- Are you an artist or a craftsman?
- Although I have never been asked this question by another, I ask it to myself very frequently. I think I am both. I think the difference in the two is subtle and difficult to define. A craftsman doesn't try to sell an idea or an artistic expression in his/her work. There is not necessarily any social statement or alternate idea within the object a craftsman makes. A good craftsman is mostly concerned with the quality of the product, usually a functional product of some kind. They move into the realm of artist when the work carries with it a deeper intent or meaning. When I make a lidded jar, the artistic qualities I sometimes think about might include what kind of form expressed containment well; or what quality of brush work will compliment the profile of the pot; does the lid match or clash with the general form; does this pot have life and breath? The craftsman in me asks; does this lid fit well; is the size and weight appropriate to the function; does the glaze fit well; is it easy to clean; are lugs unnecessary to its ease of use and, if so, are they applied correctly? I like the less pretentious quality of the craftsman label, but I like the depth and meaning of the artist label. I guess I lean more toward the artist side. Although craftsman ship is important to me, I take more pride in the beauty of the form and glaze and artistic expression than in a perfectly smooth rim.
- $15 for a mug, what is it made of, solid gold? Is it hand made by God?
- This is an actual question I was asked at at craft show. The man thought $15 was an outrageous sum of money to pay for a mug. I continue to have hope that this type of ignorance can be reduced by artists going out and trying to educate the public about what they do.
I spend a great deal of time worrying about pricing my pots. It is a very subjective thing and isn't as easy as calculating material cost and time. There are many factors involved; such as kiln space, difficulty in making and glazing, size, demand, glaze, final result (the random changes that are given by the fire), quantity, what other similar pots are selling for, success rate, and artistic value.
Public expectation about how much things should cost is a very complex thing too. How exactly do we come to these conclusions? I think it is because we compare one item with other items we have seen, but do so without enough thought or insight. For example, mugs are made by almost every functional potter, so it is natural to compare prices of these mugs and come up with some average value. The problem is that each mug is unique and each potter is unique and has unique circumstances. Potters still compare their work with other potters of similar quality, in order to come to a price that they think is both fair and consistent with the market. Consumers do this as well, however, they are often not as acute at judging work of similar value. The customer who asked this question was obviously drawing comparisons in value from pots of a very different nature, probably mass produced mugs one could find at a big national chain super store. It is like comparing a plastic knife mass produced in China with a hand forged stainless steel knife made in Germany, it is inappropriate. Most consumers would know that the above example is not a valid comparison, but what if it was between a stamped steel knife with a half tang with a white acrylic handle verses a hand forged stainless steel knife with a full tang in an ivory handle. These two knives might look very much the same, but one is still clearly of lower value. But unless the consumer was informed, they may make the comparison and end up forming inaccurate conclusions. It is up to artists/craftsmen to inform the public about what makes their art/craft valuable.
- Can I microwave this?
- The term "Microwave Safe" is misleading. In the manipulative world of business it can mean that the product will not harm your microwave, regardless of what may happen to the product. The bowl may melt in the microwave, but will not cause harm to the microwave, therefore it can be labeled "microwave safe". Another trick I have seen in use, by a prominent plastic container company, is to say that the food storage product is "microwave safe" so long as it is used in the microwave empty. Who microwaves an empty plastic bowl? This is dishonest word play, and is unfortunately very common. Microwave safe should mean that the object won't harm the microwave and will not be harmed by the microwave so long as it is used as it was intended.
I test my pottery both in my own kitchen, and by some experimentation, (such as placing an empty bowl in the microwave for 10 minutes to see if it gets extremely hot in comparison to a tried and true manufactured product like corning ware). I try to use the pot for a year before making any claims about it. So far, only a few pots have not been microwave safe, and I am sure to inform people of these. They are due to high iron concentrations in the glaze that can get very hot very fast, as well as reflect back the microwaves in a way that can harm the microwave over time.
One concern about pottery in the microwave is thermal shock causing it to break. This is the same problem with using them in the oven. After three years of testing, I have never had a pot break in the microwave due to this. However, I have had one break in the oven and one or two break from boiling water being poured into them. These rare exceptions also had clear reasons. The one that cracked in the oven was of poor design and was of a clay that had a high thermal expansion. The few that have broken from hot water had a very defective glaze fit problem. My conclusion is to say that my pots can be used in the microwave as they were intended without harm to them or the microwave, and are therefore 'microwave save'.
- Can you do custom orders?
- I can but don't usually. I would love to be able to say yes to this, and am always tempted. But my official policy is to refuse. As I improve in skill and consistency, I may start taking a few commissions. I am also thinking about the idea of making custom sets of things for specific events, (a mug that says "special event - 2005" or something), for those who may want them. Local shows and tourists attractions like to have things that have the town and event on them, and I could do this without much trouble. As of yet, however, I do not accept custom orders.
- Do you give lessons?
- No I do not give or sell lessons formally. Until I feel more confident in my abilities, I won't feel qualified to charge for instruction. I plan on offering small classes one day, perhaps to 5 or 10 students. There is a void in pottery lessons for children in the 8 to 13 age group that I might attempt to fill one day. I very much like the idea of teaching because it is a great way to inform the public about ceramics and arts/crafts in general.
- Do you make all this your self?
- Yes. Again, the public is often mislead with the label "hand made". What does that mean? Hand assembled? Hand painted? Hand made raw materials? How much machine manufacture is aloud before the object is no longer worthy of being called hand made? Does a hand made sweater mean the person raised their own sheep, made their own wool thread, crushed their own berries that they raised to make dye, then hand knitted the thread into the sweater? I met a woman at a craft show who did all this. She shared the label 'hand made' with a woman next to her in another booth that used all manufactured materials and a sewing machine to make blankets. It is up to the public to ask what this term means? The buyer needs to ask, because the makers who cut corners will not volunteer the information. I will.
I buy my raw clay and glaze materials, usually in 50 pound bags, from large ceramic supply companies. I use a potters wheel which was machine manufactured. I take it from here. I formulate and mix my own clay and glazes, (however I often borrow the base formulas from publications like Ceramics Monthly and various books). I personally throw, (or occasionally hand build), trim, and glaze each one of my pots. I load and fire the kiln, (no computer firing), and usually have the help of my wife to unload it.
- Do you paint the pottery yourself?
- I hear this a lot. Many people do not understand what a glaze is. It is nothing like paint, other than it can be applied by a brush and that it sometimes has titanium dioxide or tin oxide in it. Most of the time this question is a misunderstanding and not directed to my oxide brush work. Glaze is a mixture of minerals that melt to form glass. I glaze all my pots myself, usually by dipping or pouring it on. I also do all my own brush work, although I don't yet make my own brushes.
- Do you use lead in your glazes?
- No, I have never used lead or lead compounds in my clay or glazes. Lead is usually used in low fire pottery. That is not to say that you couldn't use lead in high fire glazes, but I don't know of anybody who does that. I'm not sure the lead wouldn't simply burn away at those temperatures. I don't use other toxic materials in large quantities ether and try to make sure all my glazes pass simple leaching tests, (leave a tomato or lemon slice sitting on the glaze in question over night and look for any surface or color changes due to the acid dissolving some of the glaze). In addition to being concerned about toxic lead leaching from pottery, consumers should also ask about other heavy metals like cobalt, manganese, cadmium, uranium, and barium. Barium glazes are currently in question as to their safety, even though the government doesn't regulate it. A glaze that leaches a lot of any substance should be suspect. I have seen a glaze that has 80% manganese. A glaze like that is most likely not something you would want to eat off of very often.
- Does your website have everything you've made?
- No, I have a large inventory that isn't on my website. This is because it takes a great deal of time to update my website, which I do myself.
- How do you make the drawings on your pots?
- I do quite a bit of brush work on my pottery. I use two basic techniques. For the dark lines on a lighter glaze I use an oxide over or under a base glaze. Sometimes I'll brush on the oxide mix onto the pot, then dip on an over coat of glaze, or sometimes I'll dip the pot first and brush over the glaze. The oxide mix is mostly Iron oxide (rust) mixed with clay and water. To make it blacker, I'll add cobalt to it as well. For blue I use pure cobalt and water. Sometimes I'll add a bit of flux if I think it needs it like Nepheline Syenite. For the fine detailed brushwork, I simply take more time and use a small brush.
The other technique I use is called wax resist. Instead of an oxide wash on the brush, I use wax. I use paraffin wax melted in an old electric frying pan. The wax can be used like a mask, preserving an undercoat of glaze from the coloring of an overcoat. It can also prevent shino glazes from drying where the wax is, and thus preventing the crystallization of soluble materials on these areas. Without these crystals, the glaze behaves differently and often produces a different color, (often orange instead of greenish black).
- I have a broken pot, can you repair it?
- That depends, but probably not. The differences in clays and glazes is too broad to be able to match mine to an unknown pot. There is a rare chance that the pot could be the right kind and have a glaze that looks like one of mine that an attempt could be made, but the success rate would be quite low. I usually just say no, sorry. I also recommend super glue or PC7 epoxy. Both can fix a pot very well, unless the pot is used for cooking. I will always take a look at the pot, however, to be sure about my "no" answer.
- Is it dishwasher safe?
- Well, yes, most of the time. I have used my pots in my home and my dishwasher for three years now and have seen no change in the glaze, with one exception. Shino glazes are soft and often highly crazed. part of the character of these glazes is that they also trap carbon, making parts of the pot black. The dishwasher can clean out some of this carbon and can eat away at the glaze surface. I've noticed that the black areas have gotten lighter in places and the gloss of the glaze has changed a bit. I don't think the result is that bad, but because there was a change, I have to say that my Shino glazed pots are not dishwasher safe. Other glazes that are soft or don't have a strong glass structure, (special texture glazes for example), may also be subject to damage from the cleaning chemicals in a dishwasher, but may not be noticeable to most people. Hand washing is more gentle, but you are more likely to drop a pot and break it. I have ruined more pots from hand washing than using a dishwasher, but if you are not clumsy, perhaps hand washing is better. Another concern is thermal shock breakage from the heat from a dishwasher. I have never had a problem with this with mine or any other pottery.
- Ooo, Reds. Those are hard to get right?
- It is always nice to receive compliments on my glazes and better when there is an appreciation for their technical challenges. Many people know about copper red glazes and their difficulty. Personally, my experience is that copper red is not that difficult to get. It's the specific shade of red that I find challenging. I find Chun or Iron red glazes much more difficult than copper red. Shino glazes are also very tricky to get specific results from, much more so than a copper red. This is not to say reds are easy. I'd place them in the moderately difficult range.
- Should a pot feel heavy or light?
- Neither. A pot should weigh as much as it looks like it does. The rim often dictates this. If the rim is large and substantial and the pot is very thin, it will seem odd and unbalanced, drawing attention to the weight; and the opposite is true. The issue of weight is largely subjective. I personally like my pottery light but not too light. Very thin pottery breaks easier. Many potters, today and in the past, have made their pots very thin so they would be more likely to break and therefore replacements would be needed and the potter could stay in business. Thin pots are technically more difficult to throw. Pots that feel heavier than they look are usually a result of lower skill, however pots that feel lighter than they look are often made that way on purpose. Light pots are generally a sign of a better thrower. The best pots feel just right.
- This is unglazed, does that mean it can't be used for food?
- I am often asked this about my mortar and pestles. High fire stoneware and porcelain has been fired to such a high temperature that the clay has melted together to become vitrified. It is almost like glass, especially porcelain. The clay can absorb a very small amount of liquid when exposed to extreme circumstances, but under normal use it is basically non-absorbent. The glaze is not necessary for the pot to be used with food. A glaze does not seal the pot. High Fire pots are usually glazed in order to make them easier to clean by providing a smooth surface, to add decoration, and adding overall strength to the pot.
Low fire pottery is porous and absorbent. Glaze is used in low fire pottery for the same reason as high fire, but it is also used to help seal and prevent the pot from absorbing liquids. It is my experience that a glazed low fire pot still isn't impervious to liquids, and can still leak. I stored a solution of soda ash and water in a glazed earthenware pot that I made and within a few days, the outside of the pot had soda ash crystals all over it from the obvious evaporation of the solution through the pot walls.
- Where are you located? Where is your store?
- Unfortunately I don't have a store yet. I work out of my house, but only sell from my website, arts/craft shows, and galleries. I live and work in Bloomsburg, PA. I am a member of the local artist cooperative, the Artspace. I keep a fresh display of my pottery there.
- Where did you learn to do this?
- I am mostly self taught. I learned the basics of what clay is and how it is worked with in High School. I only learned basic skills in forming methods, and nothing about clay and glaze formulation or the actual firing. In college I took one intro to ceramics but I hated it. It was taught by a teacher's assistant, (some grad student), and I resented that. I thought that if I pay good money for the class, I should get more qualified instruction. I've sense learned that this is standard practice. Besides the teacher, the class focused on low fire only, which I didn't have much interest in. Also, I thought the projects were boring. I didn't learn much from that class, other than what a drying room was.
While living in California, I decided to buy a wheel with the idea that I would start to learn to throw well so eventually I could move into pottery full time. I practiced a bit there, but not enough. In Erie, I had a full time job and my wheel was set up in the basement hardly being used. I needed a kiln and some way to motivate. I ended up quiting my job and renting a studio. After moving my wheel and a few odds an ends into the studio, the question on my mind was "now what". I knew nothing about what to do with the pot after you had made it. I didn't know what kind of clay to buy. I didn't know where to get glazes. I had no idea how to bisque or use any kiln. So I made a trip to the local library.
With the help of many great books on the subject and tips from people in the industry, I was on my way. I spend the next three years in full time practice and study. It is in this time that I really learned about the craft. I thought about going to graduate school once I could produce a body of work that could get me in, but decided that that path wasn't for me. I had been in a college art program before, and compared to that, my self teaching was far more effective.