What Do We Have To Complain About?

[Lucille Oka]

What do we really ever have to complain about? I thought this was humorous.

 

Here are the rights and duties for the 18^th Century Porcelain works of Fuerstenberg owned by Duke Carl von Braunschweig:

 

 

 

-The worker must swear loyalty to the Duke and the factory.

 

-Respect and loyalty toward his superiors, as is deemed suitable of loyal subjects.

 

-No incitement against colleagues and superiors.

 

-The factory’s secrets must not be given away.

 

-No worker can stay away overnight, nor travel without

 

permission; if he does so nevertheless, he is to be punished.

 

-The worker is not permitted to get drunk as there is danger that “not being in possession of a rational mind†he might give away secrets.

 

-Whoever has debts must draw up a contract of settlement with his creditors; whoever gets deeper into debt and does not pay, must expect imprisonment with only water and bread.

 

- Working hours must be observed strictly. Work starts at six o’clock and lasts until eleven o’clock; in the afternoon at one o’clock, ending at six o’clock. In summer work ends at four o’clock on Saturday afternoons. There is no work on Saturday afternoon during the winter months.

 

-Each one has to do the work that is assigned to him by the head painter and the master modeler.

 

-Smoking of tobacco is forbidden to the porcelain paste workers.

 

-The worker is permitted to send for a drink during working hours but drinking parties are subject to punishment.

 

 

-When he is ill or disabled, the worker is cared for. And so are his wife and children; there are no deductions from wages.

 

 

 

 

 

Excerpted from-

 

Color Treasury of Eighteenth Century Porcelain, 1976, Thomas Y. Crowell Co.

 

 

The last entry sounds good but the Duke did not always pay his workers.

[Ben]

While the hours are a bit much and the "no drinking" thing is a no go for me I do think this little bit is very progressive

 

" -When he is ill or disabled, the worker is cared for. And so are his wife and children; there are no deductions from wages."

 

Not bad for the 1700's.

[Lucille Oka]

While the hours are a bit much and the "no drinking" thing is a no go for me I do think this little bit is very progressive

 

" -When he is ill or disabled, the worker is cared for. And so are his wife and children; there are no deductions from wages."

 

Not bad for the 1700's.

 

 

 

Yes it sounds good but the workers did not get paid often enough for this to be a perk. The Duke was always in debt to them. It was a ploy to make them stay.

 

‘Potters’ (I use this term loosely for the jobs were more specific) were transient; always moving and working from place to place. At that time porcelain was a hot commodity. It was a royal status symbol to own a porcelain factory and they all did. It was the ‘pet project’ of the nobility. They employed large numbers of workers ‘stealing’ or enticing many of them from other successful porcelain works. And then catching and imprisoning them if they left for more lucrative positions.

 

 

 

 

[Dinah]

Potters employing apprentices or clay workers regularly should have them sign a contract wherein said workers will be liable to penalties: death by a thousand potter's knife cuts, finger-breaking, drowning in the glaze bucket if they appropriate glaze/body recipes without permission. I have heard of several potters who are disappointed by workers leaving, then setting up potteries and using former employers "signature" glazes without express permission to do so. I know this is of some dispute because potters are famous for sharing their glazes, but perhaps not with the firing schedules! Anyway, I've made my point.Factories/potteries were/are right to jealously guard their recipes and procedures, as it was/is their right.

[Lucille Oka]

Potters employing apprentices or clay workers regularly should have them sign a contract wherein said workers will be liable to penalties: death by a thousand potter's knife cuts, finger-breaking, drowning in the glaze bucket if they appropriate glaze/body recipes without permission. I have heard of several potters who are disappointed by workers leaving, then setting up potteries and using former employers "signature" glazes without express permission to do so. I know this is of some dispute because potters are famous for sharing their glazes, but perhaps not with the firing schedules! Anyway, I've made my point.Factories/potteries were/are right to jealously guard their recipes and procedures, as it was/is their right.

 

 

 

I would hate to see a potter on the evening news in hand cuffs, being carried off to jail for killing a worker because he took a glaze recipe.

 

The potter will never have to worry about making a living from then on. She will get three squares a day or at least One Big Meal of anything she wanted just before last rites and the words “dead woman walking†being overheard in the corridor.

 

Save a life go to commercial glazes.

 

 

 

 

[Dinah]

Potters employing apprentices or clay workers regularly should have them sign a contract wherein said workers will be liable to penalties: death by a thousand potter's knife cuts, finger-breaking, drowning in the glaze bucket if they appropriate glaze/body recipes without permission. I have heard of several potters who are disappointed by workers leaving, then setting up potteries and using former employers "signature" glazes without express permission to do so. I know this is of some dispute because potters are famous for sharing their glazes, but perhaps not with the firing schedules! Anyway, I've made my point.Factories/potteries were/are right to jealously guard their recipes and procedures, as it was/is their right.

 

 

 

I would hate to see a potter on the evening news in hand cuffs, being carried off to jail for killing a worker because he took a glaze recipe.

 

The potter will never have to worry about making a living from then on. She will get three squares a day or at least One Big Meal of anything she wanted just before last rites and the words “dead woman walking†being overheard in the corridor.

 

Save a life go to commercial glazes.

 

[Dinah]

Oh Lucille, I am disappointed about the suggestion of commercial glazes. So boring. So Pay to Pot Cafe on a Hen Night out....

[Lucille Oka]

Oh Lucille, I am disappointed about the suggestion of commercial glazes. So boring. So Pay to Pot Cafe on a Hen Night out....

 

 

So Who?? On a What??

Commercial glazes aren't boring. It is the same as an artist buying prepared oil paints, acrylics, water color paints, tempera, or gouache. It is what you do with it that is the key.

 

There are so many wonderful commercial glaze choices available now and not everyone has neither the facility nor time to mix chemicals nor do testing, nor wants to.

 

I must admit there is a wonderful amount of control in making your own glazes although there will be a limited palette. No way can any small pottery studio handle all of the possibilities in glaze making.

 

Making glazes in the history of the ceramic industry was actually trying to 'one up the competition’; trying to keep recipes secret in hopes that the work would be more unique than the pottery next door. But was it?? They all copied from each other. And still do. “There is nothing new under the sunâ€.

 

About the ‘Pay to Pot Café’ or ‘Color Me Mine’ studios- up until about three months ago I was a little arrogant about them. I put them low down on the list of the clay making echelon. But then I had an epiphany they too help keep the profession alive. They grab a section of the population that has an interest in ceramics but maybe they don’t want to put their hands in clay, or they don’t have the time, or they don’t want to take a regular ceramics class. For what ever reason they prefer this way, and that’s ok.

 

And you know what, there are so many potters, ware designers, mold makers, slip pourers, kiln manufacturers, clay processors, glaze and underglaze makers, tool makers, and etc. involved in that business that I was ashamed for the way I had viewed them. Now I say ‘God Bless them all. I hope they grow and continue to do well’.