Pres

You understood me just fine. But it’s not just silence/restraint, it’s also the politeness and a desire to not insult. And I’m not your sister.

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. 

One of the skills I'ld like to have training in is decorative brushwork, sumi-e type work. Not necessarily black like traditional sumi-e paintings and calligraphy but I'ld love to have the skill (no small ask there!) and instruction to make fluid graceful brushwork with underglazes, stains, slips etc. 
edit: I realized I only answered half the question with my first reply. I would call it a trait not a skill but I can be very determined, relentless, persistent when it comes to trying to figure things out. I think this helps with sorting out the never ending ceramics related issues that arise. 

I just want to be doing more pottery and making more things that I love.

if i am still around in 5 years, i will be 83.   i have a small pension and social security.   the control of neither is entirely in my hands so the future is very hard to see clearly.   i would like to  put a small apartment upstairs over my studio to turn into an Airbnb.   i can hope to do that but need cash to build it.   maybe i can get on wheel of fortune and luck out.   that's the only way i see to get the $50, 000 to do it. 
so, if i am still around, i hope i can still enjoy the sunshine every time i see it and the beauty of the natural world as well as making useful things in clay.

GEP,  just yesterday queried in the QotW pool: In terms of your pottery work, where do you seen yourself five years from now? 
I think this is an appropriate question for many of us, and especially for those at the beginning or at the end of their careers. I have had a long enjoyable time with clay, from college til now totals over 50 years. I taught ceramics in HS for over 34 years, and have been working in my own shop as a dedicated hobbyist for the last 30 years. I say hobbyist, as I really don't make enough on pots to even begin to consider it as a profession, just enough to keep the hobby from disrupting the household budget, and buy me a few ceramic related toys over the years.
Five years away, I hope to be doing what I am doing now, maybe more or less. I have orders from places that carry into next year, and commitments that will probably last for the next five. So what could change? Visits by old arthur have been more frequent and severe, latest wrist assessment was severe of the left wrist. Thing is, it hurts less if I'm using it, especially after throwing. Use it or Lose it becomes more true the older we get. I hope not to have it or anything else get the best of me, my Dad is 92, so there is hope!
 
best,
Pres

Gep said ( I also plan to travel, and pursue some recreational interests that I haven’t had time for while running a pottery business. )
This is possiable as well as a pottery career . I have traveled alot on this planet as well as enjoyed lots of other activities. It can work if you schedule the times off well.
Its worked for me since I got the travel bug in the middle 80s.

I have a slow down plan
My slow down plan has been in effect for about 5 years now-I cut out  5 shows in that time. One gallery went out of business  and I did not replace-one wholesale place cut their orders in 1/2.
Thats the good news on slowing my pace but I have picked up 3 grocery store wholesale orders  two years ago. Thats been a lot of success  money wise but that means more work has happened. I no longer will take new wholesale orders.
In 5 years I plan on doing way less production-and it may be next to none by then. Its hard for me to let go as I like certain parts still like talking to customers . Shows are hardest and the most profitable-I have 3 traveling still and 2 local ones left. These will be pared down in upcoming years.
I may still have a few wholesale acounts and one local show in 5 years we shall see.Pottery keeps me moving (I have 4 tons to move today with a helper) it also takes it toll so its a love hate thing on the body.
I'm throwing less this past year but I also broke nmy arm and had two months off from throwing. In 5 years my plan is alot less for sure.
Right now I could quit (retire completly)but I like this business and am not good at relaxing.The hard part is the happy meduim.

I posed this question because I am a big believer in long-range goals. My whole career trajectory has been based on one long range goal after another:
Get a full-time job as a graphic designer ... become a freelance graphic designer ... buy a house ... build a pottery studio in my house and launch a part-time pottery business ... quit the design business and do pottery full-time .... renovate my studio and buy a second kiln, which caused a big increase in output ... buy a minivan, which caused a big increase in shows and sales .... 
In recent years, my goals were all about improving efficiencies and productivity, ie making more more money with fewer pots and less labor. 
I”m now in my 9th year of full-time pottery. I would’t trade this experience for anything. It has been as satisfying as I hoped for. But as Mark noted, it is a grind and takes a toll on your body. So I am also thinking about winding down. 
In five years, I’d like to be living a much less labor intensive lifestyle. I don’t really want to live in a house with a yard anymore (especially on a spring day like today when I had to mow a tall and wet lawn). I’d like to live in a small, low-maintenance dwelling, which means no more pottery studio. I won’t need to earn a full-time income at that point, but I’ll probably work part-time to earn some extra income, and to stay busy. I also plan to travel, and pursue some recreational interests that I haven’t had time for while running a pottery business. 
 

Denice-
Is this really the topic to which you were wanting to respond?
Respectfully,
Fred

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.

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://www.doi.gov/iacb/act
From the above link:
"The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-644) is a truth-in-advertising law that prohibits misrepresentation in the marketing of Indian arts and crafts products within the United States. It is illegal to offer or display for sale, or sell any art or craft product in a manner that falsely suggests it is Indian produced, an Indian product, or the product of a particular Indian or Indian Tribe or Indian arts and crafts organization, resident within the United States. For a first time violation of the Act, an individual can face civil or criminal penalties up to a $250,000 fine or a 5-year prison term, or both. If a business violates the Act, it can face civil penalties or can be prosecuted and fined up to $1,000,000."

I took them outdoors today because it was cloudy, I think this one is a little better
 

If that is sunlight coming through the windows, cover the windows with a white sheet. The room may look too dark, but let the camera compensate for that with a longer exposure. You can also try a light mist of Dulling Spray (available at photo stores or Amazon). Nice use of depth-of-field (or purposeful lack of), 

I would vote on a red clay with wax resist or some other resist as you can see the change in thickness in the white areas.
 
best,
Pres

@liambesaw @Pres
Yep, it's wax resist brushwork on a red clay body, and a white glaze. My NCECA loot included a lot of new brushes.

I do some large pieces, some fully thrown, some with wheel thrown and slab elements combined. Check my albums. Combining forms takes considerably less energy, but design becomes even more important as proportion, texture, and details become more important when combining in that manner.
 
best,
Pres

Yup, they are stainless steel. So just as food safe as the pots. 

Great article Chilly, thank you for posting it. Good to read a different take on cracks than The Potter's Encyclopedia.
 
 
best,
Pres

When rolling slabs, the advice I read from Alfred Ceramics, is to cut from the centre of a larger slab, to eliminate the weird stretching that happens around the sides.  http://www.readypedalgo.co.uk/Particles-%20Orientation%20and%20Density%20-%20Alfred's%20Clay%20Store.pdf, page 55
So, yes, size does matter.

In my 35 forms they vary from larger cannistyers to 20# large bowls to 1/2# spoonrests.
Size maters depending on the form.
For me right now the real income is in small stuff-like the 120 spongeholders I sold to one outlet-they pay the bills.
Yes I can make the big sectional pots but I'd rather make lots of meduim bowls.I sell about 2-3 a week in my outlets where a large pots sit for 1/2 a season .

i think that once i can make something in any size i want, i am satisfied that i have learned that skill and can go back to the normal size for me.  yes, i can make a huge salad bowl for 20 people but would rather make 20 personal size salad bowls.

The thing about size for me, is that I find it annoying to center anything from about a pound and under.  15lbs? No problem, 12 ounces? Why bother.    So if I am going to do some smaller items I will throw off the hump just because it's so hard for my big hands to center anything that small.  For mugs and bowls I'll do chunks of 1lb, still takes a minute to center sometimes.  I do love making a nice big pot though, something alluring in making something that big even though it's useful for nothing.

Very nice, hulk!  Hard to believe it's only your second glaze firing!