What are you worst at as a potter? | Nov. 14, 2011

[Chris Campbell 1,224]

We all know the areas of pottery that we are not good at .... we'll clean our studios, organize shelves ...

we'll even find any excuse to leave the house so we don't have to do it right away.

Sometimes we'll admit to needing to take time to practice or "read up on it" but in our hearts we really don't want to.

 

What are you worst at as a potter?

 

As ever, please hit the add reply key at the top or bottom of the page.

[JLowes 28]

One word; pricing.

[scoobydoozie 7]

Making myself stop fiddling with the piece. I try to keep telling myself it is art and therefore does not have to be perfect and is actually more interesting if not 100% perfect.

 

 

[Deborah 1]

I just don't do multipiles well. None of mugs look the same, it's have frustrating at times. It just gives me an excuse to practice and make more.

[Cyndi 2]

Timing. Patience to wait for the piece to get to right stage to continue working on it.

 

 

[Denice 652]

Keeping records of glaze tests and firings, I've tried several different systems none of them work for me. Right now I write in black stain as much information on the back of the tile as I can, I do have good records of glaze recipes thanks to computers. Denice

[Pompots 4]

Like Cyndi Patience is what i lack the most, besides i dont like to wedge.....i use the clay out of the bag if i can.

[Marian65 7]

We all know the areas of pottery that we are not good at .... we'll clean our studios, organize shelves ...

we'll even find any excuse to leave the house so we don't have to do it right away.

Sometimes we'll admit to needing to take time to practice or "read up on it" but in our hearts we really don't want to.

 

What are you worst at as a potter?

 

I dislike reworking clay. I'm very frugal with everything, even clay, so I collect my trimmings and flubs and eventually have to deal with them when my containers get full. I need to modify my attitude and just do it, but sometimes clay sits in buckets for months and months before I grab some energy one day and start the rework process.

[foodie ceramics 2]

Attaching one piece of clay to another (my hand shakes, I'm so nervous!); wedging seems really hard; have no idea how to make faces or body shapes when everyone else in the studio can do dogs and leopards and rabbis. I also can't seem to upload a photo of my work dinky enough for this website.

[LaurieK 1]

Lids. Just something about getting out the calipers and making something to fit something else and look like it belongs together. It's not impossible, just that extra step to go through.

[Pres 1,938]

We all know the areas of pottery that we are not good at .... we'll clean our studios, organize shelves ...

we'll even find any excuse to leave the house so we don't have to do it right away.

Sometimes we'll admit to needing to take time to practice or "read up on it" but in our hearts we really don't want to.

 

What are you worst at as a potter?

 

As ever, please hit the add reply key at the top or bottom of the page.

 

I think of all of the things I do as a potter glazing is my biggest problem. I never seem to get things right. Some of that seems to be as mentioned in the forums-never being happy with the result or being too hard on myself.

 

As a business person, my biggest failing is record keeping, then pricing. I have a tendency to make the work, send it out, and not keep good records of the work itself, and the customer addresses etc. Price wise, it looks like I under price my work greatly. I say this after reading so much of what has been said in the forums. In defense of that, some of my orders are "legacy" in that I have had them for many years, and as they are for a non profit, I have kept the price down-only raising it in the last few years because of cost changes I incurred with shipping and other supply.

[Idaho Potter 64]

Oh dear. My list reads like a menu from a Chinese restaurant--occasionally I get it all wrong. Sometimes I only screw up one thing at a time which means self-congratulations are in order. Glazing, experiments in glazing, and keeping records of those experiments is the bad one. My memory works for me very well, but if my mind starts to slip all is lost. I don't know if it's my way of staving off Alzheimer's or if it's laziness, but it is constant. I'll try harder.

[Growin' Granny 0]

Attaching one piece of clay to another (my hand shakes, I'm so nervous!); wedging seems really hard; have no idea how to make faces or body shapes when everyone else in the studio can do dogs and leopards and rabbis. I also can't seem to upload a photo of my work dinky enough for this website.

 

 

Came across this thread late but just have to say I wish you could figure out how to downsize and upload as I would love to see a photo of the rabbis that they're making in your studio

[audy 0]

LIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[TJR 361]

Attaching one piece of clay to another (my hand shakes, I'm so nervous!); wedging seems really hard; have no idea how to make faces or body shapes when everyone else in the studio can do dogs and leopards and rabbis. I also can't seem to upload a photo of my work dinky enough for this website.

 

 

 

Did you mean rabbits? What does a clay rabbi look like? I am reading this instead of marking a mountain of art work. Made me laugh!.

Thanks.TJR.

[TJR 361]

People ask me all the time;"Do you make goblets?" I have to say that I have made them-don't like making them, they take forever and always lok laboured over. Do you make the bowl , trim and then throw stem, or do you make both parts serarately and then join them? I don't know. Tried both ways. Not my favourite thing to make.

I don't know how to make a rabbi either.[just kidding].

TJR.

 

 

[Mark C. 3,823]

Keeping the glaze making area cleaned up

letting my cardboard box pile get out of hand

putting off new bag walls every 10 years in car kiln

cleaning main studio catch all table area

These are the worst for me

Pricing is not my favorite thing but it gets done