Joyce Lee on wed 10 dec 97
Tony,
How do you justify your initial on the bottom of your pots after all you
have stated about the pot speaking for itself? Do you operate under
some esoteric logic beyond the reasons listed by the many gifted and
successful potters on this list? Do not "initials" qualify as an
identifier and, thus, as a "signature?"
Joyce
Befuddled in the Mojave
Tim Stowell on thu 11 dec 97
Our signature is bold and legible. We are proud of the work that
we are doing and feel that if someone wants to know who the creator is it
should be apparent. I understand using a chop or some other symbol to
identify the maker. The signature I can't stand is the scrawling ,
scratched illegible bottom with the pin tool. If you're going to use your
name use...use it.
As far as dating we like to use a code symbol or by modifying our
signature slightly year to year. We keep track of these modifications and
symbols so we can tell. This method prevents people from knowing when we
made them and dickering over last years models. We do explain the system
to our customers who consider themselves collectors, we find they don't
care when a piece was made.
Tim
Tim Stowell Gerard Stowell Pottery
Stacey Gerard 290 River Street
tstwll@juno.com Troy, NY 12180
(518)272-0983
KarateHiro on fri 12 dec 97
>From: Tim Stowell
>Date: 12/11/97 8:17 AM
>>>
>Our signature is bold and legible. We are proud of the work
>>>
>As far as dating we like to use a code symbol or by modifying our
>signature slightly year to year.
I have a few questions on signage and dating in general.
Do good signatures increase the sales or let the author or creator charge more
per pot? What about stamps?
Does good dating increase the sales or let you charge more?
To me, avoiding this question sounds a bit hypocritical artistry.
Hiro Matsusaki
"Where things can be in homeostasis, in a state of balance, most of the time,
but not always>:-)." A haven for the budget traveler.
Jenni on sat 13 dec 97
On Fri, 12 Dec 1997, KarateHiro wrote:
>
> I have a few questions on signage and dating in general.
>
> Do good signatures increase the sales or let the author or creator charge more
> per pot? What about stamps?
>
> Does good dating increase the sales or let you charge more?
>
> To me, avoiding this question sounds a bit hypocritical artistry.
>
A few years ago while I was in Tennessee visiting my Grandmother, she took
me to Lynchburg where we looked at all the little shops there. One of
those shops was a pottery shop, and I found this little vase that I
absolutely loved. I wasn't "in" to ceramics yet, but I recognized the
degree of difficulty it took to create this particular vase. So I picked
it up, flipped it over and found the price to be very reasonable--$8. I
also found his signature and where it was made--Lynchburg. I decided to
buy it...although it was not because it was signed, but because I loved
it. However, I've always been glad that it was there. If I ever stop
back into Lynchburg, I can try to track down that guy and buy another
one...and I wouldn't have remembered it was in Lynchburg if it hadn't
said so.
I don't see how a signature or date on the bottom of the pot would allow
the potter to charge more for their work. It's just your name. It's your
pot...you put the work into making it..why not sign off on it so those who
enjoy your work will be able to recognize your work in the future and buy
more if they choose to? Painters...cross stitchers...even quilters will
sign off on their work. Are you that embarrassed by your work that you
don't want it to be tracked down to you?
Just my ponderings..
Jennifer
[1;5;36m
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jlwright@bigfoot.com | "Don't talk unless you can improve
jlwright@indirect.com | the silence"
taliana@mindless.com | ~~Anonymous
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[0m:
Tim Stowell on sat 13 dec 97
A legible signature allows customers and people who have recieved our
work as gifts to locate us again in the future. Our web page shows up
when our signature is typed into most search engines. I think that if you
are proud of your work it should be signed or in some way identified as
one of your creations. Also signing a pot is important if you are doing
highly decorated work so that your designs are copyrighted. We copyright
every design we use.
As far as dating, I think that it is not as important as signing the pot.
As I said before we date our pots by either changing our signature
slightly, keeping track of when we introduce a new design, or using a
code symbol on the bottom. Dating is also important if your work is
copyrightable.
Tim
Tim Stowell Gerard Stowell Pottery
Stacey Gerard 290 River Street
tstwll@juno.com Troy, NY 12180
(518)272-0983
Tobi Tyberg on mon 15 dec 97
On Fri, 12 Dec 1997 08:32:30 EST KarateHiro writes:
>----------------------------Original
>message----------------------------
>>From: Tim Stowell
>>Date: 12/11/97 8:17 AM
>>>>
>>Our signature is bold and legible. We are proud of the work
>>>>
>>As far as dating we like to use a code symbol or by modifying our
>>signature slightly year to year.
>
>I have a few questions on signage and dating in general.
>
>Do good signatures increase the sales or let the author or creator
>charge more
>per pot? What about stamps?
>
>Does good dating increase the sales or let you charge more?
>
>To me, avoiding this question sounds a bit hypocritical artistry.
>
>
>
>
>Hiro Matsusaki
>"Where things can be in homeostasis, in a state of balance, most of
>the time,
>but not always>:-)." A haven for the budget traveler.
>
Friends- of course we should all sign our work. Incognito and Anonymous
have more than enough works to their credit already. As to whether
signing and/or dating the pots adds or detracts saleability or
increases the value ? my experience has been that an older dated piece
becomes increasingly interesting and therefore increases in value.
Collectors frequently offer higher prices in efforts to pry older work
from my personal collection. The same with customers- they are often
intrigued with the older pieces- especially when they pre coarse my
current work.
Signed pieces can be attributed to a specific artist/craftsperson.
Unsigned pieces cannot.
Also keep in mind that dating and signing your work helps to show
authenticity, pride in quality work, and will help prevent confusion
sometime in the future when art historians are cataloging our work.
I believe to not sign my work is to deny responsibility for the piece I
have made. I only offer for sale my best quality work, and so have only
peace in signing and so claiming responsibility for all of my work.
"I pot, therefore I am."
Tobi in beautiful Freeland MD, where it's cool, clear and breezy.
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