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gary holt's workshop

updated fri 5 aug 05

 

Linda Blossom on wed 3 aug 05


It looks like Gary beat me to the keyboard. His workshop was wonderful -
both his presentation on solubles and his shino work. If you are interested
in solubles, I don't know of anyone else who has worked with them for as
long as Gary has and can share the knowledge. The wonder of solubles is not
just that they go into solution and give beautiful watercolor effects but
they interact with each other producing other effects like halos. It is
still a new and much unexplored area of ceramics - from this workshop there
will be a smaller discussion group of people planning to do more with
solubles and organizing group orders of the materials. The workshop
exceeded my and others' expectations and I am so glad he was willing to
leave the studio for a week so he could do this. If you have not been to
Gary's website, do yourself the favor: www.garyholt.com
.



Linda

Ithaca,NY

David Woof on thu 4 aug 05


Well it's been shino this and shino that for almost ten years and a
wonderful body of knowledge has been accumulated. beautiful surfaces on
strong forms. gratitude toward all who did the research.

Now, let's hope for a like serious study of soluables as a family of glaze
materials.

However it's well to remind that there are others who have gone before us in
these areas of research and give credit for whose foundation one is building
on.

I direct no accusation toward Gary Holt here.

since no discovery is an entirely new discovery one has to have done subject
research and today's archives contain names of who has previously published.

Kurt Wild published his research in Ceramics Monthly during the earlier
1990's and his works using soluables for a ''water color halo effect'' are
in collections world wide.

Another example is of a much respected person in the far northwest, who gave
a number of young potters a place to work, invented pottery equipent,
formulated clay bodies, '' hair of the dog'' was one such. and designed a
kiln using kiln shelves notch cut to interlock for a gabled roof arch.
this was mentioned in a CM article 1980's about the man and his
contributions to ceramics.

Just several years later someone else who had contact with that area of the
continent, as i remember, and who may have worked with the original
designer, publishes that same design. you know who you are, how about
giving some belated credit?

Some of us prefer a quieter space, share freely, and don't wish to hit the
workshop trail while giving support and encouragement to those that do.
i see failure to give credit as a serious threat to academic integrity.
it's a small step from here to other forms of clawing and biteing one's way
to the top and the whole community suffers the loss.

On the other hand, we have people who are generously giving credit to their
students or where ever their ideas originate. many times students
unwittingly give us ideas they do not yet recognize the implications of.
these are the people in whose company i wish to be.

David Woof


peering over the edge, reverently taking an irreverent look at everything.