glazenerd

At what point in a potter's career does he/she stop searching for and testing new glazes?
When does the potter become satisfied with his/her stable of glazes and says "This is enough"?
 

Got a glaze firing in, was able to fit 40 mugs.  This is a representative sample!  So happy to finally have an electric kiln working!
This week I have a bunch of candles I'm working on, gonna be great!  Right now I have a bunch of lidded containers bisquing, big stuff I have to fire alone, can't really pack it too tight.  Y'all that grew up on electric have no idea how easy youve got it!!!
 

Hmm a skilled potter and talented electrician. Nice glaze!
Just  finished our Rays Cream to get rid of pinholes and dial in the perfect amount of movement with trapped titanium crystals.
Funny,  just pulled this out of the ELECTRIC test kiln today. (Sorry, I know  I have it made, but couldn’t resist)
 

Ha....this one was made just for me! These are face-pressed. The white one is slip cast, the next is porcelain w/clear and Pallidium glaze, next is stoneware  with granite dust , multiple firings, micro glitter & a bit of gold enamel (mounted in an open frame); the last was angama-fired.   HMS is my Hidden Mask Series--a bit of self-absorption with therapeutic properties.  The mask concept, using my own face, emerged in defiance of the ceramics instructor who told me "Art is not therapy" (no, art is spirituality in drag) and wanted me to quit because I was falling apart a bit at the time and I was arguing that I should be allowed to hand build if I didn't want to throw. Titled in order: Art Is; Two-faced Selfie; Assembling the Surviver, and; Emerging.

Johnny K- so why did you ask such a hard question? Been thinking about this all day; the odd thing is- clay is totally contrary to my personality. Now clay chemistry is a 50.000 piece jig saw puzzle: solving the puzzle is another story.
T

My personal favorite- Taxtile Doat. - most crystalline glazers count him as the godfather of this speciality glaze.
http://history.ucpl.lib.mo.us/results.asp?search=Doat%2C+Taxile+Maximin%2C+1851-1939
check out the 4 foot wide porcelain bowl he threw in 1910. 2 assistants turned the wheel. 
Help found the University Pottery (University City, Mo.) 1910. Proceeds funded the Woman's' Sufrage Movement.
Teachers - he also wrote some of the earliest curriculum for Art Ed. 
Have toured what is now called: University Museum.  

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

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

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

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

After reading through the responses for the second time I noticed a trend: " when I touched" or " felt the clay" I was hooked. Sensory beings that we are. 
Knowing what I know now about clay- my response to the Ghost throwing scene:   Ease up on the water lady, it's going to slump.
Tom

After reading through the responses for the second time I noticed a trend: " when I touched" or " felt the clay" I was hooked. Sensory beings that we are. 
Knowing what I know now about clay- my response to the Ghost throwing scene:   Ease up on the water lady, it's going to slump.
Tom

Rae
I see the drug ads with pottery as a hobby thats mainstream these days.I'm going to pass on any comment as I was taught to be quiet if you had nothing nice to say.I do not believe in magic so that must be it.
I was introduced to clay in high school-well sort of. Back in my day we had a dress code and it was not to have long hair or sideburns extended. Well that did not fly with me so I spent lots of time in the deans office in late 11th grade discussing hair length and side burns-Thinking back on this its just insane. sort story now- My mother was in the teaching system and suggested I check out the continuation school taught at the Business and technology  junior collage campus-I did and I finished high school early there(my 12th grade) as you could work as much as you wanted. Here they had a small clay studio that was used during the day sessions when I was there. Since I was not a troubled discipline problem (b average all thru school)I could work in there with a friend.
Hence I was exposed to clay then. My friend suggested we take some private night  lessons taught by a potter in nearby Seal Beach at the same time so we did.My family was mostly all teachers and art was a common theme in our home.Before graduating I was taking flying lessons and stopped after soloing and spent my savings on a wheel and was throwing at home. I moved to the Northern part of the state (from Long Beach)to go to Junior collage  to study forestry and art then on to Humboldt state to finish my art degree. I landed at the JC in the right time as they where building kilns as it was new school. I knew how to throw and learned kiln building-went on the HSU and learned glaze making and ALL other aspects of ceramics from recent Alfred graduates who where all new hires and very much on fire to teach what they learned from the greats.I was at the right places at the right times it turned out. Went full time in 1976 the year of graduating from there. I never left my area of education (still a sleepy spot in this busy state)I bought some property in 73 and started building kilns while in school-still here 45 years later.
I caught the clay bug without realizing it-never viewed this as a job or thought of it as work or a living until late 30s.
I went thru some very tough $ years first 10 years then it slowly took off. The rest is history.
 
Looking back you could say growing long hair and side burns got me into clay.
PS: they dropped the dress code two years after I graduated .
 

100% agree, it gets downright creepy sometimes. No, I don't want to be checked out after telling someone what I do for a living and they make the Ghost comment. Creepy creepy creepy!!!!!

The pottery scene from "Ghost"...I was fascinated by what she was doing with the clay on the tall vase, and when it collapsed, the total sensuousness of handling the wet clay... At that point I said to my wife, "Someday I'm going to do that" That was 28 years ago. I was 43,  Having grown up on the mean streets of NYC, I had never seen a potter's wheel, never touched clay. Then about 10 years ago, I was remodeling a bathroom for an 87 year old ceramist. She was still holding classes and teach 4H kids how to pour, fire and finish molded pieces. We got to talking about ceramics and she showed me the first mug she had ever made more than 50 years prior.  As we continued the conversations over the week that I had worked for her, she encouraged me to take a Learning Exchange class at our local ceramics supplier, Alpha Fired Arts in Sacramento. She also gave me an, old, tired kiln (she had another newer kiln) that she wanted to get out of her workspace.
I took that class and got hooked. Since then I've taken Ceramics 1, 2, and Raku classes at a local JC, was given my CI wheel by a friend who found it in a barn on a piece of property he just bought; Bought a newer used ^10 kiln which will never see ^10; sold the old kiln; remodeled a studio apartment I own into my own studio and have finally been making a little money to support my habit. 
I would say that what interested me most about ceramics is the malleability of clay and the myriad forms it can be shaped into. The possibilities are endless and I feel that I am just starting my journey...
JohnnyK

Tis article was in the Billings gazette promoting a few local potters. There are many more in the immediate area. https://billingsgazette.com/entertainment/community/a-livelihood-in-clay-local-potters-carve-out-space-to/article_54a9e213-721a-53dc-bcf4-b418cab194e2.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share 
BTW my husband is home for the holidays teleworking. He retires in 279 days.The article makes it sound like I left him in Texas. What comes across in the articles are common ideas of the versatility and satisfaction we find in the clay and our sense of community, curiosity, and joy. Happy Holidays everyone.
 
Marcia

So @Min- I have been waiting 8 months to see the final product. Piece caught my eye when you posted it. Final pics? 

Great question. I was fortunate enough to take my work bench on the road to build a bench for a friend which went to sofa and sold  successfully for at least four figures. Loved her art and glad it sold! Feel good about the bench as it had to support at least three hundred pounds without deflection to crack any of her tiles. Fun project and success always makes the labor part forgettable. Picture of it going to its new owner attached.
December project (s)
Complete a couple glaze formulations to work well over heavy underglaze on  low expansion porcelain.  Test are going well and should be able to publish after the first of the year.
Additional December project was to get at least four basic throwing videos done for newbies in the studio. Three done so far so we will just keep plugging along.
last project was to begin creating a glaze workshop for the resident artist at the studio. Just beginning this one and have outlined it. Thus far I like the direction and content.
 

It took me till the last year of high school to decide that I was going to be a physiotherapist, because that was the thing that I thought could stand enough, and also seemed to have enough of a degree behind it to make my folks happy. But I needed to go back to school to get extra science classes to do it. So I took a 4th year of high school despite the fact that I already had more than enough credits to graduate with.  Not relishing the idea of a steady diet of science classes for a year, I decided to take art as stress relief as well, because I’d already worked my way through Drama and as much Band as I wanted. 
The art classes were “structured” so that grades 10-12 were all in the same room at the same time. The first day, we were shown where all the truly amazing variety of a supplies were, told that x number of projects were due by xx date, and shown the binder of projects we could choose from. The stereo was in the corner (no playing Korn or Lorena Mackennet), and told that certain older students were resources for specific areas, because they were good with those materials. The teacher Mrs Watrin was available for all kinds of assistance, and brought in local artists occasionally to give demos and talks.  
I hadn’t taken art as an option before because I was no good at drawing, and I thought that’s all Art was (heh). There was a potters wheel in the art room, and lots of clay, and the glazes were mixed by the resource students from recipes in a binder. I tried making a few sculptures that were pretty fun. I found a recipe for “thixotropic clay” that behaved a bit like that cornstarch goop that solidifies when it’s held still and is liquid while in motion, and I loved the science behind it. I tried the potters wheel, and even though I sucked, I felt like I found something that made sense to me. We did raku firings, and that was pretty much it. There was no going back after that. I wound up dropping the last physics courses and taking the last 2 art options instead so I could make more clay things, and applied to ACAD instead of the U of A. I still needed the degree for the parents. 

I made a squirrel and a spoonholder sometime before 3rd grade. Then, in my twenties, returning to JC, I watched George Geyer on our first day throw a classical Greek vase about 18" tall with grace and economy of motion on a Lockerbee kickwheel in a trice (a technical term meaning I was too bewitched to keep track of time).
Still bewitched.
I saw that vase's archetype about 12 years later in the Athens Museum - breathtaking, and even taller. 

My neighbour was an artist and I used to sit for hours watching him paint on weekend mornings. That was a pretty young age for me - likely 8 or 9.  He was also a sculptor. I remember trying to make things similar to his work with our back yard mud - wonder if he noticed?
The school system I was in (public) invested  in art education. We were always on field trips across the river to the Detroit Institute of Arts or Cranbrook or on a train up to Stratford or something! Most people have no idea what a great area & incubator for art the Detroit area was - thank God they saved the DIA when Detroit went bust. A visit to a dorm in Berkeley brought a lot of early childhood memories back to me as they had a big Diego Rivera mural on the wall  and I hadn't thought about those days in a long time.  Good teachers and good administrators brought those events to fruition for kids in those days. Another art gallery next to our high school had a Rodin exhibit( one of many good shows)  while I was there. My daughter tells me we lived in a bubble- both economically and for education - likely c/o the auto industry , so that a middle class lifestyle was able to take in all of these things. (Some of the other memorable field trips included a trip to the River Rouge plant, with a cat-walk over the glass sheets on a roller -red hot! Don't think that would get by the lawyers now days :)) 
Didn't actually take ceramics until high school and I loved it materially & aesthetically.  I think the early age art exposure was important to appreciate the forms that could be made and I still look at articles & books from that era for inspiration .

I was always exposed to ceramics from kindergarten on through college.  Didn't have money for a wheel, kiln, clay, etc until my mid 30s where I am now.  My recent inspiration was my neighbor who is a metal and woodworking artist, I told him I used to really enjoy ceramics and he said I should just do it.  So I did.

Harper Lee's the best!
One book, done, can' top it, ok.

I was in a high end antique store in Williamsburg, Va. In 2007 admiring a Dresden vase. On the next table was a vase with floret looking shapes that caught my attention. The clerk had no idea what kind of glaze it was. I spent almost an entire year searching for a similar glaze: then one day I typed in " crystal glaze", because that was the appearance of it to me. The first website was William Melstrom from Texas; lo and behold I had been looking at crystalline glaze. I had no prior experience with or interest for that matter in pottery, although I did help my wife glaze bisq ware some 20 years prior. 
After doing some research, I ordered the kilns, rollers, and sundry items required to make this speciality glaze. So I jumped into the rabbit hole from the outset, and here I am ten years later. I noticed early on that crystals formed differently on different clay bodies; although I made no changes in recipe. Those differences lead to extensive research over the last five years trying to understand why. And now I know why.....
Tom

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