QotW: How do you rate as your resources. .. .coms, magazines, utubes, and books or other sources?

[Pres]

I have been putting books into the library of late, all coming down from storage in the attic after a long redo of the library that used to have mixed shelving and piles everywhere. However, as I started placing on Ceramics books, I wondered is it all for naught? After all, much of my search for answers is here, or elsewhere like Glazy or DigitalFire. Yet, as I empty boxes and look at titles and then at pages, I realize that these are old friends. They provided answers in the early days, inspiration by viewing famous works by potters, insights into techniques and good reading in general. So brings me to ask. . . 

QotW: How do you rate as your resources. .. .coms, magazines, utubes, and books or other sources?

I personally, put books and magazines first and  second. I like holding them and referring to them when working. Then I would place .coms, and finally utubes or other videos.  Guess I am old school, but I have learned several throwing tricks that helped me solve problems for throwing off the hump, or throwing larger from videos.

 

best,

Pres

[LeeU]

Books are my "essentials". My library is Lawrence, Branfman, Rhodes, Mills, Nelson, Tristram, Pitelka, Clark, Penland School, one on Seagrove, one on certain hazards of art materials, and one account of an American apprenticing in an old school Japanese pottery village that John Baymore strongly suggested: The Road through Miyama by Leila Philip.   Also  imperative, I still use  my comprehensive art school notes. Other than those, all of which are the "old friends" that must be respected, revisited from time to time, and cherished, the Internet is a treasure trove of anything I  need to or want to know about anything, as long as I exercise some discernment regarding the quality/accuracy/true usefullness of the material. At the top of the cyber list is groups like this one! Last, the ceramics communities in this and neighboring states are friendly and helpful, tho being rural, all involve lots of travel.

[Mark C.]

I've been downsizing my ceramic book library for years now. Same with everything really for us at this stage in life..

[Denice]

I have been thinking about downsizing my book collection.   I still have a lot of art history books and misc how to do books.   We are getting ready for a donation trip to the Goodwill store.  We had so much furniture to donate this week we hired a company with a box truck to pick it up and take to  the Goodwill.   Most of it was from our old  house that had the five bedrooms.   Some of the rooms were never used and most of the furniture looks like new.   Like Mark  we are clearing out to make our house easier to clean and manage in our senior years.     Denice

[JohnnyK]

While I have a sizeable collection of books and magazines, I prefer the visual impact of videos. I find it easier to absorb techniques that have an active visual presentation, rather than the static descriptions found in print media. Watching a video on how to make a pull is definitely more descriptive than a series of photos...

[Mark C.]

Less is better these days-I have lived in/on same propery 50 years this last May and that is a double edged sword. I sold a wood stove today for a shop and gave them a free rolling Fairbanks scale that does up to 1,000# with extra counterweights (3x whats needed) . Felt great to see it all go away down the road. The stove I used for my thanksgiving studio sale in kiln area. The last one was 30 years ago.I had home studio sales for 19 years witha 1,000 person bulk mailing permit. Gave it up in 1992 when I started doing lots of out of state art shows instead. I'm closing up studio for few weeks soon to move a few gas kilns and pour a big concrete slab and bring in a new to me Geil 18 cubic foot brick kiln. I have to get my 12 cubic gas kiln out of the way (its on dirt under shed) and pour a large enough slab under kiln shed to house two gas kilns and two peter puggers. I should have done this decades ago.. Today I ran a 1 inch gas line from out of the slab area-its was tapped to my 2 inch main line. I like plumbing but digging is less fun these days.. Big job and its a dirty one . Slab is maybe 9x13 or maybe a bit larger.May have a pump truck as well to make that concrete job go easy. By the time its all done I may be too.

[Pres]

In the day, a Geil was my dream. Then reality living in the small town. . . downtown just did not pan out.

 

best,

Pres

[akilpots]

i have a bunch of books they are great for going deep into a subject, a quick reference when in the studio, or getting some inspiration from works of the past. videos/youtube have probably been my number one teacher after actual in-person teachers though. it's really hard to not give youtube it's due. i've watched so many videos on there truly an amazing resource...marguerite wildenhain throwing pots at pond farm, warren mckenzie making dropped rim bowls, pete pinnell talking about cups and mugs, voulkos at archie bray, maria martinez making coil pots, all the goldmark gallery videos, hsin chuen lin's amazing catalog of throwing lessons, john britt's glaze videos, lina christianson demos, lots of nceca talks, and many many many other potters from around the world.

[Callie Beller Diesel]

I use a combo of resources, but I favour the written word. I have a handful of books that tend to run at higher price points, but consider to be invaluable, eg Hamer and Hamer. I consult it regularly when answering questions here, as well as using glazy for quick calculations and digitalfire for materials specifics and provenance. There’s a couple of good blogs that I regularly refer people to, because the authors talk about certain topics especially well, like Sue McLeod or Old Forge.

I don’t use youtube a great deal, because I despise video tutorials. Scrubbing through a video for a specific reference requires my goldfish brain to remember too much about where exactly the reference I’m looking for came in the conversation. My adhd does not allow me to tolerate video pacing that isn’t almost professionally done, and that tends to be uncommon on a platform that doesn’t have a content time limit. I find I can use it as a personal resource if I  up the playback speed, but for me to recommend a youtube video or channel  to someone else, it has to have a LOT of compelling info in it.