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Do you remember, approx. 40 years or more ago, there were the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, two pop groups who, at least here in Europe, were in competition? And their fans were in competition too. You either had to be a Beatles fan (and then the Rolling Stones were just “ugh!†for you), or you were a Rolling Stones fan, (and the Beatles for you were just boring).

What? This is off topic? Just you wait….. because…

 

…..I think there are groups too in ceramics techniques. Either the majority (or all) of your pieces are thrown, or to the contrary, they are hand built. Personally I am the hand building type. I really love to do coil or slab work. I can meditate while working on a piece and I find the shapes you can do with hand building objects, like sculptures, more interesting than the round forms (and alterations of them) in thrown pieces.

 

How about you? Which technique type are YOU? Are you a thrower or a hand builder? Or maybe even a caster?

 

Evelyne

 

 

PS: oh yeah, I was a Rolling Stones fan of course. What else? :D  

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Hand building or throwing it's all good meditation. I guess it can be very frustrating on the wheel so not good for being mellow. I wouldn't say I am a thrower, I have actually been thinking about this recently. Much more an obstructer. Putting my hands in the way and telling the clay where not to go until it has no option left but to go the right way.

Sometimes I do throw the clay into the recycle bucket  :D

 

Handbuilding is great too but there is not enough time in the day to work on all aspects of ceramics. You have to pick from a vast area of work :( I would love to be able to do it all.

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That's a tough one. I like them both. Stones. 

ANd for the technique...I go back and forth, I enjoyed building large pieces, but my curiosity has taken me back to throwing pieces for alternative firing. I want to develop forms by hand building for alternative firings. 

Hopefully, it will come. It really depends on where my attentions are focused to figure out which is the appropriate vehicle. Combinations can be interesting too.

 

Marcia

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I am a thrower, it just seemed so right from the very beginning. Even though I took time to learn to center, and open up, I became calm and relaxed on the wheel. The clay just seemed to listen to me, and when I started early on deciding what I wanted to do before starting, visualizing the finished piece, the clay would jump to do it.

I still handbuild, whenever a project requires flat panels or other aspects of handbuilding that I can not do on the wheel, but in the end it is still the wheel that calls me to the clay.

 

 

Beatles, Stones, what about the Who! or even Hendrix? Days gone by youth still part of us, and the songs of our youth always stay with us. Nowadays I see bands in the historical sense. Seems like the Stones have been a solid presence for 5 decades, pretty awesome.

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Throwing has always seemed like magic to me. Start with a lump of mud and end up with a beautiful vase. Hand building and I have never got along.... maybe not enough patience?   I have done handing building when needed but do not enjoy the process.  Throwing is more physical and seems to use mind body and soul.

 

My husband and I are going to see the Stones on Saturday in Columbus Ohio.  ((my Dad would not let me go in 1968 !  )

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Although I enjoy handbuilding, I am mostly a wheel-thrown-altered-assembly person...most recently heavy on the altered theme. I do find myself in a meditative/prayerful condition when doing scratch-in textures. It is a little like running...I'm not crazy about changing/starting a surface texture until I am into it for a few minutes and soon find myself in the zone.

 

As for music, I am (still) all over the charts (pun intended): Beatles, Stones, Allman Brothers, Woodstock, Boston Pops, Vivaldi, Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, Wilson Picket, Beach Boys, B.B. King, Canadian Brass, Manhattan Transfer...etc., etc.  More recently, I've gone a capella crazy...whazupwidat?

 

-Paul

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I just got a line on a Pottery Supply house kick wheel with the big splash pan-I think it's pink plastic. Definitely a thrower, but I make slab pots on occasion. People only buy my wheel thrown stuff.

I like the Stones, Pink Floyd, the Who.

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I can't pick which medium I prefer, let alone what process in a given medium.

 

I like doing both, and use both depending on the project at hand. But since, for the sake of this discussion, I can only choose one, I'll say wheel, because I use it a bit more.

 

Beatles and Rolling Stones? Are those like music groups or something?...

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Although I enjoy handbuilding, I am mostly a wheel-thrown-altered-assembly person...most recently heavy on the altered theme. I do find myself in a meditative/prayerful condition when doing scratch-in textures. It is a little like running...I'm not crazy about changing/starting a surface texture until I am into it for a few minutes and soon find myself in the zone.

 

-Paul

 

Paul, you sound like me. I'm a thrower and enjoy it but I also really get into my zone when carving, incising and altering my pieces.

 

The Beatles and Stones were great but for me it has always been the Four Seasons and the Beach Boys and I recently saw Frankie Valli who is still amazing at 81 years old.

 

Paul

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Definitely a hand builder, thrower on the side.  I just throw enough to keep my hand skills intact, I started with hand building in high school and learned how to throw in college.  Like Paul I am all over the charts with music but when it comes to Rolling Stone versus Beatles the Beatles win hands down.   I just attended a Australian Bee Gees Concert  as good as the Bee Gees and better looking.      Denice

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100% thrower. Although lately I have been building little birds and putting them on the side of my bowls. I do see a lot of those square plates that are built from hump molds and those interest me a lot for glazing ideas. I feel like each day my throwing improves, but I work really hard to improve it. 

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Guest JBaymore

Most people think of me as a thrower........... but my overall work is about 50%/50%.  At most, that might be 60% thrown.

 

As to music.......... love just about EVERYTHING (former musician).  Never was an "either / or" situation with the Beatles and the Stones for me.

 

best,

 

......................john

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Ten+ years ago I took a wheel class but the studio went out of business after just three classes (they tried to start too big ... studio and gallery).  In the intervening years I've herniated two disks so can no longer lean over a wheel which led me to a handbuilding/sculpture class this year.  I love every aspect of the building ... slab, slump/hump forms, coil, pinch ... a mud potter as someone here said although I'm working on getting better with the glazing.

I'm old enough to be a Stones fan (and live with a Beatles freak) but I like to listen to current alternative rock, r&b and soul...pretty much anything except techno, opera and bubblegum pop.

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i guess i am a thrower because i do not actually build things with clay.  building, to me, means joining and attaching which is something i avoid.  to make a pot to sell, i just roll a slab, impress it with something and put it into or onto something to shape it.  i love to throw but i need to sell.

 

music is classical, NOT classic rock!  the teenager near the fl house changed the station on my radio for me to that when i said i couldn't find classical music.  beethoven, vivaldi, mozart, etc are soothing and rythmic, just right for working.  i cannot understand the lyrics of modern music, except when the lyrics are REALLY awful and R rated.

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