Chris Campbell

For me it is not pride or ego ... it is in my nature. I simply cannot sell a pot I believe to be a ‘second’ at any price. I have learned that for me ... a ‘second’ is a second before bisque. Nothing in a firing is going to save it. No glaze or decoration is going to do magic. No raku voodoo is going to hide it. So I don’t bisque it. No piece is so precious it cannot be made again. Set your own standards on what is a second for you, then live with it.

Well, it depends. Are you going for a single sale or a repeat customer? It’s bad enough when your early ‘good’ work comes back to haunt you ... cannot imagine how horrible it would be to meet a second in the hands of a potter I admire.

Apply this to other things ... is a good painting worth less because someone else sells theirs for cheap in a garage parking lot? Does crafted furniture suffer because you can get cheap sets at the local hardware chain? How about great cooking? Fine hotels? Designer clothing? My pet peeve has always been that the great potters don’t move UP ... vacate the low price area ... and widen our price ranges. I should never be able to buy a piece of excellently crafted work in the same price range as a beginner efforts ... but ... sadly I can. The price range is not nearly wide enough to make p

Another good question might be ... basic things you can do to avoid needless failures and disappointment.

Here’s one from a current discussion .... you know you are not meant to be a potter if ......

I would suggest trying another, more forgiving clay body. Some are better than others for hand building. If you absolutely love this clay, then wet your work surface so any forming or rolling is being done on a damp surface. This works better than directly wetting the clay ... misting sometimes just makes the clay slippery as it does not sink in.

Personally, I have no problem with being called talented. Smile and say thank you to the gene pool. I know lots of people more creative than I am ... more talented than I am ... more original than I am ... more educated than I am ... more experienced than I am ... smarter than I am ... better connected than I am ... just all around more artistic than I am . I also know many will not take that next step ... the one that promises total success or abject failure. F A I L U R E on a visible stage. So ... take a deep bow if a hideous kiln load did not stop you ... if a bad glaze jus

... and is creativity really needed to make good pottery?

I could not agree more with John and Joseph ... once you have your own kiln, try other temps. Group pottery centers require specific firing temperature RULES in order to guard the sanity of the loaders. If they give an inch they will soon have forty people absolutely needing their own specific firing profiles. Amazing co-incidence is these people seldom volunteer to load and unload kilns ... if they did, they would quickly be setting their own rules. So ... when you finally get your own kiln ... experiment. Try different temps and firing profiles. Play a little. The Cone chart has mor

Thanks for mentioning it ... I went to Amazon and did the "look inside" feature and was very impressed by the wide scope and the known writers. As Pres says, it is not a "how to" book ... but appears to be an exceptional "why" book. I can appreciate the pleasure you would get over time just dipping in to read whatever topic interested you at the moment ... kind of like a great box of chocolates.

I suspect that teapot is extremely fragile as well ... it is the nature of the process. Another potter your student would really enjoy is Charan Sachar ... he knits too and his work looks knitted but is very sturdy and functional. http://www.creativewithclay.com/home.php#.WNUyrJH3ahA

Can you post some images of the look you are aiming for? I have done this process with yarn, string and lace with porcelain and regular clay. The results are fragile by nature since you are burning away the interior support system and leaving a hollow tube. One way it is more successful is if you soak the string or yarn in slip then lay it on the surface of a pot as decoration. Multiple layers of slip sometimes result in a loss of definition ... you lose the pattern you wanted to see under the smooth surface of slip.

Another idea is to throw a few hump molds. Load the clay on a bat and smooth it on your wheel until you get the inside shapes you want your plates to be. Let them set up to leather hard and use to make a few plates. When you are done, simply re-cycle the clay. I like making my molds out of clay because this process does not leave you with a whole bunch of heavy plaster molds or bulky styrofoam molds.

A picture would really help ... can you try to attach one? There are just so many possible reasons.