Kohaku Posted September 9, 2013 Report Share Posted September 9, 2013 Thanks guys. Honestly, it had a few minor issues with proportions, so it was a relatively painless lesson. I get to remake it now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pres Posted September 9, 2013 Report Share Posted September 9, 2013 Do Overs! one of the great things about pottery, especially before firing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JBaymore Posted September 14, 2013 Report Share Posted September 14, 2013 If you truly want to understand learning from failures..... become a woodfirer. best, ..............john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benzine Posted September 14, 2013 Report Share Posted September 14, 2013 John, how complicated can it be? You load the kiln, seal it up, start some wood on fire, and keep adding more wood until it gets hot......Simple..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebekah Krieger Posted September 16, 2013 Report Share Posted September 16, 2013 Care to share a failure that resulted in a learning leap? Don't use an outhouse until you look under the seat. Jim BWAHHAHAHAA this is why I love you jim! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebekah Krieger Posted September 16, 2013 Report Share Posted September 16, 2013 My reply to the question... just take a brief look at my past posts.. I am sure you find enough to entertain this thread. I have only been making pottery since may of '12. After taking a 5 week (once per week) class at the local art museum I decided to go out and buy a pottery wheel and use a hand me down kiln from my father in law. I have been using manufactured glazes and haven't even mixed my own yet, so I have a lot more to learn. I just ordered some dry mix from glaze mixer so to avoid screwing it all up. We will see if I can trust the online recipes. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Campbell Posted September 16, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2013 John, how complicated can it be? You load the kiln, seal it up, start some wood on fire, and keep adding more wood until it gets hot......Simple..... I keep waiting for John to answer this post .... now I am afraid his brain might have exploded!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benzine Posted September 18, 2013 Report Share Posted September 18, 2013 John, how complicated can it be? You load the kiln, seal it up, start some wood on fire, and keep adding more wood until it gets hot......Simple..... I keep waiting for John to answer this post .... now I am afraid his brain might have exploded!!!! He "liked" the post, so he found it to be, at the least, amusing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JBaymore Posted September 18, 2013 Report Share Posted September 18, 2013 I'm trying to think of an appropriately witty comeback. best, ...............john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babs Posted October 31, 2013 Report Share Posted October 31, 2013 Well I got a bit rash with the resist brush on a no. of teapots, where the lids sit and as it was a tenmoku glaze the white clay body exposed was ugly. I then heated and coated the area with, a don't ask me why, C03 glaze and fired the said pots to C03...result a beautiful subtle glaze, satin, over all the pots, ugly areas acceptable but shiny!! Lots of lessons here but a new glaze for me! Wouldn't have thought of double firing a high fired glaze to that Cone after first firing but it's worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babs Posted November 4, 2013 Report Share Posted November 4, 2013 Perhaps this should be called unexpected outcome, because of the negative association of the F word. Shoulsd be banned really! Esp. by teachers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Campbell Posted November 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2013 Actually, I use the "F" word .... Failure that is ... on purpose. Everyone fails and in most cases, lives to tell the tale. Make mistakes ... just don't keep making the same mistake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babs Posted November 5, 2013 Report Share Posted November 5, 2013 Yes Chris, how right you are! Failing is an important learning point or can be. Positive lessons can be learned, depends on the atmosphere and the reaction to the failure, not the person but the action of the person, some people cannot separate those two. Still wouldn't say it out loud unless I was sure of the person's confidence. Probably ask a few questions, get the thoughts going etc. Why what to try next etc. Failure is used as a pejorative, hard to get away from that. Ability to cope with the situation. Expecting too much etc, an easy ride... Not succeeding needs to happen. Going back to the drawing board etc all comes with positive self esteem which all students do not have. For me, part of the course, work it out, like to think I learn from failure but quite often do things hoping that, hey I might just get away with that this time, call me dumb??? Better than Failure?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Campbell Posted November 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2013 "For me, part of the course, work it out, like to think I learn from failure but quite often do things hoping that, hey I might just get away with that this time, call me dumb??? Better than Failure??" I hear you! If I had a dollar for every time I wasted effort chasing a crack in green ware .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Selsor Posted November 6, 2013 Report Share Posted November 6, 2013 It is a huge part of the learning curve. I hope you post some pics of the kiln load, Chris. Any failures especially (if any) and tell us what you gleaned from them. To me, that is what "failures" provide. Marcia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Campbell Posted November 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2013 I just watched the tv documentary on Diane Nyad (sp?) ... The woman who "failed" three times before she made the swim from Cuba to Florida. All I can say is WOW ... her courage to come back from incredible setbacks was truly amazing to see. Luckily she did not believe those who wanted her to stop because she had failed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Selsor Posted November 18, 2013 Report Share Posted November 18, 2013 Great quotes! failure raises the learning curve. marcia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arnuleprizh Posted December 10, 2013 Report Share Posted December 10, 2013 It is part of growing up. It serves as a lesson in life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeFaul Posted December 10, 2013 Report Share Posted December 10, 2013 Care to share a failure that resulted in a learning leap? Beware of foreign clay bodies as they may not dry at the same rate as the one you're use too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Coyle Posted December 10, 2013 Report Share Posted December 10, 2013 Remember what Ben Franklin said... "there is many a slip between the cup and the absolutely perfect, primo, balanced, finely glazed and fired mug." Or maybe it was Aristotle.. or Paul Soldner??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolieo Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 Hi my experience is failure is either trying to reach for something new or carelessness.sometimes carelessness yields surprising or beautiful results. The reaching can teach so much but usually much more on reflection. Usually I am so single mindedly going for what I think I can achieve that only later do I realize what I learned from that experience. Also I believe that there is more to be learned and repeated in a group that is cohesive ( not an easy thing to come by). A honed group mind can steer new developments to an advantage w/o losing the goal. I can't say I have ever had a true ephipeny , but my mistakes take the fear out of creating, if I believe that I already have done my worst , can only get better right? Also I always stash my failures. I have found that looking at them later does two things for me: the never are as bad as I remember, I usually kinda like them. And they show a clear path of my development , which encourages me to continue. Jolie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pres Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 Test tiles, and an organized test tile panel will help to improve on your glaze problems Judd. One of the first things I did was to create a board with a grid on it where I would attach the test tiles with screws. Then I started with test tiles for each of the glazes we had, with the clay we used. Each tile was incised with a line, and had an iron stain painted on. When dipped we dipped one coat on 3/4 of tile, then a second coat on 1/2 tile. backs were cleaned, tiles were fired. After assessment these were mounted on the grid board. Then we started other tiles with combinations of glazes over glazes. Combos were painted on back with stain. These got mounted at lower part of the board. As to pinch pots, you may find that turning out the lights for part of the period, forcing the students to pinch the pots using their sense of touch in a guided practice approach will work. I did this believe or not with HS kids. I did do some preliminary work on my own. I turned out the lights and memorized the room. Then during the class I could walk between and around without them knowing where I was when I wasn't talking. I also pulled some shenanigans at times where they would really be confused-climbing on top of a table so I was in the middle up high-then giving their next set of instructions. Funny thing is, they were so amused by the crazy teacher and the complete isolation and concentration on the process that they didn't think of mischief. It was a good lesson, and I even did it as an inservice one time with a bunch of teachers and administrators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benzine Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 You give "Crazy, Old Art Teachers" a good name Pres. I used to do pinch pots, with my high school students at a previous school. But that's when I had a Ceramics I and II. Now, I just have the one class, so I've dropped the project, for the sake of time, and doing more in-depth projects. I still go over the "pinch" process, there just isn't a project that focuses on it specifically. You can't beat glaze test tiles. I had never made a tile board, when I started my first teaching job. The previous instructor had some tiles, but just in a small container, and they were pretty beat up. So I remade all new tiles, with some student help, and had a nice little board. My second job the instructor had the tiles, well taken care of. At my current job, there were NO tiles at all. I once again made all of them, and created the board. The boards that I made, are a little different than yours Pres. I don't screw my tiles down. They just slide on a nail, so they can be removed, and held near projects, to figure out schemes. I also, etch a number that corresponds to the glaze onto the tile. This also serves as an area, where the glaze collects, to show what happens, in that instance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pres Posted December 16, 2013 Report Share Posted December 16, 2013 I screwed mine down to the board so that there was always an excellent example easily found. We also had heavy string bound test tiles of our glazes, but then you never could find them when wanting to make a quick point. We would paint the name of the glaze on back of tile in unglazed area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chantay Posted December 18, 2013 Report Share Posted December 18, 2013 Come January I will have been working with clay just two years. I think every failure is a rung on the ladder toward success. My 14 year old daughter said something to me this evening. She was practicing her violin. I complemented her on her improvement. Her response was, "Mom, when I see how much better you have gotten with throwing clay it makes me realize that I can be as good as I want if I'm just willing to keep at it." Brought tears to my eyes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.