GiselleNo5 Posted January 30, 2017 Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 Ya know I started this post as hopefully an archive resourse for maybe a beginner who was cash poor and in need of help but in the process picked up some good names and have found myself warching several videos again after a few years of not warching any, thanks everyone for the contributions. I do disagree on the critiques of Simon Leach's videos though, I found his videos to be great but I watched dozens of them not just one so I am judging them overall. Simon Leach is very good about explaining what he's doing and why. I personally feel he has a lot (A LOT) of unnecessary footage in his videos. But when I was starting out I really liked the slower pace of the videos because it allowed me to digest what I was seeing and hearing. It was a nice balance to watch one of his then one of Dan from Ingleton pottery's because Dan sneezes and bam! There's a pot! and I felt very inadequate after watching that. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
preeta Posted January 30, 2017 Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 stephen i just dont get how a cash poor student would want to learn wheel throwing. they must be true potters, where the call of the clay and wheel really hypnotizes them. i wonder if they are handbuilding clay people who have some clay background and really wants to learn the wheel. or they took a class and want to continue for more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldlady Posted January 30, 2017 Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 preeta, having no money just makes us more inventive. my studios are full of things that were free or very inexpensive. you could go out and buy all of them from a clay supply company but it would take thousands of dollars to do so. my income is very low but i have everything i want as long as i do not need to have the newest, latest, biggest. thrift stores are great. re-purpose is a newish term that those of us with no cash have always known. some of the best tools come from a kitchen. libraries are free. inter-library loans allow me to order books that my small library could not afford. i even got one from a college library through my little one. the love of clay does not happen just to people with money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted January 31, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2017 I remember back in mid eighties my wife and I, having little money, in Houston would take $10 bucks, go to a free concert in the park with a picnic and then stop at a place called 2 pesos on the way home and have a few $1 margaritas. If ur broke u just figure it out. An old kiln, cheap used wheel, some clay and youtube and ur in business, like oldlady said (that always feels disrespectful ) everything else can be pieced together on the cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
preeta Posted January 31, 2017 Report Share Posted January 31, 2017 oldlady (stephen i so agree with you) i hear you. but i fail to see how you can even think of wheel throwing without having at least 200 to 300 bucks in your bank and facilities at home. where i am community college is the cheapest way to take a wheel class AND have studio time. unless you already had a wheel at home. i can see someone picking up hand building with clay. you need very little. you can start with just a bag of clay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldlady Posted January 31, 2017 Report Share Posted January 31, 2017 oldlady is a marvelous name. read my reason for having it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted January 31, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2017 i can see someone picking up hand building with clay. you need very little. you can start with just a bag of clay. Now that's dirt poor :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted January 31, 2017 Report Share Posted January 31, 2017 Bought my wheel in high school-drug it around thru collage.-Never spent much money other than on school-you could use the shop slop for free after you processed it. After art degree the 1st years I had no money either-just enough to buy clay make pots sell pots buy clay pay for kiln fuel sell pots and do that over and over. As far as pottery tools one really just needs water and a sponge and a stick to needle tool.All of these can be home made. I never thought as clay as expensive in my life-then or now. My 1st scale was wooden homemade balance beam-I weighed the counter weights at school so I knew their weights.It worked well for. a few years on large 5,000 to 10,00 gram batches. My point is here that it can be done at low cost.You do not need the best or the latest for clay work. I started small and slow . I just followed the unicorn as the video said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GiselleNo5 Posted January 31, 2017 Report Share Posted January 31, 2017 oldlady (stephen i so agree with you) i hear you. but i fail to see how you can even think of wheel throwing without having at least 200 to 300 bucks in your bank and facilities at home. where i am community college is the cheapest way to take a wheel class AND have studio time. unless you already had a wheel at home. i can see someone picking up hand building with clay. you need very little. you can start with just a bag of clay. I have a friend who pays $40/month to use the community studio and buys her clay there. The cost of glazing and firing is built into the cost of the clay. In our area there is nothing like that. There is ONE community studio. Studio time is $25/hr. Firing is $20/item. This cost was absolutely out of the question for me at the time I first was introduced to clay. In the beginning I did mostly do hand building, I made and sold clay stamps and little beads and miniatures with other small items because I could fit those into my friend's firings without taking up lots of room. I slowly purchased one small bottle of glaze, one bag of clay at a time, traded work for firing at my friend's studio. Everything I did made me want to REALLY do pottery. It just whetted my appetite. I am a very practical and frugal person and I literally told myself over and over for three years solid that I was not going to be able to make pottery on a larger scale, it was too expensive, too time consuming, too risky. I argued with myself for three years and I really thought I was winning the argument. But all that time I wanted ... no ... the word is hungered .... to learn throwing and no matter how much I told myself that it was not going to happen that feeling never went away. And the opportunity to learn dropped in my lap two years ago when my dad bought a wheel and asked to set it up here in my garage, and I just dove in without looking back. Fortunately he also has a kiln that he lets me fire in. And the rest has been by the seat of my pants and totally before I was ready. Sometimes I think I'm completely crazy. I have not been able to take any classes so it's all trial and error but my garage is almost fully converted from junk storage to working studio and I'm so happy to be able to do what I love. You can only squash a dream for so long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GiselleNo5 Posted January 31, 2017 Report Share Posted January 31, 2017 I guess what I'm saying and I feel like we're really all saying this in different forms: WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY. You want to work with clay, do whatever is necessary to keep your hands in clay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugaboo Posted January 31, 2017 Report Share Posted January 31, 2017 I know you can gets books from the library on building a foot powered wheel, I think some here have even done so using mostly found items. Raku can be fired in a garbage can, pit firing all you need is some ground and a shovel. Yes I know that is a simplified version but it's possible to do pottery with very little. The art center here is $35 a month for studio time and $25 for a bag of clay which also covers the cost of glazes and firing. I know several ladies that participate on very limited incomes but love clay so much they make it work. There is even a once a year festival where they can set up and sell their work and make a little money to help pay for the other costs. All the bells and whistles are great in a studio but the determination to do clay is overcomes everything. T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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