QotW: What are your plans for passing it on when you pass on?

[Pres]

Hi folks, Some of you may know that I recently lost my father. He had all of his ducks lined up and as executor, I had little to do other than notify banks. His wife notified the SS, military ret., and others. It got me to thinking about what I should be doing. . . Oh, I have the will and living will etc. However, that does not cover the pottery equipment. I have thought to leave my pottery equipment to the HS I taught at, if no one in the family wants it, along with my library of art books.

So once again, the QotW: What are your plans for passing it on when you pass on?

 

best,

Pres

[Mark C.]

Our lifes big  stuff is in a trust-Property etc. autos .boats etc are in  both names and we havea plan with all that . The trust outlines our wishes . The ceramic part of my life is not in that plan so I need to have a plan and it should be soon . The schools here ( two collages no longer have good ceramic programs)  one is not working now in my temp range so my high fire kilns would be of zero interest .My 5 wheels and the electrcic are easy low hanging fruit to sell. The shear volume of materials may be another thing . The property would be best for a working potter but these days that a pie in the sky idea. I need to work on a plan and a plan B.

If you are a full timer and on the west coast send me a pm if your are willing to take it all when that day comes . It includes gas kilns,two that move as  units , two that are a pile of bricks.more bricks fiber, much in new boxes ,more bricks and a few tons of dry materils-you need to be much younger that I by the way and have a great back and a large lift gate truck.

I have gone thru this death deal a lot already with my family  so I know this path and we have no children only nephews who are in the loop with the trust so that part is done.

I once was going to give it all to the local  state collage but that plan went to heck when they plan on tearing down the ceramics lab and no longer have anyone but temperory lectures teaching. Longevity is not on my side of the family as I'm the oldest male in over 100 years to have lived this long. I think clay has a lot to do with that for me.

Edited March 19 by Mark C.

[Hulk]

Good question.

I'd executed my parent's estate.

The paperwork and "big stuff" was all clear.

The hobby and tool stuff, not so much.
My Mom's embroidery stuff - not a box of stuff, no, an entire walk-in closet full, plus more boxes - a person who came to look at the lighted magnifying thing took it all, for they ran embroidery classes and were involved with a few groups. They were literally sobbing with gratitude.
My Dad's lathe - a person who bought that took a truckful of material and tools that we pushed. Many tools and contraptions went in the truck to Goodwill.
We found homes and/or beneficiaries for everything, mostly by luck.

The person we called out to fix the well asked after something. I said, "You can have it for giving me a hand moving these things? Can you burn part of your lunch break? We'll feed you." They came back over the weekend; without their help, idk, we'd have never finished. ...and they were thrilled with a pile of gadgets and tools.

Edited March 19 by Hulk
was -> were

[Denice]

We have everything taken care of with the help of our financial planner.  The only thing we have left is my studio and my husband has a lot of cars and tools.  If my son doesn't want to handle it I will find a charity like the Goodwill or DAV that will empty the house out and sell everything.  When my son moved to Costa Rica he said we need to clear everything out before we die he doesn't want to handle it.   I am hoping when I sell my equipment I might find a real potter who could use my chemicals,  they will go to hazardous waste otherwise.    We plan to move into a nice senior apartment when it is too hard to maintain our house.  Hoping we can handle the disbursement of our life.  Denice

[Mark C.]

I added to my plan above. 

[Pres]

I know that a lot of us are getting older. . . . slightly! However these disappearances to our living circles bring about times of uncertainty and concern that everything will not be alright when it comes to us.  Worrisome is it not?

Then again, I come to wonder after @Mark C.'s post will there still be a need or interest in pottery in the future?  It does me well however to see NCECA this year, with all of the vendors, and I did a bunch of galleries today within walking distance and saw a lot of nice pots/sculptures/Objects.

 

best,

Pres

[Rae Reich]

I’m not too worried about “the youth,” @Pres. I saw a young potter on the Great Canadian Throwdown describe the coil-building technique as “like a 3D printer.” .

Clay adapts to people and our needs.

I’m starting to look for inheritors for my stuff. There are also our collections of significant (to us) pots - I’ve begun to redistribute some.
 

 

Edited March 19 by Rae Reich

[Mark C.]

3 hours ago, Rae Reich said:

I’m not too worried about “the youth,” @Pres. I saw a young potter on the Great Canadian Throwdown describe the coil-building technique as “like a 3D printer.” .

Clay adapts to people and our needs.

I’m starting to look for inheritors for my stuff. There are also our collections of significant (to us) pots - I’ve begun to redistribute some.
 

 

You bring up a great point Rae about our pots that we have at home either ours or made by others.Some go to family members I'm sure like my dinnerware. Though none of my family members want or know much of the more famous works I own like Otto Heino's or Tom Coleman's or Warren McKenzies work. I am on the fence about these works sell them? or what? as they are potters pots. Since I have been downsizing for over 5 years now its come up in my brain a few times.My wife does not care about these objects its all me on them .Of course I knew these potters and we traded pots with most  but with Coleman it was a small fee. Warren was such a nice real person and Otto had the best stories. So the pots mean more to me than say just paying for them.Its a conundrum for sure as to what to do with them.

[Pres]

If no one in the family would want them @Mark C., I would look for a museum, organization, or other that would want them in their collection/s. Otherwise gift them to some young potters you have met.

 

best,

Pres

[Rae Reich]

Remembering my student days, the experience of actually handling pots made by acknowledged fine potters was given to us by a teacher who brought us in contact with contemporary fine potters. 

Consider a collection donation, documented as well as possible, to a favored school with a ceramics department. A “library” of pots available for reference would be wonderful inspiration. (I’m assuming that most of the works that we have accumulated are not ‘museum quality,’ but what we could afford.)

[Denice]

There is two private pottery schools in Wichita when we decide to downsize again I will contact them to see if they are interested in any of my studio materials.   One private school is  fairly large  the other school  is in a large arts center building with other schools.   The pottery school was already growing out of its space and it hadn't been open that long.   It probably had 30 powered kickwheels  in the main room.    We have one large college and three small colleges that have a ceramics program.   There is hope that handmade pottery will survive if not future archeologist will be digging up our pots out of the dump.   Wondering who made them and why?  For now I plan to keep working in my studio until my hands turn into curled up pretzels.  Denice

[LeeU]

I have a fully functioning home studio and would like to "pass on" a lot of it now! But: (1) I'm emotionally obstructed-just can't do the sorting/labeling/organizing/marketing , even calling on helpers is just too much right now, and; (2) I have too much $ invested to just give it away (plus need some money soon for a pending family situation). So--maybe I'll get lucky and pass on before I fret too much over the current state of affairs LOL.

If that should be the case, I have dumped it, in my Will, in a friend's lap. He's instructed to either give it all to the NH Potter's Guild (they'd have to take everything, no cherry picking--if they want my L&L 23EZ & nice Brent wheel,  the tools, etc. they gotta take all the containers of dried clay trimmings & dried  glazes too) or he may sell everything  and keep the proceeds.  NH colleges/university have suffered the same down-turn for ceramics departments and even just scattered courses as other states have, so donating to a school is a non-starter.