Hank Murrow on sun 4 mar 07
Subsequent contributions to this thread have clarified that his is a
better question than I thought on first reading. So a rumination or two
is in order.
At the first meeting of my Beginning Ceramics class in 1958 at the U of
Oregon, Bob James wound up hi hour-long introductory remarks with this
explanation, "There is a priority for use of the kilns. Those who have
never fired before have the first priority. Art majors have the second,
ceramics majors the third, GRad students the fourth, and faculty the
last priority. An unusual(as I was to find out later) procedure for
allocating vital experiences.
Six weeks later, Bob approached me saying, there's a buildup of work on
the ware carts, why don't you fire the Alpine?" Well the story of my
first firing(with Peter Voulkos' work alongside students') has been
told before........ but I am here to tell you today that after 49 years
in clay the firing and its aftermath sent me miles down the road to
becoming a potter, as unbelievable to me at the time as if I had pole
vaulted 19 feet(I got only to 13-4 in HS). Bob's whole pedagogy was
built like that example. The facilities were there for those who had
yet to learn to use them. All else fell in behind that premise.
Such an approach to education ought to be more common because it yields
more than mere competence.
Cheers from Eugene
www.murrow.biz/hank
ps: I must mention the sad fact that Kathy Neely died last week. She
had taped over a hundred interviews with potters like Cardew, Davis,
Leach, Voulkos, Rie, Pleydell-Bouverie, etc. focusing on how they grew
up and found clay; and was compiling a guide to the material when she
passed. She'll be missed.
Earl Brunner on sun 4 mar 07
At my college (where I got my BFA in Ceramics they had a system in place for firing that I always liked.
Each firing had a firing team of three (minimum) the one in charge of the firing, the assistant, and the apprentice. Part of each students grade required that they participate in a certain number of firings. You had to be an apprentice for a minimum of three firings before you could be an assistant, then you had to be an assistant for three firings before you could be in charge, even when in charge, the first time or two an experienced person usually dropped down and acted either as your assistant or as your apprentice.
All firing, including bisque was done in two Alpines, a 20 CF and a 30 CF model.
Come on Hank some of us haven't heard the story...................
Hank Murrow wrote:
Subsequent contributions to this thread have clarified that his is a
better question than I thought on first reading. So a rumination or two
is in order.
At the first meeting of my Beginning Ceramics class in 1958 at the U of
Oregon, Bob James wound up hi hour-long introductory remarks with this
explanation, "There is a priority for use of the kilns. Those who have
never fired before have the first priority. Art majors have the second,
ceramics majors the third, GRad students the fourth, and faculty the
last priority. An unusual(as I was to find out later) procedure for
allocating vital experiences.
Six weeks later, Bob approached me saying, there's a buildup of work on
the ware carts, why don't you fire the Alpine?" Well the story of my
first firing(with Peter Voulkos' work alongside students') has been
told before........ but I am here to tell you today that after 49 years
in clay the firing and its aftermath sent me miles down the road to
becoming a potter, as unbelievable to me at the time as if I had pole
vaulted 19 feet(I got only to 13-4 in HS). Bob's whole pedagogy was
built like that example. The facilities were there for those who had
yet to learn to use them. All else fell in behind that premise.
Such an approach to education ought to be more common because it yields
more than mere competence.
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