Gabby

Like Roberta I would sketch everything out on a new design and this helped me work through potential problems.   I have been coiling the last few years and have been just going with the flow with them.  I thing coiled work has a mind of it's own,   I sketch designs on them in the bisque stage for my intricate glaze and stains patterns.   Denice

I find that I am more successful with working through a new shape if I sketch everything out.  After I have sketched it for few iterations, then I start the process that Mark talked about.  Just making a few and seeing what I like and what I don't.  Putting the piece in my cupboard and seeing how it functions.  Then I might sketch again, but definitely make again until I get it the way I want.  
I have to say, I like the sketching process.  It is not anything I ever thought I would enjoy!

Mark, very good advice there from one who has been in the trenches so long. I believe like you say that you have to use pieces yourself to find how they work and how to improve them. Great thoughts!
Tom, your passion for clay is not my cup of tea, but I am sure many like me will learn from your depth of understanding of the clay beast. Keep on posting as even though I often do not understand all, I do glean a few tidbits for future use. I liken your passion for clay like some I have seen firing that can tell the temp of a kiln with in a few degrees just by the color of the heat, not that that means much for heat work, but it does help.
 
best,
Pres

My process started with and continues with research. You would have to accept clay formulation as an art, to understand my passion for it. I see the chemical manipulation of a clay body ranking up there with the most expressive thrown or molded form. I have been working on a plasticity calculator for awhile now; having sent out test bodies for review. I have been testing bodies that specifically react to salt and wood firings. Then again, I also believe that clay is as much relative to the design and function of a piece; as any forming technique or glaze. My process most would find boring and mundane, but the results are gratifying. Galleries and museums would be empty if someone did not take the time to formulate the paint.
T

I tend to work thru a new item by making some 1st and using them. Next batch I improve them and so on-usually I get to what I think is the best  in term of functionality and weight and form and function by the 3rd go round.Then I make many hundreds in my line. I can change the form over time like my tumblers which used to flare at the lip more 10 years ago now they are almost straight -just a little for your lip.
I have added a few forms over the years if I'm asked a hundred  times about it. Thats how I came back to making french butterdishes (butterballs for some)
I was doing southwest desert shows and got asked for a decade about them before caving and offering them.I did make them in the 90os but they had yet to catch on then so I stopped .
I tend to standardize forms with the same metric measurements so lids will always fit bottoms if I need more-I have done this since the early 80s before that every lid was a different size to fit that particular bottom.I was green  out of school and it was learned skill that made life easier but requires some discipline .
I also from the start weighed all clay to have standard forms-I can do this without a scaling all the pieces but cutting the pug in so many pieces. It saves lots of time as well.
The trick is cutting one handle off your cut off wire and you can drag it thru the pug on end and pull the wire out at bottom of cut.Its the little tricks really that save energy and time. also no need to make clay balls the wheel will round them out in a second unless the clay is over about 6#s then a ball shape will aide you.
In terms of exact forms like Pres. said above -on a batter bowl or what I call a whip bowl. I make mine with extra thick beefy handle and a pour spout and sell them with wire whips included. I have yet to break a  handle on one.
I make a handled whip pitcher with sprout that has a small handle on side that holds the  small whip-cute as a bug but its my least favorite form due to the fragile side handle. I was recruited to make them buy a gallery in Mendocino and they sold very well for 18 years until the closed two years ago. I have about 50 more whips and when they run out I'm done making them as I know folks break off the side handles.
I tend to like strong forms that last. I make thousands of sponge holders and they are a bit fragile but I know they work very well(we use two ourselves )
I do not like them to thick even though they would last longer and hold up to falls better.Its form weight function trade off.My sponge bottom keeps then from moving on counters.

Gabby recently asked in the QotW pool: How does your process involve object design before the fact, whether planning a new design simply for the novelty of it or creating innovative designs that provide solutions to practical issues or uncommonly met needs?
If I am understanding the question correctly, Gabby is asking how as potters we design, modify or redesign objects for decoration or use. As a mostly functional potter, the design of a functional form is something that is foremost in my mind. I am always looking at something like a batter bowl, or a honey jar with the thought of improving the design for either something more aesthetically or functionally pleasing. Many of my ideas come from careful observation, sketches, and actual improvisation while working.
I have often liked the functionality of batter bowl, but always wondered about handles. . .to have them or not, whether vertical or horizontal, and how to integrate them pleasingly into the form and still have the form stack-able. Over the years I have created several different versions, used them and discarded the idea for one reason or another until I got to my latest design a few years ago using a flared rim that rolled opposite the spout into the outer form, with a strap handle.  From the top the form is heart shaped, and it stacks well, and is functional with the handle on top. Pics on my blog site.
Honey jars are something else that I thought could be improved. First off, the hole for the swizzle stick was an opening for bugs. . . what bug does not like honey! At the same time, we were always losing the stick. So I started creating forms attached under the lid to fit into the honey. The first of these were like handle forms with an inverted edge as a cup. Didn't hold much honey. Of late I have been doing them with a hollow knob with a notch cut out for a spoon with a drizzle hole in the back. Pics in older posts and on blog site
I believe that most functional potters tend to think of functionality, and want to improve their forms for either function or aesthetics. Sometimes it is just a matter of standing out against a crowd, but mostly about progressive improvement.
 
best,
Pres

Finally, after several weeks of looking wistfully at my worktable (while attending to  study unrelated to ceramics), I got back down to the studio.
What is sitting on my worktable is a large elliptical cylinder about the dimensions of an office wastebasket. Red stoneware, as usual.
I have the basic features painted on it in underglaze but still haven't decided on the detail, whether to go entirely with thin black line work or to have something more going on.
Independently, I opened my newest Ceramics Monthly today and find the articles very intriguing. I am so glad to subscribe.

Here's that last load that came out last week.This is the kiln load in above post
It was a loose load -what I call a year end clean up fire.
Now its a everyday selling pots  at my pottery booth and dropping pots off at my 9 outlets in this county. Xmas is go time in my world.
The 25th is time to put my feet up. Then its stock up the outlets for the slow winter months.
 
 

I fell in love with clay when I was four years old, in kindergarten.  Thank you, Mrs. Owen .
We had a three day rotation in which one third of the class worked in clay, one third in paint, and one third built with blocks.
What appeals to my now in clay is not that different from what appealed to me then. It was how the clay felt in my hands, that it was plastic, that the form was three dimensional rather than two dimensional, and that the potential forms were limitless.
The act of shaping drew me much more than decorating. 

My wife bought me a ceramic plaque decades ago: " Blessed are the curious, for they shall find adventures."

I fell in love with clay when I was four years old, in kindergarten.  Thank you, Mrs. Owen .
We had a three day rotation in which one third of the class worked in clay, one third in paint, and one third built with blocks.
What appeals to my now in clay is not that different from what appealed to me then. It was how the clay felt in my hands, that it was plastic, that the form was three dimensional rather than two dimensional, and that the potential forms were limitless.
The act of shaping drew me much more than decorating. 

I fell in love with clay when I was four years old, in kindergarten.  Thank you, Mrs. Owen .
We had a three day rotation in which one third of the class worked in clay, one third in paint, and one third built with blocks.
What appeals to my now in clay is not that different from what appealed to me then. It was how the clay felt in my hands, that it was plastic, that the form was three dimensional rather than two dimensional, and that the potential forms were limitless.
The act of shaping drew me much more than decorating. 

I fell in love with clay when I was four years old, in kindergarten.  Thank you, Mrs. Owen .
We had a three day rotation in which one third of the class worked in clay, one third in paint, and one third built with blocks.
What appeals to my now in clay is not that different from what appealed to me then. It was how the clay felt in my hands, that it was plastic, that the form was three dimensional rather than two dimensional, and that the potential forms were limitless.
The act of shaping drew me much more than decorating. 

Min that is similar to dishes I made for a friend of mine's daughter who had partial use of one arm.   My plate curved around more and eased into a rest for her hand, the family had asked for the built in rest.    I sold sets for several years to other families in the same situation,  I basically just covered cost.   My plate was based on a antique child's dish from England.   Denice

Prototype dinner plate for a disabled family member, she has partial use of one hand, paralyzed on the other side. Theory is she will be able to push her fork to the curved in back edge of the plate to keep the food on the fork. Front edge of plate is smooth and rounded over so she can rest her wrist either on that or the table.

This sounds like a comedy sketch.

Been doing noodle bowls this week but took a break to make this jar.  Had to mix it up.  Over the weekend I did a bisque and a glaze firing of some mugs for Christmas gifts, they turned out OK, had some bowls in there too which turned out better.  Will focus on bowls the rest of the week, want to make enough for a kiln load by the weekend and see if I cant get them bisqued and glazed.  Looking for a used kiln this holiday season for bisquing since that part of my firing takes the longest and I have to babysit the kiln the entire 12 hours.  It would free me up to do other things.

My studio is in the basement, which isn't well insulated, but it isn't likely to get below freezing down there. It just feels like it is below freezing down there.

Well worked my way through all of my bags of iron-rich stoneware.... Or so I thought.  100 lbs of reclaim looks just about ready to throw with, so I'll be wedging up some of that tonight to see if it's still got legs.  While burning through my bags I used this stuff called Goldbar Brown and it was pretty stiff, but it made throwing large pretty easy, might have to pick some more of it up if I like the fired appearance.  I made a pretty good sized lidded jar with it and I know with my standard clay I would have had the torch out a few times at least.

I am currently just making some personal holiday giftees. Pics are my view out the studio windows after it snows! (Landlord's construction yard, sitting below a ridge-lovely.)
 

They were originally used as a  protective charm by one tribe, the webbing (spider's web) was supposed to catch bad spirits.  They never had anything to do with dreams, but now every redneck within 200 miles of me claims they are 1/8 Cherokee and has one hanging from the rear view mirror, even worse, I have heard some of them say the other rednecks should't hang them from the rear view mirror because your'e supposed to have them near your bed to have good dreams. 
It's the twisted meaning, the use of the thing, that people don't care to know, that the native americans I have spoken with say it is offensive, it's like wearing a cross because you like Madonna's music.
Ironically, the placebo effect is a real thing and they probably DO have better dreams....sigh...

I think some ideas are getting intermingled here that are not the same.
Learning about other cultures is not at issue here. No one disagrees with this.
Producing something that coincidentally resembles something else is not the issue.
Doing something because one feels, or gets richer, for it is not  adequate reason to take an action that hurts others.  When people produce knockoffs of something, say, and make a business of selling them, they do this precisely because they will be richer for it.  We need to be conscious when something that makes one group richer makes another poorer, whether you think it should make them feel poorer or not.
And the fact that something is beautiful is not adequate defense for reproducing it as ones own.  I am imagining an art forger making this case.
 

I agree with Callie, Dreamcatchers are a good example of why you should not create art with cultural items/images specific to another culture without 1st educating yourself thoroughly . They are a disgusting, mutated abomination born of ignorance and disrespect for native culture.

Haha yeah, my own dumb fault of course.  I was in reduction starting at cone 4, when I turned down the gas to soak it allowed more air to burn and the temperature went up.  It's always a good time for a lesson, that's what I say!

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.