Potting is a little like farming....

I come from farming roots. Both my parents grew up on farms in North Dakota. My cousins are still farming the land my grandfather and great grandfather farmed. There is some kinship between the craft potter and the farmer. The story of Seagrove North Carolina is a story of farmer/potters who worked hard with their hands and their minds all year long. There was a season of planting, cultivating harvesting and potting. They knew the land and the soil on their land. They also knew the clay that was troublesome to their farming but gave them raw materials for their winter "crop".
There are still enclaves of potters who continue the tradition of making pottery from local clay and producing useful and beautiful work for the local and global market. North Carolina carries this tradition on through Mark Hewitt and his many protege potters that have come through his shop as apprentices over the years. I have visited several of these potters and I feel a strong respect and appreciation for the work they do and the way they do it. There are others in NC, SC and GA that carry on the traditions handed down from early american potters.

I have my feet in both worlds:  an industrial ceramic engineer creating turbine engine parts by day and a potter by night. I also have a love-hate relationship to modernity and what this industrial world has brought forth. It has broadened the middle class and given the nobility of work to so many people.  It has also impacted knowledge, craft and work in ways probably not anticipated by those who started the ball rolling. Before I try to articulate this conundrum I'm going to share with you some thoughts from someone who can communicate far more clearly and eloquently than i can. Listen to what Wendell Berry says about the farm/business push in this country and substitute the craft potter for the family farmer.

"In their dealings with the countryside and its people, the promoters of the so-called global economy are following a set of principles that can be stated as follows. They believe that a farm or a forest is or ought to be the same as a factory; that care is only minimally necessary in the use of the land; that affection is not necessary at all; that for all practical purposes a machine is as good as a human; that the industrial standards of production, efficiency, and profitability are the only standards that are necessary that the topsoil is lifeless and inert; that soil biology is easily replaceable by soil chemistry; that the nature of ecology of any given place is irrelevant to the use of it; that there is no value in human community or neighborhood; that technological innovation will produce only benign results.

These people see nothing odd or difficult about unlimited economic growth or unlimited consumption in a limited world. They believe that knowledge is property and is power, and that it ought to be. They believe that education is job training. They think that the summit of human achievement is a high-paying job that involves no work. Their public boast is that they are making a society in which everybody will be a "winner" --- but their private aim has been to reduce radically the number of people who, by the measure of our historical ideals, might be thought successful: the independent, the self-employed, owners of small businesses or small usable properties, those who work at home."
Conserving Communities - by Wendell Berry

Now I'm not a farmer; nor do I make my living as a craft potter. But in my time working for what was once a medium company (Howmet - around $800M in sales annually when I hired on in 1989), and has now become (acquired by Alcoa in 2000) a multinational top 100 company ( $24B in sales and 60,000 employees), I have seen some of the realities referenced here by Wendell Berry. The difference in the culture between the company when I started and now is stark. I've benefited in many ways by being a part of this organization. I've had stable employment in a solid company managed so that my security and that of the company was not at risk. I've had benefits of health care and hope to see some retirement benefit materialize in the future. However what felt like a family of employees in the 80's and 90's became an invasion of lawyers, accountants and heavy handed overlords in the new millennium. A lot of the fun was sucked out of it and maybe even the affection for the work we did. My personal path has brought me full circle to a place that suits me (R&D) with a team I've worked with now for almost 20 years. So there are many satisfactions in my work on a daily basis.

However, there are unavoidable realities of working in the "corporate" environment that make it different than in the family farm or craft pottery. On a family farm or in a craft-based business run by the master all the "business" including the planning, designing, engineering, purchasing, manufacturing, maintenance, marketing and selling is done or at least directed by one person. That person has knowledge of each of those areas and is especially passionate about the process and product. All other functions support the "main" purpose: the product. The distinctive difference in my mind between a farm/pottery and today's factory is the division of labor and of knowledge inherent in modern industrialization. We have moved from masters to specialists. The company is an assembly of specialists: accountants, business managers, purchasing folks, maintenance, salesmen, engineers, etc. This has fostered the largest and quickest expansion of wealth over the past millennium and ushered in the modern world. It has exploded the ranks of the middle class and allowed wealth to flow to members of all classes. However it has also come at an enormous cost of individual knowledge.

So you can see the dilemma: I like the stuff this modern world has made possible. However I regret the lack of real knowledge most people have. How so few people in my company could actually make the products we sell, and how those who are the most hands-on are not the most generously compensated. I don't take any comfort in being a Luddite. I don't want to unrealistically pine for a by-gone era that glows in the misty nostalgia that ignores all the down side of the past. So, let's begin a conversation that looks forward. How can we use current technology, and current culture to create work environments that value skilled crafts-persons, and honor the combination of knowledge and skills. I invite your comments.\

WNCPF

On a dreary drizzly day at the Western NC pottery festival in Dillsboro, NC, the enthusiasm for great pots was not dampened. My son and I arrived just around 4 pm on Friday and although the street was empty, the air was festive. Our first stop was Tree House Pottery where we reacquainted ourselves with our old friend Joe Mckee. Joe's work is an enthusiastic embrace of alternative firing techniques. His rotund vases and covered jars are decorated with horse hair raku, bright red raku, or ferric chloride fuming. He also produces a nice line of high fire (gas) reduction ware. I purchased a nice mug that will hold a full 16 ounce beer.

 As we rounded the corner coming out of the Tree House Pottery, the acoustic sounds of a trio of guitarists drew us to a lone white peaked rain-shelter. Among the players was a friend I have known for some time over FB; John Bauman. This is where FB is cool. I found out that John and I share a mutual friend he grew up with and had lost contact with. John is a bit of a creative writer, poet as well as a jam-up potter. I have appreciated all of these skills over the years on Facebook.

Friday evening we stayed with our friends the Sherrills in Batcave NC. I always love getting caught up with what Michael is up to.  His recent work involves the combination of his extrusion and colored porcelains. Check out his latest stuff here: http://www.michaelsherrill.net/lh-project-work/

Saturday morning after a great breakfast and good conversation, we set out for Dillsboro and arrived around 11am. There we found a street filled with white-tented booths with pottery of all colors and sizes. Potters from all over the states were represented by..... themselves and their friends or significant others. We made a beeline for John Baumans (http://www.baumanstoneware.com/) booth and loved what we saw. Just this week John had a killer shino firing with great carbon trap markings. Here's the one I purchased:

Another pleasant discovery was the booth of Royce Yoder (http://royceyoder.com/). Royce hales from eastern PA and has been potting since the 70's just like John Bauman. His product line has matured over the years to include vases, pitchers, covered jars, and bowls that combine the beauty of ash glazes with a fantastic Tenmoku. I picked one of his vases.

Nancy Green is a younger artist that presented her work at the show. Working in the Athens GA area, her work echos the influences of other Athens potters Michael Simon and I'm betting Carter Gillies.
In addition to training locally in Athens, she took advantage of an oversees program to study in Japan for three summers. Her work represents an aesthetic that is at once quiet and vibrant. She uses mostly shino glazes in combination with soda fuming to create some beautiful subtle effects. I purchased a bowl that captures the essence of her style.

All in all an enjoyable day on Saturday. Chow.

Crazy Crawling Stuff

I was able to get lots of good advice on the crawling problem I had with this glaze. I haven't reformulated the glaze  to improve it's leveling behavior. That will have to come when I finish another phase of throwing and bisquing. You can see that on this pot the same glaze worked reasonably well with no crawling.  I WILL reformulate to include some important organics next time. However I have to give props to those who put their finger on the possible cause as having too much moisture in the pot while the glaze dried. The pot that crawled had been sitting in my shop for some time and had accumulated dust on its surface. In order to clean off the dust I dunked the pot in water before glazing. I let it sit for a couple hours but when I did dip it in the glaze it was pretty wet. Thanks for all your input. More next time I mix.....

Let's Talk Organic

Here is the formulation for the nice chrome-tin glaze I posted yesterday. Now we as potters will focus on these recipes. And there are some things to pay attention to on these raw material formulas: First, look for ways to remove soluble ingredients like Gerstley Borate or Colemanite. This glaze has already eliminated those types and replaced them with an insoluble frit. Second you need to have at least 5 to 10% clay component. Fine here. What isn't included in this recipe is the organic components that aid in adhesion, cohesion, viscosity, and anti-foaming agents. So how can this be improved so as to eliminate the crawling experienced in the initial application?

The first focus should be on the addition of a CMC or another organic binder to increase the adhesion of the glaze to the pot and the cohesion of the raw glaze. In addition to that I like a dispersant that reduces the viscosity of the glaze suspension. The best choice here is an ammonium polymethacrylate such as Darvan C. This is the most powerful dispersant available and doesn't introduce another alkali such as sodium which may interact with the flux package. Finally I like to add a silicone defoamer such as Dow DB1410 or other brands. This reduces the amount of bubbles that often end op on the the surface of pots - especially on the lip. So..... Let's tune up the raw glaze with organic additives.

Creepy Crawler

Here's a glaze worth pursuing.  Or rather perfecting. I love the purple color, the satin finish, the way it breaks over edges. What I don't like is the uneven thickness and its tendency to crawl leaving bare clay spots. 

Now this is the project for the next round of firings. Soooo....... What are the causes of these defects?

Let's start with the crawling defect. This can happen in the raw glaze because of drying cracks, dust on the surface, or a drop of oil or wax resist. It can also happen during the early  stages of firing as the carbonates burn out. Zinc oxide, wollastonite or bone ash can contract excessively at high temperature.  High viscosity and surface tension in the melt can also contribute to crawling. 

For the unevenness, the flow behavior of the raw glaze mix has the biggest impact on a uniform application. But again, the high temperature viscosity of the melt will also either help or hinder leveling. 

So.... Stay tuned...  The creepy crawler will be banished at the next glaze session. 

When is 36 Not 36?

We all like to be our own Chemist. We take pride in ordering raw materials and weighing out each powder, mixing and applying, and we glory in the joy of the results. It's magic.

But do you ask enough questions of your raw materials? When you order feldspar or Spodumene is the name all you need to know about it. Try asking your pottery supply house for a certificate of analysis for these raw materials you are buying. This is not easy to get. You should get some verification as to the chemistry AND the particle size distribution. The chart in the picture here is from one of my favorite texts (The Chemistry And Physics of Clay by Grimshaw) and shows how three very different distributions can all be labeled as 36 mesh. The behavior of these three different powders can be very different in your clay body or glaze. It will have an impact on plasticity and on the amount of liquid required for your application. So.... Start asking, paying attention and thinking about it. 

The Magic of Tea and the Discovery of Progress

I find surprising progress as a discovery after years of investment in time and thought. I like the word discover because it more accurately reflects my experience in the advance of my skills and aesthetic. When I was younger I worked hard to master skills in mimicking the pots I respected. Since then I have made a lot of pottery... and I have looked at a lot of pottery. I now don't mimick other pots. Instead I have a general shape in mind and a standard (unwritten and un-articulated) based on the cumulative aesthetic of "good pots" I've absorbed over the years. This week I received a real compliment that couldn't have been planned or elicited. Fukamora Yosi, an engineering manager from our facility in Japan was visiting and I worked all afternoon on Friday with him. late in the day I offered him some tea and made him a cup of green tea in one of my Yunomis. A curious expression came over his face as he asked: "Japanese?" . He become more curious when I told him it was my own. He was pleased and enjoyed his tea as if it was in his own home. It opened up our relationship as we learned about each others family, home, hobbies and interests. The power of Tea.