How much theory do I need to know????

Need some advice....

I'm relatively new to pottery (and LOVE it!!). My experience to date
has been from very substandard adult education classes, 3 hours a day,
twice a week for 2 years - not much teaching goes on as the classes
are very large and there is a huge mix of abilities. I have also done
some wonderful residential courses with 'real' potters and have
learned loads from them. My dilemma is that this year I started a
'certificated' ceramics course... and I hate it. In the past 10 weeks
of attending for one full day a week, all I have made is a very
unsatisfying slab construction - most of the time is taken up with 2D
work, exploring shapes, marks, colours, etc, etc. I understand that
this is valuable, but just how much theory do I need to make good
pots??

I would really like to hear from people who are working in ceramics -
how much studying did you do and what form did it take? What I would
really love is an old-fashioned apprenticeship with a potter whose
work I like - don't think this exists anymore.

find another school? or talk to the teacher? maybe there's a different class?


or thru your library you might get access to various tapes that have great
examples of what you're after. Steve Jepsen has a series of tapes that are
very good. he advertises in ceramics monthly. the tapes are high quality &
typically 90 minutes long ~ not bad for the $25 prices.

see ya

steve



Subject: How much theory do I need to know????
From: (sarah)
Date: 12/10/2004 1:14 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

Need some advice....

I'm relatively new to pottery (and LOVE it!!). My experience to date
has been from very substandard adult education classes, 3 hours a day,
twice a week for 2 years - not much teaching goes on as the classes
are very large and there is a huge mix of abilities. I have also done
some wonderful residential courses with 'real' potters and have
learned loads from them. My dilemma is that this year I started a
'certificated' ceramics course... and I hate it. In the past 10 weeks
of attending for one full day a week, all I have made is a very
unsatisfying slab construction - most of the time is taken up with 2D
work, exploring shapes, marks, colours, etc, etc. I understand that
this is valuable, but just how much theory do I need to make good
pots??

I would really like to hear from people who are working in ceramics -
how much studying did you do and what form did it take? What I would
really love is an old-fashioned apprenticeship with a potter whose
work I like - don't think this exists anymore.








steve graber

"Sarah" wrote:
SNIP
I would really like to hear from people who are working in ceramics -
how much studying did you do and what form did it take? What I would
really love is an old-fashioned apprenticeship with a potter whose
work I like - don't think this exists anymore.

Sarah,

In a university course, we threw hundreds of pots, each and every one of
which was cut down the middle with wire to reveal the throwing technique.
This was frustrating because we all made some pots we absolutely loved! But,
at the end of the semester, most of the students had developed pretty darn
good technique and that was what the instructor had told us up front we were
going to learn. After that there was mixing clay, blending it, aging it,
wedging it, storing it, throwing it, cutting it, rolling it into slabs,
measuring shrinkage, putting slabs together with slip, etc. Then there was
the enormous task of learning glazing, and firing. Four years was not
enough! A lifetime is not enough.

It sounds like what you are missing is a program that gives you a positive
creative direction. The instructor of any course should give you a synopsis
that will tell you exactly what skills, and techniques you will learn and
how YOU will know you have learned them! If not, ask the instructor exactly
what you will be learning and how you/she/he will know you have learned
them. You're paying for instruction and you should be told what that will
be. Be prepared to force the instructor's hand if they can't/won't tell you
what their program is going to teach you. An apprenticeship can be a
positive or a terrible experience. Unfortunately, it is mostly the luck of
the draw.

Now, having said ALL that, you can make nice looking, satisfying pots
without mastering all the basics. And you need to in order to keep your
interest high. By all means throw and build pots, hundreds of them. Just
don't fall into the trap of thinking you should keep every one! As hard as
it may be, cut most of them up and evaluate your building, throwing
techniques, then scrap them and make another attempt. Learn from your
mistakes. You will also learn how to turn that scrap back into working clay
:-). I know you have seen a particular pot that just grabs your attention,
forces you to go back over and over again to look at it. If you make one of
those, keep it. It's like the photographs in National Geographic, one
hundred pictures taken for every one published.

Just don't sell yourself short by just wanting to make pots at the expense
of learning everything else. Making pottery, like every skill, requires you
to always be in learning mode. Away from the workshop read some of the older
books. I particularly like Daniel Rhodes' "Clay and Glazes for the Potter"
and Nelson's "Ceramics: A Potter's Handbook". I'm aging myself here. Look at
as many books on ceramics as you can get your hands on. The library probably
subscribes to an interlibrary loan service, use it.

Regards and best of luck,

Raj
Who got side tracked by a new career and just dabbles now.

How much theory do you need? I think it is important to recognize that
within the field of ceramics like with many other fields there is a
terrible lot to learn. You could spend a lifetime studying ceramics and
only learn some of what there is to know. As far as becoming a good
potter and developing your techniques I don't think you ever stop
learning. If you ever reach the point were you think you've learned all
there is to know, something is wrong. One of the things which keeps me
interested in ceramics is knowing there is more to learn.

Rather then asking how much theory you need to know in order to make
good pottery you should examine your work and question how you could
make it better. By examining what your current work you can improve
your work in the future.

I hope my message doesn't come off as rude, I didn't intend for it to
be so harsh.

I have always followed my instincts in the pottery learning process;
learning what I need to know to carry through a particular project, and
finding more often than not that it lead me onto another learning curve.

I found from the beginning that I am fascinated by the wheel and by
fire, so I have always been driven by the *how did they do that?* bug
which has expanded my making and my attitude to fire. This has lead me
down many different pathways, though I must admit that glaze has never
gripped me in the same way as shape or form and function.

Over the years I have explored a wide variety of processes, eventually
becoming a production potter, and then with my Wife a ceramics supplier,
the latter opening me up to the myriad problems that others with this
same obsession are prey to, which has in turn lead me into realms I
would normally have circumnavigated, all in the name of *why?*. So my
primary obsessions (amongst a raft of other interests) are pot making
and firing and problem solving.

The best advice I ever got was from a well known potter whom I was
fortunate to know who said: *keep it simple; in your making get to know
two or three shapes really well before you move onto others, and don't
overload them with handles and decoration......know when to stop!*.

I think that is actually a lesson for life.

Steve
Bath
UK



In article , sarah
writes
Need some advice....

I'm relatively new to pottery (and LOVE it!!). My experience to date
has been from very substandard adult education classes, 3 hours a day,
twice a week for 2 years - not much teaching goes on as the classes
are very large and there is a huge mix of abilities. I have also done
some wonderful residential courses with 'real' potters and have
learned loads from them. My dilemma is that this year I started a
'certificated' ceramics course... and I hate it. In the past 10 weeks
of attending for one full day a week, all I have made is a very
unsatisfying slab construction - most of the time is taken up with 2D
work, exploring shapes, marks, colours, etc, etc. I understand that
this is valuable, but just how much theory do I need to make good
pots??

I would really like to hear from people who are working in ceramics -
how much studying did you do and what form did it take? What I would
really love is an old-fashioned apprenticeship with a potter whose
work I like - don't think this exists anymore.

--
Steve Mills
Bath
UK

i got similar advice somewhere & it was helpful in that i did not then "screw
around" on too many foo foo designs & colors. i also was told to pick two
glazes, and really get to know those two glazes before branching into others.

another tip i heard is that you never really own a shape until you make several
thousand of them.

~ but after a thousand or so you start to see how hard a perfect shape is to
create!

see ya

steve


The best advice I ever got was from a well known potter whom I was
fortunate to know who said: *keep it simple; in your making get to know
two or three shapes really well before you move onto others, and don't
overload them with handles and decoration......know when to stop!*.


steve graber

Best advice i ever had.... KISS (keep it simple stupid...) Trouble with
lessons when you learns 'em you finds out that they applies to
Everything....
Hugs
Eddie
"Slgraber" wrote in message
...
i got similar advice somewhere & it was helpful in that i did not then
"screw
around" on too many foo foo designs & colors. i also was told to pick two
glazes, and really get to know those two glazes before branching into
others.

another tip i heard is that you never really own a shape until you make
several
thousand of them.

~ but after a thousand or so you start to see how hard a perfect shape is
to
create!

see ya

steve


The best advice I ever got was from a well known potter whom I was
fortunate to know who said: *keep it simple; in your making get to know
two or three shapes really well before you move onto others, and don't
overload them with handles and decoration......know when to stop!*.


steve graber

"keep it simple; in your making get to know
two or three shapes really well before you move onto others, and don't
overload them with handles and decoration......know when to stop!."

That is great advice, too often we have the tendancy to want to overdue
things, to make it better by doing more. But what happens is usually
not that you make it better but that you make it worse. Thank you for
passing that advice along.

"sam" wrote in message
oups.com...
I hope my message doesn't come off as rude, I didn't intend for it to
be so harsh.


I think your message was just right. Its what keeps me enthralled in
pottery, how much more there is to learn. If it was easy I think I would
become bored very quickly. )