Rae Reich

Ah, I have many. Each holds a memory for me, from beginning fellow students, trades with other potters, admired artists and teachers. Most are cups and mugs, some larger serving pieces, some sculpture  
I've been wondering what the best way to catalog/document The Permanent Collection. A note inside or bottom? Photo album with notes? Video tour?
What do you guys do or recommend?

I have collected various pieces over the years with the latest being a couple of pieces traded and purchased from our own Mark Cortright. My favorite, however, is a crystalline glazed vase that was broken and dug out of the trash. My wife managed to salvage all of the pieces and I glued it back together and I keep it as an inspiration for my eventual foray into that realm of glazing...
JohnnyK

Anything I have that is special, whether something I have collected or something left from my parents or my husband's parents or anything of sentimental value, I have entered on a spreadsheet with a physical description in one column and an explanation of why it matters in the other. Some things are entered in groups, like "Lithuanian houses," or  "Mama-made paintings."
I did not always do this, but we went through this when we updated our will.

I don’t have a thing for shoes or expensive handbags, so I collect mugs. They’re a relatively inexpensive way of getting to know an artist’s work, and how they think. 

The phrase I learned in college is “energy breeds energy.” This is along the lines of what Magnolia and Callie are saying. Such a short phrase but it made a huge difference for me going forward out of college. I still say it to myself all the time. Creative work requires an immense amount of energy. So many acts of initiative. Many people underestimate that, thinking something so “fun” shouldn’t require effort. 
Putting energy into any task creates momentum that makes it easier to generate energy the next day.  Putting practice into skills makes those skills easier, which then require less energy, giving you free energy to spend on new initiatives. It multiplies over time. On the other hand, sitting around doing nothing leads to more sitting around doing nothing. This also multiplies over time.
I guess the important crux of “energy breeds energy” is that the fuel needs to come from yourself, and shows you how to generate fuel.

I follow the concept in this quote from Chuck Close: 
“Amateurs look for inspiration; the rest of us just get up and go to work.” 
Chuck Close 
( https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/166434.Chuck_Close ) 
 

I pug clay.  
There is no pressure.  Nothing that must be done.  No finish line.  No phones, no computers, no TV.   No control.  The pug mill tells me how fast to go,  gently ignoring any pleas to go faster...
Just lovely plastic handfuls of clay, Iike the first time you touched it.  In. Out. In. Out.  In. Out.  The mineral earth smell, cold and damp, squeezing through my fingers.  Slap into the hopper.  Down comes the plunger, extra force applied right to the bottom to leave no doubt about who is really in charge of everything in this little world.
Endless, rhythmic repetition (cut, smash, cut smash, cut smash), the low steady drone of the motor, the slow but inevitable extrusion of perfect worms, again, and again.
... hypnotic....like a wheel going round...and round....
...the mind wanders, ...  sequences of thoughts lead strangely down side paths.  Ideas occur, new but vaguely familiar, coming  from somewhere like things that happen in a dream.  Forms appear in your minds eye, once known, then forgotten and now rediscovered...  
have hours passed or only minutes?  No idea.  Cut slap smash.  It goes on.  You are far away now.
a distant call to dinner shakes you awake.. back to earth.  switch off the pugmill.  As the dream fades you quickly you scribble down a few thoughts, rough out a shape or two... 
tomorrow is another day.   As you drift off you know fresh pugs of clay wait silently in a neat stack, filled with possibility, daring you to try something new...
 
 

I think that the best thing to do when a person is out of good ideas, the creative block part of the question, is to do something off of ones normal beaten path, or even on ones beaten path but with an uncommon style of attention.
Off the beaten path could be visiting a new place, reading a new book, or attending an event one would ordinarily never pursue. How could one not get some ideas from that? Revisiting ones beaten path might be to walk that same familiar route one takes each morning but to be deliberate in paying close attention to things you wouldn't necessarily look at.
I actually wouldn't wait for feeling creatively inert to adopt this kind of practice. If it is a regular practice, it has preventative potential.
The author Julia Cameron, who also wrote a popular book for writers called The Artist's Way, calls the regular habit of such "excursions" Artists dates, an appointment with oneself to do something new and interesting that isn't art.
There is a guy named Todd Henry who consults with creative businesses, like design firms, who encourages specifically what he calls "unnecessary creating." He encourages people to build into each week a period of goofing around with a creative medium not their own.  So a writer might draw or a painter might write a haiku or a potter might sing. The point is to choose something different so that there is no performance pressure in it and so that one is effectively using different physical and mental channels.
Einstein used to pick up a violin. Richard Feynman played bongo drums and painted. In neither case were these simply pastimes. having more of an instrumental function.
 

I find if you're burnt out, a short break is necessary. For me, I have to take a day (not too much more or its agony going back) and do absolutely nothing that involves pottery. Get out of the house, go do some self care, whatever that means for you. Eat a good healthy meal that doesn't leave you too full and get some exercise. Have a bubble bath or get a pedi, or for the gents, treat yourself to a hot shave. Spoil yourself just a little.
Then when it's time to go back, pick something fun to do, even if it's kind of "off topic." It might develop into something important later, so it's not wasted time. Forgive yourself if the experiment doesn't work: added pressure doesn't help right now. Bribe yourself back into the studio however you need to with that project that you've been wanting to get to, or thing you wanted to play with, but haven't made time for yet. You have to find a way to play again.  Put some love songs or songs you love on the player. Creativity actually isn't a luxury for us, it's necessary. Delaying it too long makes us miserable. 
 
If you've left it too long and bribery isn't working, building momentum more slowly helps. I make up small tasks that have to happen in the studio, just to get me in there. The floor needs mopping, glaze waste needs dealt with, reclaim, I wanted to re-arrange a shelf, there's test tiles to reorganize and make notes on, etc etc.  While doing this mindless work, I find I pick up thought threads I'd dropped previously, and start noodling again. And if I didn't get anything made, well, I still got chores that needed to be done out of the way so I have the sense of accomplishment from that, and you try again tomorrow. 

Tom (glazenerd) recently asked in the question bank: What are the rituals you follow when the creative juices dry up, or the joys of making pottery becomes tedious  because of deadline demands?
This is an interesting question, and it requires that we look at both sides of the question as to the answer. Yeah, got you scratching your head! Ok, so recently as you all know I completed an order of mugs, and honey jars. It was a large order for me, and with the weather, and all I was in "crunch time". This required a lot of long days of throwing/trimming/assembling. In the long run, I found that I was finding ways to be more efficient, more creative, and able to pay more attention to detail. So. . . .deadlines for me are a good thing.
The main part of what glazenerd was asking is about creative blocks, and how to overcome them. If you check back into posts from a few years back, you will find post from me about wanting to change direction, throw looser, do more creative things with the pots. I asked for help, and got much advice from others and especially from one in particular. . . John Baymore.  John presented a series of options/alternatives to try and loosen up my throwing and the way I worked. These helped me to make changes that I am still using today, whereas I do not worry so much when the pot gets a little off center, and pressing stamps/faceting, wiggle wire cutting and then shaping is becoming natural. Seems though that the more I work, the more controlled they seem to become, but it does not bother me now. I have always been aware of other potters through pictures, and books, but now that I have been to more conferences I have seen much more work, and enjoyed the company of other potters along with having seen some really excellent demonstrations that have inspired new efforts on my part. So conferences at least once a year seem to be a must to keep the juices flowing. Thankfully most of these are in late Winter/early Spring so it is easier.
best,
Pres

Not just the date, the clay type/firing temp is essential when you're not going to fire for a while. 

today i had things on my workbench i would be happy to let anyone see.  hope they all make it through the next steps to finished product.
i would be happy if i could capture in the final firing that soft color of the slip.  who knows how it will look when it is finished?

I'll take a stab at this, Lee.  The things that make the second maybe more appealing to a woman than a man might be: 1) A flat rather than bowl-like shape makes a collection of rings, pins, and earrings less likely to end up in a tangled heap at the bottom. No one cares if keys and coins end up in a heap. 2) The lacy-type appearance of the decoration of the second might be more a woman's choice than a man's.
Looking at colors,  my first thought was of my dropping my son off at college and realizing it was way, way hotter than I had expected. I asked him whether he thought I should pick him up a few cooler t-shirts at Target before I left him off. He said yes but added, "Mommy, please get neutral colors. Boys my age will be wearing mostly neutral colors."
Having written this, I called my husband over to ask which he liked better and why. He said he liked the top better. He said he didn't like the "bumpy fence-type thing "on the bottom one, while the top one looks "rustically elegant."
 

Well, I didn't always have a pot belly.

I worked with a male potter, short with potter muscles, who made tall slender mugs with narrow extruded handles. I'm a average sized woman of slender build who makes sturdy, broad-based mugs with beefy handles. Go figure.
My non-ware work, tho, is definitely more feminine looking as it usually decorated with freehand drawn and carved floral designs.

nerd, Based on your statement:             "Even when I slow down, pay very close attention, still pull the top of the cylinder slightly off and open," and my observations of many students (including myself) I am guessing that you are pulling your hands of horizontally from the top and you are moving them rapidly while the wheel speed is slow. If so, the most likely cause is the surface tension between the clay and your hand - usually the fingers.  The corrective action is: move your hand away from the clay surface slowly to allow the wheel to rotate several times as you move your hands off the clay.   LT

yes, I have established the basic shape with fingers, then finish the bellying with CD from top to bottom, last touch of rim and that's it.
this way I know the rim can handle the expansion of the interior.

that is a sign that you really are normal.  most people make hummingbird nests inside bowling balls with flat bottoms for a very long time.  
if it would not break your bank, you might want to look for an old book by charles counts.  he wrote Pottery Workshop in the 1970s and it takes a person from total novice to pretty good thrower in very simple, logical steps.  you might adapt the size of the clay ball you start with to fit your own hand if you find it too small.  do not skip a step, work from the front to the back and do not look ahead.
remember, you are not making a product, you are learning a skill.  do not expect perfection. 
and, get that excess clay out before you raise a wall, then you can lift instead of smooshing, counts shows you how.
oh yes, do not even read the glaze recipes.  some people say the errors were deliberate to keep the recipe private.

Baking apples. . . Tablespoon of water, teaspoon of butter, spices-I use cinnamon and ginger, sweetener(sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, honey), as a diabetic I use none, others(nuts, granola, etc) Liquor(?) 
 
Apple baked 7 1/2 minutes in microwave oven. 40 minutes will work in a regular oven. Great Winter desert.

Until about ten years ago, I usually played oldies as background to almost anything I was doing- work, leisure reading, driving, anything. 
Then I got a bulldog puppy who, when she napped, snored like a 300 pound guy.  Bullies sleep a lot, and one can hear it throughout the house. It was a beautiful sound. I used to say she was the Pavarotti of snoring. She was beautiful to look at also.
Since she died, I don't play music as background to anything other than driving. I prefer listening to the sounds of my old house, the street noise, the birds, and even the planes I can hear from inside.  My neighborhood is really quiet even though the homes aren't very far apart, so it is centering to hear the same sounds that have surrounded me these 30 plus years in this house.

books for many things, but it is surprising what youtube has as well as the daily videos on this site. There are clips from the many dvd produced by ACERS on Ceramic Arts daily. noe Ceramic Arts network.
Use the header to open access.
Marcia
 

The day, through my own negligence, I dropped and watched all of a box of truly wonderful pieces smash to bits.  Each piece unique, no repeated forms, glazes really sweet,  forms useful and great looking, many made with a specific person in mind, some Palladium finish probably never to be seen again...oh I could go on and on.  My style is generally organic, rough, handbuilt, often based on serendipity, and as such, most pieces are not easy to replicate, nor do I want to.  So transporting/carrying the load the way I did was a grievous error of judgement which I shall not repeat! On the plus side, it did force me to take a look at  not trying  so  hard to make each piece so different from the next.  I am now making some forms-like a particular type of tea light holder-pretty similar in size, shape, glaze, and texture/stamp, and I am getting feedback that people like "them"-meaning the core design.  And if I drop and break one, I really can "just" make another.