Batuu

Well, I indeed started with having to mix the clay in the bakery mixer after picking it up from the clay pit. These days I am very happy about the readymade clays ;-) Yes, this is a good thought. I was just often in the situation to get asked and then I was in a bit of a dilemma. Sorry if these are too many topics I one post, i guess my main problem is the talking about sustainability just because it is "clay" and then pursuing the mentioned practices. I hope this is comprehensible.

Thank you for the warm welcome! Both of you are right and I have to be honest I could contradict myself in many of the points I made. I know very well, that experience and knowledge alone does not make a good piece. Here I could really start splitting the hair then, what is a good piece, what is quality and who decides that? An endless topic and very subjective. I am also not talking about one specific studio, but a similar concept I encountered in several studios in different cities in Germany and UK. After participating in a throwing class people can autonomously exercise. Any other classes are voluntarily. This does not sound too bad. Often it is good to be left alone to get into the flow with throwing. But I also saw many people with horrible postures, as already mentioned the overuse of the hot air guns is totally normal to them. there were people who used the gun on a freshly thrown piece thinking they could trim it within one hour of working session. No one interferes. People make things in 2 hour sessions, stuff gets fired, they don't even come to pick it up. I really miss a little bit more of appreciation and awareness towards the material. But here we go again. Who am I to judge that? I was fed up with several rules at a certain point myself. Concerning the vitrification, akilpots: I indeed got asked several times by some why their pots are leaking water, others even showing me moldy cups. Did their "teacher" care about this? No, because they also did not know. Because their teacher also didn't tell them and didn't know. Sure this can happen, absolutely natural when you start to learn. I just wish people would not immediately start a business or even worse just throw around with terms (dishwasher safe, durable, sustainable, 'food safe' and making huge series of them. A lot of them often would not be able to differ between a fully melted and an under- or overfired glaze. Often the people in charge of the kilns didn't go through any proper training themselves, people just trust them. I am aware I come across a bit too strict here and I think we always need to look at the specific practice and studio to have real talk. But I also do not want to spill the concepts here or talk too bad about it. Of course you are also right with the social media, I am active on IG myself and a lot of my income comes from there. And clearly not all new enthusiasts are mainly content creators, but please believe me: there are some. I think we can agree that there are many different ceramic scenes and niches, but why make many many things of something you claim to be apples, but they are actually bananas? I guess it is called marketing.

Hey everyone, This post is not about splitting hair, while at the same time a lot of hair make a whole hairstyle in the end. And I am only talking about functional ceramics! In the past years I have seen many community studios, where I had been absolutely blown away by the use/waste of energy and materials. Teachers mostly stick to teaching wheel throwing lessons, further material lectures being a complete rarity. Nevertheless people are motivated to produce masses of products, never having heard about things like vitrification, abrasion, hygiene, glaze mistakes, etc. The usage of clay and water is outrageous, instead of letting the material work by itself things have to happen fast and the sound of the hot air gun can be constantly heard. In the end it is mostly those people who call their works sustainable, in the end even emphasising their recycling of clay. (Tbh - I think out of 50 ceramists I have met ONE who does not recycle her porcelain due to the lack of a good extruder. How can this even be sth. people want to point out?) I am not talking about some single pieces people give to friends or keep for themselves. I am talking about a whole new movement that does not seem to be interested the slightest in learning before/while making, but putting LOTS of effort into creating Instagram reels and corporate identities surrounding slow making and sustainability. For sure I do not want to be a gatekeeper or ceramic boomer, I want ceramics to be accessible to everyone, but I am a little bit concerned and turned off about the complete sell-off. In the past I have heard sentiments like that and did not really bother yet, but I also think a lot more changed during the past few years. At the same time I am aware that I cannot compare my own approach to the one of others. My boss fired a cup of mine after 3 months of full-time throwing. There was neither money nor space for waste and bad quality in the kiln, nor was it worth the energy that is being used in a firing. Does anyone here have similar thoughts or do you think that in the big picture this does not really matter? Or should we go a bit back to also teach more about material matters?