Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Two days ago I started a kiln... high fire... at least cone 8. You must know that the weather here is nice, well more than nice, it is summer and hot outside. I would say around 86 FF. Combine this heat and the heat of the kiln and you get the temps we have in the kitchen when I open the door to the basement, where the kiln is. When my hubby saw me programming the kiln he blanched. Next thing he said is: "you potters are a crazy bunch"! "Why can't you start high fire kilns only in wintertime??"

 

Yesssss, we are crazy! And what my hubby said in his distress was a compliment in my ears.

 

QOTW: Can you remember what people said to you, or about you as a potter, that sounded rude, but was, in your ear, more a compliment than an insult?

 

Enjoy what ever you do!

 

Evelyne

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The look my wife gives me when she is around me and my studio. Stinky water, covered in iron red glaze splatters, clay sometimes on my face from wiping off the sweat, stuff every where, me tossing everything away in a rant of a mood. I think she knows I am crazy. I am crazy... crazy in love with it all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Crazy, Oh Yeah! I was glazing pots all day yesterday in the 85+ heat outside, Started up the kiln around 5pm, went bowling, then sat up with the kiln til 3am, then went to bed, got up with my wife at 7am to get breakfast, then went back to bed til just a little while ago. Crazy, who potters? 

 

 

best,

Pres

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yes, crazy.  i just came back from visiting the man with a machine shop in his garage.  he looked at the tools i showed him hoping he would be able to suggest a way to bring them back to life.  i kept trying to explain that what he sees today is not how the tool is supposed to look.  he didn't get it and tried sharpening one on his 8 inch grinder.  i told him thank you and returned home.  he just does not see what is not there.

 

potters see what can be and do not notice the mess necessary to make it.  spouses are believers in the unknown, aren't you all lucky they allow you to do it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep, I am crazy to feel fortunate to spend my days in a grubby little room full of  mud and mess and junky desk and shelves and a zillion little jars of underglaze, stains and slips in an organization that only I get. The thing is, all this messy junky chaos comes together when that kiln opens and treasures emerge.   rakuku

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep, I am crazy to feel fortunate to spend my days in a grubby little room full of  mud and mess and junky desk and shelves and a zillion little jars of underglaze, stains and slips in an organization that only I get. The thing is, all this messy junky chaos comes together when that kiln opens and treasures emerge.   rakuku

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I was thinking more about this, one of the most craziest things about potters is our progression, or at least how some of us progress, not everyone enjoys the same aesthetic.

 

But one of the most funny things to me is how we work so hard to throw perfect forms. Then celebrate a lot of joy by destroying those forms by making them imperfect. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think every last one of us is crazier than a bag of hammers!

Who else sees grace and form and colour in a misshapen lump of earth? Who else thinks to be so arrogant as to recreate primordial heat, and then proceed to throw things into it, just to see what comes out the other side?

We are madmen, all.

But all the best people are ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, I agree with everyone!!  We really are crazy!  One person I took a community ed class with me, quit after one semester because she said "I don't want to work that hard."  Another friend took one semester and said, "I am not going to keep doing something I am not good at."  So even if I have to work hard and even if I am not good at it, I am still working in clay!!  Yes, insanity could be the diagnosis!

 

Roberta

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, I agree with everyone!!  We really are crazy!  One person I took a community ed class with me, quit after one semester because she said "I don't want to work that hard."  Another friend took one semester and said, "I am not going to keep doing something I am not good at."  So even if I have to work hard and even if I am not good at it, I am still working in clay!!  Yes, insanity could be the diagnosis!

 

Roberta

 

I am out of likes, but I love this QoTW. Everyone is as crazy as I am. I feel right a home. I could sit at a table with you all and laugh my head off. It is good to know we are in good company isn't it. Being good at pottery requires you to be a bit insane. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love summer! Best time to wood fire a batch of Raku.

 

 

​I prepared, and waited for a cooler morning. which came a week ago last Monday.

 

 

​At 6:00 am the temp. was in the mid 60's.

 

 

I rolled everything outside and fired 3 small loads before 9 that morning. The rest of the day was hot and humid.

 

 

​

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

QOTW: Can you remember what people said to you, or about you as a potter, that sounded rude, but was, in your ear, more a compliment than an insult?

 

1. off your rocker

2. a french fry short of a happy meal

3. your elevator does not go to the top floor.

4. your cheese slid off your cracker.

 

Wait. you were asking in regards to pottery..sorry. They just call me nerd mostly.

Nerd

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Silly question to ask a potter: "why make your own when you can easily buy it?"

They so don't get the point.

 

Yes potters are crazy but it's the best kind of crazy. Pug people are crazy too. Add pug and pottery craziness together and I guess I'm doubly crazy and I wouldn't had it any other way.

 

T

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Who's crazy? Not us.

 

Visited my Mom at the old age home the other day & they were using arcrylic paint to paint flowers on standard 6 inch terracotta pots. Mom just rolled her eyes. She lived her life  & was never a "paint the flower pot" type of person- she travelled, went to concerts, racetracks, sportscars, etc. Now they have her doing this- sigh.

 

So fire the kiln- the hotter the better! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I must be crazy, I am putting up the 5x6 mural I finished a year ago, it's hot and humid at least the area I am working in is shaded until noon.  The mural is three dimensional and has some very large tiles, so it's going to be a slow process.  Denice

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That look that you get when doing a public wheel-throwing demonstration...where you lift the bat off the wheel with the finished piece, show it to everyone, then slice it right down the middle with a wire.  Yes. THAT look = Crazy!

 

-Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to love that sort of thing when in the classroom. Do a throwing demo, and then slice it right on the wheel to see the total dismay of all the on lookers. Other times when a pot of mine would come out of a glaze fire and have a flaw, and I would drop it right on the concrete floor . . . saying it could never be right so I had to redo it! Hmmm, thank goodness most of them now don't have flaws, and the ones that do my wife takes as hers!

 

 

best,

Pres

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.