Lili Krakowski on wed 29 jun 05
The potatoes I "cook" the bisque with are unpeeled. I actually never gave
it a thought, but I doubt much starch gets out into the water. Anyway I do
this only when my Little Scientist Outfit is in the wash!
My point really was that it is so so easy to test for absorbency. You do
not need to set up a lab with Bunsen burners, and like that. You weigh a
largish piece of bisque--a decent kitchen scale is fine--and drop the bisque
in with the spuds.
Actually I doubt my clay body is that consistent from pot to pot. I use two
bodies, Tucker's white, and Standard's Brooklyn Red. I use each separately
at need, and then all the scraps go in the tub and get used for regular
throwing. As I also reclaim slip decorated stuff, my clay body no doubt
varies a bit on its own. But as I KNOW the absorption of both bodies, and
the reclaim is ok--I do not worry.
THEN: Vince is 100% right about throwing and keeping that word for
throwing.
OUR concept of throwing is one in which the speed and strength of the wheel
contributes to the shaping of the pot. There is nothing WRONG with working
with coils on a lazy Susan (actually the Sues I know work like dogs!) or
whatever. But to call that throwing--within the context of English, within
the context of our culture--would be like saying that riding a rocking horse
or hobby horse is "horseback riding."
I have lived in a bunch of cultures, and I see, or not, the merit of each.
When I say "I am making my bed" I am talking bedstead, mattress, sheets,
blanket, pillow, possibly bedspread. I am NOT saying I am unrolling a mat,
nor unrolling a hammock and hanging it up.
As we are predominantly a group within Western Culture (do I put a
here?)and refer to English language books and magazines all the time... I
think clarity IN ENGLISH is essential.
That stuff at the bottom of the bucket should not, in my opinion, be there.
Something is settling out of your clay when it gets really wet. When sludge
settles at the bottom of a bucket of slurry or throwing water, it should be
integral, the same, in soupy form, as the body. My guess is that it is some
form of NON plastic material that is settling out, sand, flint--and that is
not good. I once tried a lovely new-to-me body from a new manufacturer.
Same problem. I told them. They knew but where not sure how to fix it!
And. Can one refer to handmade urinals as "conspeecuous consumption"?
Lili Krakowski
Be of good courage
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