yappystudent

This thread is a mutual admiration society of "haves".

No I offered it in complete sincerity. Clearly my personal experiences with teachers has been pretty lousy (although MS. Kim at CR was a rare exception <3) -as I've often described in my posts my usual experience when I asked a question in class was to be ignored or worse yet, quickly understood that I already knew more than the teacher thanks to self-study. My current teacher is now on vacation for two weeks AFTER class has started...rather than fill the page with useless, unwanted observations let's just say the trend continues. When do I get my money's worth? What's the point of asking them anything? Like before I'm working on my own stuff, marking time because I have to take the beginner's class and can't afford the 'real' classes. Also, it's a prerequisite so we don't 'damage' the studio. That said, someone just put the large very much still wet vase I was working on in the kiln and fired it up. They had to dig it out from behind all my other work where I tried to hide it. Is this the level of competency I'm aspiring to? They must know something I don't....also somebody stole the silly little teacup pinchpots we were forced to spend the first class making, just to put the cherry on the cake. Fortunately tea is gross, I'm just wondering what else of my work will go missing or get blown up. Gabby, I get your implications, you think I'm an upstart who doesn't know any better and is insecure about it, shouting to the empty air and just, well, embarrassing myself. What you define as strident I'd call not being a sheep. I have no interest in being whipped into line to serve the machine. Surrendering creativity, free will, self-fulfillment, If that's what you enjoy dig in, there's plenty to go around if you want to waste a ton of cash and years of your life. Luckily, school is no longer necessary and is getting less so over time. I think this is awesome! A quote that expresses what I'm trying to say better than I can, from "A Language Older than Words" by Derrick Jensen: Through the process of schooling, each fresh child is attenuated, muted, molded, made- like aluminum -malleable yet durable, and so prepared to compete in society, and ultimately to lead this society where it so obviously is headed. (the entire book is about the collapse of the environment and what we've lost as human beings thanks to societal psychosis) -schooling as it presently exists, like science before it and religion before that is necessary to the continuation of our culture and to the spawning of a new species of human, ever more submissive to authority, every more pliant, prepared, by thirteen years of sitting and receiving, sitting and regurgitating, sitting and waiting for the end, prepared for the rest of their lives to toil, to propagate, to never make waves, and to live each day with never an original thought nor even a shred of hope.

Some points, although I think I've ground my views on this topic into the ground already. ..I feel quite salty ATM, so: Suggesting studying or doing ceramics is "Hard Work" is funny. Anyone who thinks that has never done any actual hard work. If college were available to everyone who deserves to go, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Of course all artists want to learn and take advantage of available resources, but they're priced out. Even sucky college classes would probably be worth it just for the connections you'd make with the art community and other benefits. Poor is rarely a temporary choice with options. Those who've got their piece of paper justify their good luck by assuming those who don't have one are lazy or misguided or stupid. No, they're just poor, and it's a lot more crippling than you think. Thank the Universe for Youtube and the interwebs, also the CAD site has a few helpful tips now and again but this argument is getting old. I'm starting to wonder if this topic keeps resurfacing because those who have a piece of paper want to reassure themselves they're safely in the elite and everyone else is not. It must be a very warm, secure place to be. I wonder what that's like?

Every time I make a little mosaic tile shape I like, I make a bisque press-mold of it. I have dozens of these now and don't have to worry about losing forms that may have arose spontaneously. They give me a strange sense of satisfaction.

Tests, mosaic tiles, bisque molds, beads, bonsai pots, xmus ornaments.

It's amazing how fast the word "lawyer" gets ppl's attention. I'm not saying you'd actually do it, but it might make them talk a little longer and more earnestly about changing their policies at some point in future to be more fair. Complacency in regards to have and have-not's has gone on too long. That they won't even talk about your suggestion at their little meeting is outrageous. they're probably hoping you'll go away if they don't. IMHO it's perhaps not your duty to set them straight but it's certainly your right to. Sounds to me like you're giving some selfish jerks way to much credit about their motivations.

Have you ever inadvertently created something totally embarrassing , and you didn't see what was wrong with it until someone pointed it out? When the tv show 'everybody loves raymond' had the episode where ray's mother sculpted a 'well known female body part' and took it to an art show without realizing what it looked like, I felt redeemed for my obviously twisted inner mind. I once did a large semi-abstract painting of a shape that seemed exciting and dynamic only to have it pointed out to me that it strongly resembled something I can't mention directly but it shares it's name with a kind of whale. Mortified, the painting and all it's hard work were never seen again.

Folks will recall the low-fire mermaid dish, images of which are in the "What's on Your Workbench" thread. It had sifted unwashed beach (dune) sand. Functionally it seemed to work pretty great and looked OK too. The dish survived being put from the freezer into a 400 f oven. There was an iron spot on it I didn't like, in retrospect I think that came flying off a pair of steel tongs I used to remove a small waster I'd left accidentally propping the lid open at around 1k f...oops...found iron bits scattered over other stuff too. Does the iron count as an added material? If so it was a fail. In a recent low-fire (^O5 -f) I put a fresh petunia flower in the center of a top plate out of curiosity, to my surprise it left an unattractive brown smudge I felt obliged to sand off. I was just going to glaze it also at low temps and wasn't sure if the smudge would burn out. It took some effort.

Actually I'm trying to make the heart-shaped type handle because it's the most comfortable for my fingers that I've tried so far.

All 21 lbs of cat, left footprints in the slab under the plastic he's laying on, maybe I'll finally make a mug for myself out of it. BTW the vet had to shave him down after a particularly bad fight hence the weird look to his coat is not my doing I swear.