Perspectives I As Far As I Know
What ’ s So Special About Pottery ?
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fascination with clay and with the processes that we use to form it . The materiality of fired ceramic is also of great interest to most potters . Together , these twin fascinations play an important role in what we make , and the qualities that we enjoy seeing in fired work .
While a strong interest in the richness of process and materials is undergoing a resurgence in a number of disciplines ( especially painting and photography ), it has always played a part in the life of pottery . It ’ s ok for potters to love clay and want to explore the potential of the material . However , we should also be willing to step back at times to discuss what we ’ re achieving with our explorations , and not be blinded by the sheer beauty of the materials we can create .
JH Chrysalline Glaze Kilns
Quad Elements K25 Brick Type S thermocouples Extra power
This list could go on for a lot longer , and each of the items I ’ ve mentioned deserves to be discussed in much more detail . My goal here is simply to provide a brief and incomplete list of things that potters should be aware of when thinking about ( and evaluating ) their pots . Besides that , I would be failing as a teacher of ceramics if a student could leave my beginning course believing that the most important thing they learned is that you can make things by coiling , pinching , and building with slabs .
Sometimes we get so tied into the practical aspects of our field , we forget to mention the really important things ... and we won ’ t know what the important things are unless we periodically step back and think about it .
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Footnote : |
CLAYTIMES · COM n WINTER / SPRING 2015 |
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1 . “ Spending Time on Art ” by Jeffrey K . Smith and Lisa F . Smith , Empirical Studies of the Arts , Volume 19 , Number 2 / 2001 . Pages 229-236
Peter Pinnell is Hixson-Lied Professor of Art at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln . E-mail him at ppinnell1 @ unl . edu or contact him via his Facebook page at www . facebook . com .
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