QotW: Two parter again: What is your latest read about ceramics/pottery? What is your best resource book?

[Pres]

Some days a new QotW really evades me! I often will go through my library of books looking for something to use in these posts. Today the thought came to me that I haven't asked about favorite pottery books,recently.  I have been intrigued with a new glaze book I picked up when at NCECA, Amazing Glaze, Recipes and Combinations by Gabriel Kline. This book covers a series of glazes for all ranges, and then uses the glazes in each range in combinations to show the interaction with other glazes in the range. Nicely written, and excellent pictures. I have also been rereading some of Mastering the Potter's Wheel by Ben Carter. The book has great readability with a little "potters soul" included. Lastly, there is one book I would never be without-ever The Potters Dictionary by Frank and Janet Hamer.  I love good books, and find that I return to them often. I do most of my reading now on a tablet, as it is easier to carry when traveling and even when just lazing around. . as when I fall asleep I don't lose my place!!!

QotW: Two parter again: What is your latest read about ceramics/pottery? What is your best resource book?

 

best,

Pres

[Kelly in AK]

You’re asking for it Pres. I can’t help but give you more than you bargained for.

My latest read isn’t a read, it’s “For Flux Sake” podcast. I’m wildly entertained, often validated in my thinking, and occasionally learn new things (I’m an old dog, it’s no mean feat to teach me a new trick. ). Thankfully it’s metered out in small doses. Great for seeing the evolution of available ceramic materials for potters. 

I can’t nail one all time reference down, but the two I count on for reliable classic information are Clay and Glazes for the Potter by Rhodes, and Pioneer Pottery by Cardew. Finally, there’s the encycopedic Digitalfire website by Tony Hansen, which is a great blend of classic information and real time updates in terms of raw  materials.

This forum, with real people having conversations about very real and current issues in real time, cannot go unmentioned.

[Denice]

I haven't read any of my books for a long time,  I do like to dig on the web for new ideas and C5/6 glaze formula's.  They are  usually just the same old glazes with a new name,   I keep a notebook with all  of the formula's I have found.   I have six new glazes to check out and add to my book.   Denice

[Min]

My all time favourite resource book is The Potter's Dictionary of Materials and Techniques by Hamer and Hamer. I don't have a recent new book/read.

[LeeU]

"My teacher's gaze is Sakurajima laced with ice and snow. Looking down, I pry the lid from the bucket of red iron glaze and begin stirring. The glue-like mass of precipitated glaze grabs at my pole. To free it I reach a bare arm into the freezing milky-red water. Nagayoshi-san works silently, as if his apprentice no longer existed. His message is ice clear. When he asks me to do a chore,  he wants it done-immediately. If I work at being a student-then Nagayoshi-san is my sensei: "Your teacher is a door upon which you must beat and beat to be let in." (nonfiction/apprenticeship of Leila Philip, The Road Through Miyama, Vintage Books, 1989)

I no longer use reference books (not making bodies or glazes) but my go-to's were Rhodes & Lawrence, and later Pitelka. I now buy commercial, and generally am just winging it, going with whatever will be, will be. It's an interesting shift, which I am enjoying-turning lemons (my cognitive/physical imitations) into lemonade (an intentional creative application of unrefined handling & technical flaws).