Earl Brunner on thu 9 nov 00
Hey, BRUEC@ANV.NET did not say that thing below about "my
little children". That was a quote within my reply to
another message. I euthanize my little clay babies all the
time.
You people need to make a whole lot more pots. Get them
filling up the garage, piled up in the spare bedroom.
Boxes of them in the closet and attic. Trip over the suckers
getting out of bed. Lots and lots and LOTS of pots. If you
are still thinking of them as babies you haven't delivered
enough of them. Forget the epidural, do this the natural
way. But don't have a small family here. Think Queen bee.
Thousands and thousands of little worker bees out there
working for you. Couple of them never make it back to the
hive, that's OK. Make a couple more workers.
Lizacat29@AOL.COM wrote:
>
> In a message dated 11/9/00 3:21:41 AM Central Standard Time, bruec@ANV.NET
> writes:
>
> << Fact is, I love all my little clay children the same; even when they act
> like they want to break my heart. Would I kick a child to the curb for a
> wart on his nose? If I would I would soon have no children at all. Hell,
> when I'm throwing and the pot slumps I twist the clay back up and ask it what
> it didn't like about what I wanted it to be, and what it had in mind because
> I must not have been listening the first time through....... >>
> I just thought that this deserves to be run again on the board. I love the
> thoughts there. I was just writing to someone else about the fact that I
> made my first sale and felt a little twinge seeing my pots going away, as if
> they were my children going off with strangers! And me with no control over
> whether they were dropped, chipped, loved, or given to the goodwill!
> I also like the part about twisting the clay back up and asking what it
> didn't like about what I wanted it to be....I'm printing that out and putting
> it on my workshop wall!
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
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>
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--
Earl Brunner
http://coyote.accessnv.com/bruec
mailto:bruec@anv.net
vince pitelka on fri 10 nov 00
> You people need to make a whole lot more pots. Get them
> filling up the garage, piled up in the spare bedroom.
> Boxes of them in the closet and attic. Trip over the suckers
> getting out of bed. Lots and lots and LOTS of pots. If you
> are still thinking of them as babies you haven't delivered
> enough of them. Forget the epidural, do this the natural
> way. But don't have a small family here. Think Queen bee.
Earl gives very good advice here. A few years ago at an NCECA panel
discussion someone asked Chris Staley for his best advice to aspiring
students of pottery. His reply was "Make pots and more pots and lots more
pots. Out of quantity comes the willingness to take risks, and out of risk
comes learning."
Best wishes -
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Home - vpitelka@dekalb.net
615/597-5376
Work - wpitelka@tntech.edu
615/597-6801 ext. 111, fax 615/597-6803
Appalachian Center for Crafts
Tennessee Technological University
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
http://www.craftcenter.tntech.edu/
Diane G. Echlin on fri 10 nov 00
Jeez, Earl you are brutal!
Nonetheless, I agree with your sentiment. I think I'm finally at the place where I
can hammer away at something with no remorse, although some pieces still sit on a
shelf for me to study....maybe figure out what went wrong. There's maybe only 1
piece I've made in the last couple years that I don't want to sell or give away. A
case of I wasn't paying attention to design considerations, I just let it happen, and
the piece became a racer for me.
Diane in CT, wishing I could euthanize the speeders on my street along with some
pots!
Earl Brunner wrote:
> Hey, BRUEC@ANV.NET did not say that thing below about "my
> little children". That was a quote within my reply to
> another message. I euthanize my little clay babies all the
> time.
>
> You people need to make a whole lot more pots. Get them
> filling up the garage, piled up in the spare bedroom.
> Boxes of them in the closet and attic. Trip over the suckers
> getting out of bed. Lots and lots and LOTS of pots. If you
> are still thinking of them as babies you haven't delivered
> enough of them. Forget the epidural, do this the natural
> way. But don't have a small family here. Think Queen bee.
> Thousands and thousands of little worker bees out there
> working for you. Couple of them never make it back to the
> hive, that's OK. Make a couple more workers.
Earl Brunner on fri 10 nov 00
Brutal, (that's such a harsh sounding description). I must
confess that for all my ruthless sounding rhetoric, that I
make pots on different levels. Production type pots are
much more easy to hammer than one of my sculptural pieces
that I have worked at more from an artistic approach. It is
harder to break one of them because I have put more of
myself into them. And Yes, sometimes seriously flawed
pieces hang around for awhile, until it's finally ok to say
good-bye to them. But eventually they do still need to go
and I do still need to move on.
A sculptural piece that has cracked in the firing is
cracked. I can't change that, and I have found that it is
just better for me creatively to move on instead of trying
to some how fix what from experience I have come to realize
is usually the unfixable.
"Diane G. Echlin" wrote:
>
> Jeez, Earl you are brutal!
> Nonetheless, I agree with your sentiment. I think I'm finally at the place where I
> can hammer away at something with no remorse, although some pieces still sit on a
> shelf for me to study....maybe figure out what went wrong. There's maybe only 1
> piece I've made in the last couple years that I don't want to sell or give away. A
> case of I wasn't paying attention to design considerations, I just let it happen, and
> the piece became a racer for me.
> Diane in CT, wishing I could euthanize the speeders on my street along with some
> pots!
>
> Earl Brunner wrote:
>
> > Hey, BRUEC@ANV.NET did not say that thing below about "my
> > little children". That was a quote within my reply to
> > another message. I euthanize my little clay babies all the
> > time.
> >
> > You people need to make a whole lot more pots. Get them
> > filling up the garage, piled up in the spare bedroom.
> > Boxes of them in the closet and attic. Trip over the suckers
> > getting out of bed. Lots and lots and LOTS of pots. If you
> > are still thinking of them as babies you haven't delivered
> > enough of them. Forget the epidural, do this the natural
> > way. But don't have a small family here. Think Queen bee.
> > Thousands and thousands of little worker bees out there
> > working for you. Couple of them never make it back to the
> > hive, that's OK. Make a couple more workers.
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclink.com.
--
Earl Brunner
http://coyote.accessnv.com/bruec
mailto:bruec@anv.net
Terry Sullivan on thu 16 nov 00
I guess I've got to chime in here in positive response with RR.
Some, perhaps many, of us are not capable of throwing tons of pots. Might be
time restrictions, might be physical/body restrictions, whatever. In my
life, it has often been both.
There may be advantage, if one is able, to throwing lots of pots. Increases
the odds of getting "racers" as Tony C. calls them. Comes from the repetitive
skill and simple odds.
Nonetheless; there can be a "cerebrial" component that makes for some truely
wonderful and unique creations. One can use inspection and thought to refine
ones pots even if not throwing many over and over. Not in any way denigrating
the throwing of hundreds , if not thousands , of pots isn't a great way to
go. Just that there are other avenues to making great pieces. Like using a
computer program to investigate many different forms, so can the mind do the
same. Often this is the only way some of us can make lots of pots without
throwing many hours each day.
The carefull observation of results can, but not always or even often, bypass
some of the process of doing it on the wheel and in the kiln.
Like Ron Roy, I see some potters turning out mediocre stuff by the busshle
(sp ?) while others making stuff in a very deliberate and slow manner; make
some truely beautiful and unique pots. Different strokes for different
folks, as the saying goes.
Terry Sullinvan
Nottingham Center for the Arts
San Marcos, CA
www.nottinghamarts.org
Ron Roy on thu 16 nov 00
Well maybe - and maybe not. I know potters who have never made a lot of
pots and are among the best I know. I also see pots made by those who make
lots and they are still lousy.
It is right that having the technical skill to actually form clay with out
thinking about it - has a great advantage in that you can concentrate on
form and your own style. It is also true - that as soon as you get the
feeling that this is a good one while working on a pot - you start to lose
your edge.
But just making without thinking and keeping your own vision about how it
should be cuts down on the number of good pots you are capable of making.
If you take a few moments and look at the pot you just threw and imagine
how you can make the next one better you chances improve.
I think we potters are more about doing than thinking. I know - when I
tried to balance my approach my pots got better.
We all have a different way, a different mind to deal with. So much good
and bad direction to filter through and so many telling us there is no way
we can make our own pots - thats nonsense - if we are willing to make
adventurous mistakes and learn from them we can all shine.
RR
>> You people need to make a whole lot more pots. Get them
>> filling up the garage, piled up in the spare bedroom.
>> Boxes of them in the closet and attic. Trip over the suckers
>> getting out of bed. Lots and lots and LOTS of pots. If you
>> are still thinking of them as babies you haven't delivered
>> enough of them. Forget the epidural, do this the natural
>> way. But don't have a small family here. Think Queen bee.
Ron Roy
93 Pegasus Trail
Scarborough
Ontario, Canada
M1G 3N8
Evenings 416-439-2621
Fax 416-438-7849
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