liambesaw

Wow, I struggle to keep my "studio" in the 50s even with a propane heater! One thing I have found very helpful is I picked up a little 2 quart crock pot for 7.99 at Target and I turn it on when I get home from work and it's darn near boiling by the time I get my kids in bed and am able to get out there. I just top it off with some cold water and it's just about right. I turn it off when I start throwing and it stays nice and warm for a few hours.

Beautiful view Lee!

Since my shed is so small, I have a space heater to keep things from freezing, the thermostat set to 40. For when I'm actually out there and working I have a propane tank top heater. The propane heater really kicks the heat out so I only run it for a few minutes at a time.

Ran out of my normal clay so I've been going through some other dark clays I bought to try out. Been working on a new form I like so I've got a handful of these drying up right now, all different weights. The one in the picture here is 7 lbs, have a few 5 lbs ones and a few 2 lbs ones as well. Ended up recycling 50 lbs last week, I have wedged most of it, still have about 15 lbs to wedge and bag. Not sure how long I should let it sit before trying to throw with it. I have 50 lbs of porcelain and another 100 lbs of white stoneware I want to get through before I make another clay order, so I'll be cleaning my wheel and tools at some point this week. Hey I might even get some free time over the 4 day weekend hah.

I've seen italian potters firing electric kilns in reduction by introducing a sugar-alcohol mixture towards the end of a majolica firing. Looked messy though, not something I'd want to do.

Well that's not really appropriation, that's just forgery.

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!

Did a glaze firing over the weekend. Neighbor stopped by just as cone 5 was on the bend so I turned down the gas to chat with him. Came back to the cone pack flat and the pyrometer reading cone 9. Ugh. All of the bowls I had in there were bloated super horribly, and half of the mugs as well. There are some keepers though so it's not a total loss. Just have to laugh to keep from crying haha.

That's not what I meant by beautiful. If you are intentionally exploiting a culture to simply make money, that is bad intent even if it's something beautiful, maybe I used the wrong word there. A better word would be pure? There is a big difference of intent between inspiration and exploitation. A huge problem is you can't infer intent from looking at something. There has to be context, and most of the time context is missing, especially on the internet.

I feel like most cultures beyond american view this as flattery. I know that the Japanese and Korean do. I'm generally speaking here, but it's tourism culture in Japan to wear a kimono or participate in a tea ceremony. I feel like it's the same thing. Think about if you had to adhere to a certain American culture in your pottery because you're beholden to your culture. I think it would be pretty boring and close minded. I have seen italian videos of majolica demonstrations where they are happy to share their method and culture. I feel like the culture wars that are popular right now involve a vocal minority and dont truly represent popular opinion. That said, appropriating culture is a hot issue right now, and my thoughts are all about intent. If you're making something to purposely shortchange a culture or profit specifically on that, I don't think that's appropriate. However if you're developing a personal style that draws inspiration from a culture, I don't think that is the same. Basically if your intent is exploitation, bad. If your intent is to create beautiful things, how can it be wrong.

Ok I was able to trim 12 of them and tomorrow I'll trim the rest and add handles. I'm doing all of my pottery while my wife is sleeping and our husky puppy keeps barking so I have to go inside and calm him down while I'm working, making this a really drawn out process this week. But I made some extruder dies and modified a caulk gun to make my handles so we will see how that works out.

I've been looking for a reason to give porcelain a try, and of course b-mix is always a pleasure to throw with. I'm just practicing practicing practicing so any port in a storm I suppose. I have about 100lbs worth of reclaim I can dry and wedge if I'm desperate for some Klamath yellow haha

Oh great, there's no hope for me, I'm gonna have to do this til I die to catch up

Mugs mugs mugs. I'm down to my last bag of my regular clay, gonna have to switch since all I've got is 100lbs each of bmix and porcelain and I need to use it up. I have two bisque loads ready of stuff so will be firing one this weekend. Until then I have 20 mugs to trim and put handles on and this last 25 lbs of Klamath yellow to make into bowls. Looks like we will have some decent dry weather for the next few days so hopefully all this stuff will be ready to trim tomorrowish.

Hey pres, sounds like learning to throw has taken you about 47 years so far. I think that's the name of the game really. I hope I never feel like I've learned to throw, the mistakes and challenges are what keep me involved just as much as the successes. Now if only I had someone to come over and dry/wedge all of this reclaim...

Beautiful bowls!

I don't think all good pots have foots, but I hate using a bowl that doesn't have a foot. They're too hard to hold onto without one! Feet on mugs, vases, bottles and jars seem pretty gratuitous to me.

What a beauty

I center backwards too but I open with my right thumb, pretty sure I'd never open a hole trying to use my left thumb

I'm right handed, so I think that makes me double weird? Dunno, ended up working. I usually start off throwing a cylinder as high and thin as I can get it to set the mood, don't wanna go in on a big hunk of clay cold!

I see it all

My wheel can go clockwise, but it also doesn't feel right. I guess I just adapted to doing it the wrong way and now everything else feels wrong. Hasn't gotten in the way of much, just wonder how much quicker I would have progressed doing things the right way.

I am a firm believer that no matter how you were taught or got instruction that you develop a personal throwing style, which includes doing things that you know you aren't supposed to do. Myself, I throw counter clockwise but use my right hand inside the form and lift with my left hand on the outside. I've tried throwing clockwise and I've also tried switching my hands but something about throwing backwards feels natural to me. So what is your bad habit that is now just your style?

Well, lost track of time and blew up half of the lidded jars while candling. No biggie! I ended up making some larger bowls and have them drying out by the kiln right now!

Merriam-Webster's definition of remarkable is: worthy of being or likely to be noticed especially as being uncommon or extraordinary. To me, art is remarkable. It is something you know when you see it because its noticable and uncommon. To your point on the separation of "crafts" and "art", crafts are unremarkable. They blend into the background because you've seen them before, they're uniform, planned and produced by step en masse with no element of thought, creativity or risk.