take printmaking and painting at college and if I cannot artspeak I get
lower grades. Its as simple as that. If I can talk up a piece, I know I am
talking up my grade. We are indoctrinated from 2 and 3 D design to speak
artspeak and be able to communicate with the profs who speak in it and
supposedly the whole art world does so you have to get used to it or you
won't be literate. Hey, baby, I'm a pro!
So, for what it's worth that is my take on the last week or so of Clayart
and for those who have that giveashit factor just delete when you see my
posts. But I am worth getting to know too! ;)
Sammy
In Hawaii where the breeze has disappeared and the sweat is running down my
back.
PS. Thanks Mel and Joyce for moderating. I cast my vote for leaving clayart
like it is.
Lee Love on tue 10 oct 06
On 10/9/06, Sam Tomich wrote:
> > "Email lists about pottery is like eating a picture of a mochi cake."
> >
> > -- Clay Mudman
>
> I just loved this, Lee, because for all the time I have lurked here the
> information I have read just doesn't sink in until I need it and have asked
> for the bazillionth time.
I WAS being ironic. I mean, stick-in-the-muds writing that a potter
doesn't write.
> I take printmaking and painting at college and if I cannot artspeak I get
> lower grades. Its as simple as that. If I can talk up a piece, I know I am
> talkin....
> won't be literate. Hey, baby, I'm a pro!
You'd find my Moku Hanga (woodblock printing) class different. My
teacher used to be a potter. But he doesn't fire his noborigama any
more, because "a family of cats have made their home in it." He is
a sort of Taoist hermit.
We mostly work in silence. When we do talk, it is either
Mashiko gossip or probably one of us asking about the subject matter
our teacher is working on. We all gathered around to look an an old
woodblock print book he brought to class, about 300 years old, full of
images of Buddhas, saints and there tools.
Middle of this page is a print I made of Shoji Hamada's noborigama.
It is for sale, $100.00 plus shipping. :^)
http://potteryfair.blogspot.com/
--
Lee in Mashiko, Japan
http://potters.blogspot.com/
"Let the beauty we love be what we do." - Rumi
"When we all do better. We ALL do better." -Paul Wellstone
Sam Tomich on tue 10 oct 06
Thank you, Snail for the help with the engobes.
I have to come to my teachers defense, she IS teaching. She taught us how to
make plaster one and two piece molds, she is going to introduce us to
porcelain and lustres this semester and she just gave us our first
assignment midway through the semester, sort of a midterm maybe ;).
We are to throw an enclosed form and then handbuild with it.
But she reiterated that she doesn't want to throw pots for us to copy
because she doesn't want us to throw HER pots. And that she wants us to
"find our own way with clay". My way with clay stinks...
Sammy in Hawaii where my baby, Justin, just made 16 years old and wants my
son Chris (19) to cook Chicken Cacciatore for him (he's the best cook in the
house). And it is still soggy city here.
Snail Scott on tue 10 oct 06
On Oct 9, 2006, at 1:55 AM, Sam Tomich wrote:
> On 09/27/2006 6:56 AM, "Snail Scott" wrote:
>> I also do multiple firings in which the first firing is
>> to full vitrification, and subsequent firings are lower...
>
> Does this mean I can fire at cone 10 then refire at ^6 to use my more
> colorful stuff?? I want to somehow use my engobes on top of a cone ten
> glaze. I know engobes won't stick, but I am thinking there has to be a
> way...
Use an engobe with a very low green shrinkage;
i.e. lots of non-plastic materials, and not much
plain clay. Add glue to the mix to get it to stick to
the glaze.
Even if you are putting it on top of a ^10 glaze,
it may still be a little soft at ^6, and cause the
engobe to 'move' or break up a little, but probably
not a lot - certainly less than at ^10.
Any time you re-fire a glaze to the same temperature,
it can change, as though you gave it a really long
soak the first time. Re-firing to a lower temperature
can also have an effect, though. Sometimes not
much, but sometimes it can be really different.
It's an effect that you can use on purpose, but it's
hard to predict what will happen without testing.
Worth finding out, though!
-Snail
Snail Scott on wed 11 oct 06
On Oct 11, 2006, at 1:39 AM, Sam Tomich wrote:
> Thank you, Snail for the help with the engobes.
>
> I have to come to my teachers defense, she IS teaching. She taught us
> how to
> make plaster one and two piece molds, she is going to introduce us to
> porcelain and lustres this semester...
There's a lot to learn in ceramics, and even
the most complete curriculum can't possibly
cover all the possibilities. It sounds like you
are getting a wide range, though, so keep
an eye on the parts that interest you the most,
and might warrant independent exploration.
Sometimes I feel that one of the most valuable
things I can teach students is a sense of what
I'm NOT teaching them; a sense of how wide
and varied the world of clay (and art) can be
beyond the limits of a single course's content
and a single instructor's viewpoint.
-Snail
Lee Love on wed 11 oct 06
On 10/11/06, Sam Tomich wrote:
> But she reiterated that she doesn't want to throw pots for us to copy
> because she doesn't want us to throw HER pots. And that she wants us to
> "find our own way with clay". My way with clay stinks...
In the begining, you copy to develop skill. If you skip
learning craftskill and just express, you will probably not learn the
skill.
Once you master the skill, then you can make your own
pots. With skill, what is in your imagination can more effectively
be evidenced in the clay.
--
Lee in Mashiko, Japan
http://potters.blogspot.com/
"Let the beauty we love be what we do." - Rumi
"When we all do better. We ALL do better." -Paul Wellstone
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