QOTW: Who would YOU write about?

[Guest JBaymore]

This weeks question of the week comes from Bruce:

You've been asked to write an article about a famous potter of your choice.  Who would that be and what three questions would you ask of her/him?  And why those questions?

[Joseph Fireborn]

Oh I really like this one. Going to have to think about this!

[glazenerd]

Easy one for me: Taxtile Doat of crystalline glaze fame. (1890-1917)

3 questions.

1. How did you figure out the zinc/silicate ratio required? You had no glaze calculator, you had no x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopes: how did you know?

2. How did you figure out that you needed hold ramps at certain temperatures to make crystals grow? You had no kiln sitters, no programmers, and no pyrometers: how did you know when you hit the hold temps?

3. What made you decide to fire crystalline pieces in saggars?  Was it intuition, some oddity you noticed in a firing, or previous experience with another glaze?

After I finish with Mr. Doat, I have a few questions for Maria Longworth Storer.  Truly pioneers in pottery: they had no reference books, no glaze calculators, and no internet to look up any aspect of any given ingredient. They had little information on chemical analysis, molecular weights, melting temps, or COE data.  How did they figure it out?

 

nerd

[Guest]

Does they really have to be famous? I can think of a few members on CAD... wait maybe they are famous since they're here.

[Sputty]

.

[glazenerd]

Sputty: Doat fired his first pieces in crystalline in the late 1880's: which predates the filament link you posted. I have been to the university museum: the old university pottery where he worked from 1905 to 1915. Having read many of his notes and firing logs: I have yet to find any references to any type of measuring devices. I appreciate the attempt, it did answer other questions I had. Still trying to figure out how he knew it required zinc and silicate in exact percentages. 

[Guest JBaymore]

8 hours ago, glazenerd said:

 Still trying to figure out how he knew it required zinc and silicate in exact percentages. 

Aliens! 

[glazenerd]

John: I wonder how many modern potters have the patience to spend 1000 hours carving the details in a single vase? Today we program a machine that will carve with precision in minutes. 

(Adelaide Robineau- scarab vase)

[Callie Beller Diesel]

17 hours ago, glazenerd said:

John: I wonder how many modern potters have the patience to spend 1000 hours carving the details in a single vase? Today we program a machine that will carve with precision in minutes. 

(Adelaide Robineau- scarab vase)

Uh, have you seen the type-A hyperfocus work that is Peter Pincus? Granted, it's with mould making and not carving, but that man's work makes my brain box twitch. 

 

 

I'd want to write about Eva Zeisel. I'm not sure I can narrow down the questions list. She had such an interesting life, and combined such incredible grace into such ordinary forms. If I manage to get even a fraction of that essence into my own work by the time I die, I might have done okay.