Since January I have been using the title of “Devise and evaluate an e-learning model for the teaching of traditional crafts such as ceramics” for my research. It is a good title for a research project, but it isn’t what I tell people what I do when I talk to them and explain my work, it isn’t at the crux of the matter in my mind.
There is simplicity in slip, the mixing of clay and water to a smooth homogenous liquid. Slip decoration is so seductive and there is something about the playfulness of surface that it brings. There are some amazing potters that slip decorate on Instagram like Naofumi Maeno, and Kazuhiro Ashizawa I am always jealous of their surfaces. Doug Fitch has been a major influence on my work too and love talking clay with him. Though slip is something I fell in love with around the time I met Adam Field, I saw he was doing carving with a tool much broader…
Last time I wrote about the importance of a narrow focus, I considered writing this one about having a broad focus. I changed my mind when I remembered Michael Kline’s post “play the Pro” which was about how we are all hobbyists at times. Michael has been playing around with slip inlay, and spent quite some time with the work under wraps until he felt more confident with it. But this playfulness in the working process brings a level of joy. Having closed down Red Fox Pottery in 2012 I stepped away from clay to become an art teacher. Teacher…
I didn’t know it at the time but James Hake gave the best advice to me when as an art student and I told him I wanted to be a Potter. His advice was simply that you should start off small, making only a small variety of objects, at most five or six. Those objects should be developed to the highest quality you can make before adding more objects to the range. I have to admit I didn’t listen having a whole shop to fill and I was too busy listening to the voices of potential customers, make this make…
Making by throwing or hand building is the only part of the process where the clay feels alive to me. As soon as it dries out to greenware, my love for it wanes. Generally all love is destroyed as it changes chemically and becomes set in stone. Sometimes the glazing can bring a sense of liveliness, but it doesn’t have the same sense of being alive that fresh clay has. When I was a full-time maker I made a lot that I thought would sell. The problem is as I created these objects I lost part of the passion that…
