Callie Beller Diesel

Couple soda jar re-fires, there were some wadding bits from the lids that fell inside the jars that needed to be dremelled out. Touched up the glaze in the bottoms and fired them to ^6 in electric kiln. Lost a bit of the flashing colour but came out okay. 

Am I the only dork left using dry cleaner plastic?

I've never actually owned a garment that required dry cleaning.  I just went into the shop and asked if they could give me a handful of bags. 
I've held work for 2 weeks under dry cleaner plastic, and my climate is classified as semi arid. You have to make sure you have plastic under your ware board if you need it to last that long. Eg, lay one piece of plastic on the shelf, place bats or boards with pieces on shelf, curve excess bottom plastic inwards and gently lay bag over top of ware.

I still love my drycleaner bags, I can't remember the last time I actually drycleaned anything, but it didn't keep me from stopping in one and asking if they had any discards. I'm still using them, and that was 5-7 years ago, with a bag of them still in storage lol. They are light, they drape well, I double, sometimes triple them up to control drying.....and sticking with the subject, my workbench is clear, I'm ready to start again, pitchers are the need for this week

Am I the only dork left using dry cleaner plastic?

Am I the only dork left using dry cleaner plastic?

I love dry cleaner plastic! As a potter I hardly ever set foot in a dry cleaners, but my NYC sister hooked me up with a large stash. 

callie, i use the plastic grocery store bags with the handles cut off.  put a pot into the bottom of the bag, fold the sides over the top and if necessary, cover that bag with one over the top.  just found a double bagged bowl from last fall.  it was perfect to trim.  (student never came back before i left for the winter.)

No, works for me. Easy Peasy! Also have an engineered recirculating chamber that evens things out in minutes to hours but plastic just fine here. That recirculating thing is really nice but a pain compared to the plastic. Jennifer McCurdy showed me a nice quick way to manage drying with plastic. She would gather it evenly and drop it into the  top  of her vessel then drape it over evenly on all sides and voila! Learn how to manage your drying speed she said to me.

Am I the only dork left using dry cleaner plastic?

Am I the only dork left using dry cleaner plastic?

Am I the only dork left using dry cleaner plastic?

Am I the only dork left using dry cleaner plastic?

I made a thing. 

If you know anything at all about Native American culture, you know that a 19 year old white girl running around Coachella in a feathered headdress is like dressing up as a "sexy decorated war veteran" and going to a Remembrance Day ceremony. It's super disrespectful, and it's in really bad taste. There's always going to be someone who says "hey, I don't mind looking at that," or "what's the big deal? It was meant as a compliment!" but if it's your culture and your tradition, you know more about it than an outsider. If someone says "hey, the way you're doing that is not okay!" as an outsider to that culture, you need to heed that. You don't get to tell someone else what they should or shouldn't be offended by if you have less knowledge on the subject. As an outsider to a culture, you may be well meaning as an individual, but many things have been done with good intentions that had catastrophic outcomes for the people on the receiving end.
There are some really big holdover attitudes from British colonialism to just assume that another culture's artworks, religion and traditions all carry equal weight within that culture, or that the weight placed on those things are somehow analogous to how we behave in our own. In a lot of cases, it's not true, and I think that's where white folks tend to get frustrated and confused. We lack important, accurate information, and it's a serious effort to track that information down because there's a lot less in depth information recorded about other cultures than the dominant one. So we do dumb things in the name of trying to learn about something that wind up being hurtful.
But what about artistic growth and cross-cultural influence? What about all the cross pollination that happened between China, Japan and Korea in terms of celadon development? What about blue and white ware's influence on middle Eastern ceramics? How about a more modern phenomena of European Christian missionaries going to Japan and teaching the locals about knitting, a handcraft they hadn't developed themselves yet? Japanese knitting patterns are now some of the most interesting and challenging out there, and the colours used in the yarn choices of Japanese knitting designers definitely shows a distinct sensibility from European choices.
That kind of cultural borrowing is totally okay, because no one places a religious or spiritual value on knitting. There are some interesting cultural traditions around knitting design, but the motifs that are traditional in different areas generally don't have a deeply emotional/spiritual significance attached to them. There is an active conversation being had between the two cultures. Or, in the ceramic cases above, there were some shared cultural points (Zen Buddhism throughout Asia) where people were starting from, and then taking the techniques in their own directions. 
So I suppose I think cultural inspiration is possible to do responsibly, but you have to be willing to put a LOT of work into the research and learning part in order to be properly informed. I think it's best to had some direct, meaningful contact with that culture. It ought to mean something to you personally, and not just be a cool subject you learned about in school or in a book. I think you also have to not look at the specific motifs or techniques that are being used, but look at what the artists that use them are looking at and being inspired by. You have to be able to continue the conversation that's being had in that area with your own voice and contribute something intelligent to that conversation.
Otherwise, it's like Liam says and you're just profiting off someone else's ideas, which isn't cool.

https://makikohastings.blogspot.com/2019/05/naming-does-matter-my-thought-on.html?m=1
 
I’ve come across about 5 references to this blog post today, despite spending a total of 20 minutes on social media. So after finally reading it, I feel very strongly it belongs in this conversation right here. It’s written by a Japanese artist who has spent half her adult life in the UK, and tells of her frustrations in watching words and concepts that are deeply held and respected within the Japanese culture used and abused by many from the west in order to sell things. 
She speaks about wanting to encourage those who are curious about and inspired by her (and other) cultures to investigate them, and learn. Learn so you actually DO honour what you are learning to love, and so that you don’t accidentally insult it. 
Most importantly, she has a reference for westerners that she recommends on the topic of Wabi Sabi, which is a term frequently misused and abused by potters who have an incomplete and often wrong. understanding of the concept. 

Just a gentle reminder folks:
This entire conversation at its heart is meant to be about showing each other compassion and respect.  No name calling, and remember this is all in the service of learning . If someone who knows better tells you you’re doing it wrong, it’s worth listening to them if you want to expand yourself. 
Admitting you’re doing something wrong or hurting someone inadvertently is uncomfortable, but necessary for healing and growth. 

https://makikohastings.blogspot.com/2019/05/naming-does-matter-my-thought-on.html?m=1
 
I’ve come across about 5 references to this blog post today, despite spending a total of 20 minutes on social media. So after finally reading it, I feel very strongly it belongs in this conversation right here. It’s written by a Japanese artist who has spent half her adult life in the UK, and tells of her frustrations in watching words and concepts that are deeply held and respected within the Japanese culture used and abused by many from the west in order to sell things. 
She speaks about wanting to encourage those who are curious about and inspired by her (and other) cultures to investigate them, and learn. Learn so you actually DO honour what you are learning to love, and so that you don’t accidentally insult it. 
Most importantly, she has a reference for westerners that she recommends on the topic of Wabi Sabi, which is a term frequently misused and abused by potters who have an incomplete and often wrong. understanding of the concept. 

Just a gentle reminder folks:
This entire conversation at its heart is meant to be about showing each other compassion and respect.  No name calling, and remember this is all in the service of learning . If someone who knows better tells you you’re doing it wrong, it’s worth listening to them if you want to expand yourself. 
Admitting you’re doing something wrong or hurting someone inadvertently is uncomfortable, but necessary for healing and growth. 

As a person of Korean heritage, I wholeheartedly endorse every word of the blog post.
I also get raging mad when people use the term “wasi sabi” to describe something that is simply a poorly made pot. This is the heart of the matter for me. Asian cultures involve a culturally required politeness. We are programmed not to confront, or to express our offense. In my life, I've met many non-Asians who misinterpret this as approval, and somehow manage to extend the misinterpretation as “lower standards,” and  take advantage of it, 
I appreciate her mention of Euan Craig as an example of someone who would never call his work “wabi sabi.”
I don’t think she’s being vitriolic at all. She is offended, and expressing it with reasoned and tempered words. Maybe if more Asian people would stop holding their tongues, and express their offense, it wouldn’t seem vitriolic. 

https://makikohastings.blogspot.com/2019/05/naming-does-matter-my-thought-on.html?m=1
 
I’ve come across about 5 references to this blog post today, despite spending a total of 20 minutes on social media. So after finally reading it, I feel very strongly it belongs in this conversation right here. It’s written by a Japanese artist who has spent half her adult life in the UK, and tells of her frustrations in watching words and concepts that are deeply held and respected within the Japanese culture used and abused by many from the west in order to sell things. 
She speaks about wanting to encourage those who are curious about and inspired by her (and other) cultures to investigate them, and learn. Learn so you actually DO honour what you are learning to love, and so that you don’t accidentally insult it. 
Most importantly, she has a reference for westerners that she recommends on the topic of Wabi Sabi, which is a term frequently misused and abused by potters who have an incomplete and often wrong. understanding of the concept. 

Organic and dirty vs. clean and clinical, they both serve a purpose I think.

Nice!  We finally got some good days of weather and I finally got a little better hold on my settings.

Speaking of photography, what is on my workbench at the moment are  3 bins of pieces from a recent wood firing that need to be shot and inventoried, plus about half of a backlog of some bisque smalls that still need to be glazed. 

If you know anything at all about Native American culture, you know that a 19 year old white girl running around Coachella in a feathered headdress is like dressing up as a "sexy decorated war veteran" and going to a Remembrance Day ceremony. It's super disrespectful, and it's in really bad taste. There's always going to be someone who says "hey, I don't mind looking at that," or "what's the big deal? It was meant as a compliment!" but if it's your culture and your tradition, you know more about it than an outsider. If someone says "hey, the way you're doing that is not okay!" as an outsider to that culture, you need to heed that. You don't get to tell someone else what they should or shouldn't be offended by if you have less knowledge on the subject. As an outsider to a culture, you may be well meaning as an individual, but many things have been done with good intentions that had catastrophic outcomes for the people on the receiving end.
There are some really big holdover attitudes from British colonialism to just assume that another culture's artworks, religion and traditions all carry equal weight within that culture, or that the weight placed on those things are somehow analogous to how we behave in our own. In a lot of cases, it's not true, and I think that's where white folks tend to get frustrated and confused. We lack important, accurate information, and it's a serious effort to track that information down because there's a lot less in depth information recorded about other cultures than the dominant one. So we do dumb things in the name of trying to learn about something that wind up being hurtful.
But what about artistic growth and cross-cultural influence? What about all the cross pollination that happened between China, Japan and Korea in terms of celadon development? What about blue and white ware's influence on middle Eastern ceramics? How about a more modern phenomena of European Christian missionaries going to Japan and teaching the locals about knitting, a handcraft they hadn't developed themselves yet? Japanese knitting patterns are now some of the most interesting and challenging out there, and the colours used in the yarn choices of Japanese knitting designers definitely shows a distinct sensibility from European choices.
That kind of cultural borrowing is totally okay, because no one places a religious or spiritual value on knitting. There are some interesting cultural traditions around knitting design, but the motifs that are traditional in different areas generally don't have a deeply emotional/spiritual significance attached to them. There is an active conversation being had between the two cultures. Or, in the ceramic cases above, there were some shared cultural points (Zen Buddhism throughout Asia) where people were starting from, and then taking the techniques in their own directions. 
So I suppose I think cultural inspiration is possible to do responsibly, but you have to be willing to put a LOT of work into the research and learning part in order to be properly informed. I think it's best to had some direct, meaningful contact with that culture. It ought to mean something to you personally, and not just be a cool subject you learned about in school or in a book. I think you also have to not look at the specific motifs or techniques that are being used, but look at what the artists that use them are looking at and being inspired by. You have to be able to continue the conversation that's being had in that area with your own voice and contribute something intelligent to that conversation.
Otherwise, it's like Liam says and you're just profiting off someone else's ideas, which isn't cool.