Pres

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

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

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

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.

As far as magic, I really believe there is some magic in the clay, every time I unload a glaze load, or make a pull.
 
 
best,
Pres

As far as magic, I really believe there is some magic in the clay, every time I unload a glaze load, or make a pull.
 
 
best,
Pres

Yeah most don't even realize that big vase is thrown off of the hump!
best,
Pres

Glazenerd posed the following series of questions in the QotW pool. I am posting both of them as they seem to be very related: 
When, where, what, or who influenced you to begin your journey into pottery? 
If you care to share: what was it exactly about pottery that drew your interest?
In answer to this area of interest, I can really remember it like yesterday. . . Mansfield, PA, Mansfield State College, Art Ed department, Ceramics I, with Stanley Zuchowski. I had done a hand built slab box in an earlier crafts class, and had signed up for a Summer class thinking that I would fill one of my elective class credits and move on. Little did I know that the feel of the clay moving through my fingers, and the challenge of the wheel, control of the clay and movement to make a form would keep me interested for the rest of my life. I was enthralled by the teacher's understanding of the clay and the large forms he was able to make, but in the long run came to realize there was so much more to it than that. I had never really had any experience with the potters wheel until then, and no experience with clay other than the occasional grade school project that might have lasted an hour if that.
Best,
Pres

Glazenerd posed the following series of questions in the QotW pool. I am posting both of them as they seem to be very related: 
When, where, what, or who influenced you to begin your journey into pottery? 
If you care to share: what was it exactly about pottery that drew your interest?
In answer to this area of interest, I can really remember it like yesterday. . . Mansfield, PA, Mansfield State College, Art Ed department, Ceramics I, with Stanley Zuchowski. I had done a hand built slab box in an earlier crafts class, and had signed up for a Summer class thinking that I would fill one of my elective class credits and move on. Little did I know that the feel of the clay moving through my fingers, and the challenge of the wheel, control of the clay and movement to make a form would keep me interested for the rest of my life. I was enthralled by the teacher's understanding of the clay and the large forms he was able to make, but in the long run came to realize there was so much more to it than that. I had never really had any experience with the potters wheel until then, and no experience with clay other than the occasional grade school project that might have lasted an hour if that.
Best,
Pres

I had taken art classes beginning at age 11 in 1960. During the 6 years of Saturday classes downtown , I was exposed to great museums including the Pennsylvania University Museum with a great archeology college and the Philadelphia  Museum of Art, The Rodin Museum, Natural History Museum, etc.   Once in Art school at the Philadelphia University of the Arts ( formerly Phila. College of Art, formerly before that The Phila. Museum College of Art) I majored in Industrial Design after the Freshman Foundation core. My elective in Ceramics changed that. I too, like Pres, found the touch of clay and was hooked. My teacher, Bill Daley, was great in  getting us involved in firing, clay mixing , hand building. We attended a workshop with Paul Soldner at a local Art Center, built a kiln in the snow and fired. Afterwards we built a raku kiln on the "campus" in downtown Phila. Paula Winokur was brought in to teach us how to throw. The rest is history. I feel blessed to have had such a great exposure to the Arts and specifically in Clay.

In 1975 I wanted to escape 2 years as a Political Science major. My buddy was an art major in pottery. I took Ceramics 101 and 102 but was not consumed by it. In 1979, after cutting half my Left thumb off, I took Ceramics 101 and 102 at the local community college while the thumb healed. Again not consumed by it.
Next time to stick my hands in clay is in 2008. I audited Ceramics 101 just to see if it held my interest. OK I get consumed, however kidney cancer surgery in 2013 knocks me out of pottery for awhile. Try to get back into it but R hip and L knee bone on bone is too much pain. Get both totally replaced in 2015. 
Since 2016 I have been consumed by clay, glazes and making. No pain and 70 pounds lighter, I am hitting it hard and loving it. 
The kidney cancer was a wake up call. I figured if I were ever going to do anything in pottery it better be now. Now at 64 years old some days I feel like a puppy, spry and full of life and ideas, then some days like an old dog - both mentally and physically. 
I read something that says professionals don't wait around for inspiration, they just get on with making. That pretty well sums it up. Just get on with the making...

Sounds more like an journey of self-punishment.  I thank you for your sacrifice though, I've learned more than a little from your explorations posted here on the forums.

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

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 love of clay started when I was 12,  I had a art teacher that thought I was artistic and was a big supporter.  One day she gave every one a ball of clay and told us to make anything we wanted.  Everyone else smashed out awful ashtrays,  my folks didn't believe in smoking.   I had been reading a book on Egypt and decided to make a Egyptian cat pendant for a necklace.  When I touched the clay I fell in love with it and the pendant was so beautiful  I knew clay was magic and I could make anything I wanted with it.  A few years later I was in high school where I could take a pottery class.  Great teacher,  I did a lot of hand building over the next three years.  Never got to throw on the wheel,  we only had one wheel and the teacher would pick a boy to teach  throwing to.   He didn't consider girls strong enough to throw.   I have tried many many different types of art but I always go back to clay.      Denice

Whew! I'm just exhausted looking at it!
 

 
best,
Pres

Pres  its like this every other week on Glaze day and sometimes every week if I took a few weeks and just threw without firing.
Its my last fire of this year, only thing left is sell the pots myself and take them to my outlets every week. It go time in my business until the 25th then its as Mea says time to put my feet up -right now I'm waiting for a cortisone shot in my thumb.Seems all this clay work can mess with your body -who knew as one person said recently?

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.

Yeah, needs rewedged, or pugged, but is not ruined. Reworking starts by slashing off sides and reversing them inward 2" on the 6 sides. Then  re bag until next day or so.
 
 
 
best,
Pres

Juan Quesada is from Casa Grandes area in Mexico.
 

Adelaide Robineau,  Gertrud Natzer and Edith Heath.       Denice

Wish I had known Liam, as I was there three weeks ago. Could have had a chat over a brew.
 
best,
Pres

Hey that would have been fun!