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misc: bad wheel; slipware; mry wondrausch glazes; what they ask for

updated sat 18 nov 06

 

Lili Krakowski on thu 16 nov 06


1. If I bought a new wheel and it gave me trouble, I would give the
manufacturer or dealer ONE chance to fix it. Then I would tell them to
pick it up, and REPLACE IT, or give me a full refund. I am NOT their repair
department!. Just do what you would do with a car...and remember --I may
be wrong, but I don't think so--there ahve been plenty of automobile
recalls...but wheel manufacturers assume us artists will put up with
nonsense. I do not care how digitalized or computerized the wheel
is....something in its manufacture went wrong. It is their problem.

2. Sometimes it is obvious to the trained eye that the object in the photo
was slip cast. But one CAN, and many have and do, make a mold from a
thrown pot and cast it...and thousands like it. So a picture is not
foolproof. But examination of the actual pot mostly reveals the fact. And,
as far as I know, Leach's slipware was what generally is called
"slipware"--i.e. ware decorated with slip.


3. "Flow on my tears, far from your springs...." and like that. Let us not
kid ourselves. Lead glazes, lead containing glazes were glorious..... They
were potentially toxic, and it is a good thing we gave them up--but with
them passed a beauty and glory not yet replaceable . It is swell for those
who today mourn barium (and, I hope, lithium) to feel sad...but those glazes
never had the beauty of lead glazes. I

I have tried a long time to replicate the look. I come close, very close to
the color....but not to the warmth and depth. So to whoever asked: In GB
where, as Pat wrote the other day, they still use lead silicates, lead is
not totally gone. In the US
I can only suggest to try what I am trying....adding a teensy amount of
yellow or orangey stains to the white slip, and a teensy weensy amount (you
see how scientific I am!) to a TRANSPARENT glaze. Rutile has
potential...but rutiles seem to vary a lot from batch to batch.

4. I am totally adrift and puzzled by this business of "what they ask for."
I think it was Vicky Baum who, I think in "Grand Hotel", wrote a memorable
phrase : "A woman has achieved success when she can lock her bedroom door."
The book was written long ago...thank goodness women's lives have changed.
But the underlying thought remains. So. If potters need
to sell they must respond to the market. And if the market wants whatever,
whatever should be what potters make. I can see
some an Amish or Mormon potter refusing to make wine coolers, or beer
jugs--but unless one has a moral/religious objection, what is wrong with
learning of a demand and filling ? And if a potter does not need or want to
sell--lock your door.

I am a great watcher of food ads and food segments on TV--because they
reveal what the best and brightest of designers*, and, yes, advertising folk
are b & bs, think looks terrific. For years, Arabia and Creusot dominated
the shows/ads. Now it all is bright colored ware, much like Fiesta (except
clearly not lead glazed) and cookpots I do not recognize.

My same puzzlement applies to the jurors who because they do not like blue
glazes/floating blue rejected someone's work.
I gather the show was a "selling" show--one in which participants expected
to sell their ware. I have trouble with shows anyway, anyhow,and I can see
that a show where nothing is for sale is justified in refusing stuff that
just might happen to sell.
But if SALES BY PARTICIPANTS was a part of the intention of the sale....
then rejecting what just might sell, because the jurors would not buy
it.....???? Please explain.

*Disclaimer: I used to be in advertising, have no commercial interest, no
relatives, not even friends....Boooohoooo


Lili Krakowski
Be of good courage