Frederik-W

The brand of clay is always specific to the country, city or local area you live in. Specifying the brand of clay is rather meaningless to anyone else who cannot get hold of it. Better to describe the type of clay. I use a brown raku clay with lots of grog that can be fired anywhere from earthenware to stoneware. The fact that it is raku helps to withstand temperature differentials between thick and thin parts without cracking - ideal for sculptures.

It is not surprising to me at all that the survey clearly shows "artist" being preferred to "craftsman/craftsperson". So there is definitely still this thing between "art" and "craft". It seems to me the term "craft artist" is an attempt to avoid the destinction between art and craft. Who uses this term? No-one I know refers to himself/herself as a "craft artist". (But who do I know anyway?) Could it be that some crafts people feel that adding the word "artist" adds a bit more status ? Could it be a genuine attempt by people whose work is a mixture of art and craft ? "Crafter" is just a stupid word, in my humble opinion. I respect craftmanship and I appreciate art, but I do not respect the rubbish that is often presented as "art".

I built a system like that for a gas kiln, but the results were not very good because the sensor was situated in the kiln flue and the flames made the readings fluctuate a lot. Also the common (cheaper) variety of sensors are very non-linear - i.e. they are designed to go from hard-on to hard-off, and you do not get much in-between. So the accuracy of your readings suffer. I still want to improve on this but I am too busy with other things at the moment. The newer "wideband" type of sensors are accurate and give a more linear output put the electronics to build one is more complex and if you buy a ready-built one (for cars) they are quite expensive (for someone like me).

That is a noble idea, clearly for you not everything is about business and profit. I would like to raise some ethical issues here. I read somewhere on the forum that you should not change your price because you might upset customers. I think the idea is that it won't be fair if different people get charged different prices. Good point, but there is also another point: The fact is that some people can afford to spend a lot on art and others cannot. A lot of people who have limited income (through no fault of their own) do appreciate art and fine craft and would like to own something decent. I am NOT saying that everyone should be charged differently though, and I am NOT saying that potters should live in poverty because they should dish out all they have to the poor. I think a lot depends on how you view your work and what it means to you. A lot of artists died very poor because business was not their priority or because people did not recognise their work at the time, while others have made large profits by selling anything to whomever paid the highest price. If I was an artist (and not in a bad financial situation) and someone really likes and appreciates my work but cannot afford it, I would definitely negotiate a good deal for him/her. There are many rich people who buy art simply because it is an investment and not because they appreciate the work at all. It might be very flattering if someone like that "invest" in your work, however it would leave a sour taste in my mouth if I knew the person has no taste or appreciation and is only buying it as an investment. Some artists would go as far as to refuse to sell to some customers and some donate some of their work to art galleries or art foundations rather then sell it. Hypothetical scenario: Say you normally sell through a gallery in an affluent area and you get good prices for your work. You then go on holiday to a little place on the coast. You decide to take a few pieces of your work with you to sell at the local arts & craft market. You find the small community appreciates your art/craft a lot but it is clearly not the place where people can afford what you normally charge. What would you do?