The Mudskipper Resources ~ Links for Potters and Clay Enthusiasts

My Research

In the 80's I heard about professional athletes doing "cross-training" to improve their game. People like Lynn Swan, the famous Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver, were taking ballet. Something about this concept stuck in my head as I embarked on my path towards becoming a potter and an artist. I saw how all of the aspects of my life revealed themselves in my work, whether it was a biology class I was taking, rock climbing with my friends, or how I felt about getting up early for a studio class on Monday morning. I began to focus these influences by actively investigating things I was interested in even if it wasn't related to what I thought my current work was about. The dawn of the internet and the Google "image" search have exploded this habit into a deep visual and philosophical resource. I have listed below some of the subjects of past and ongoing research.

Here is an example of a google image search (just click on the link for image instead of news or web ect.) on bubble chambers that scientists used to use to track sub-atomic particles in an accelerator. I felt that these connected me in a visual way to the tiny particles at work inside the kiln during a firing.

In the summer of 2002 I was asked to participate in an exhibition at the Chautauqua Institution called "Artists reflect on 9/11." My first reaction was,"How can my cups and bowls reflect on 9/11?" But, as I had been looking at YiXing teapots and making some small wheel thrown ones of my own, I realized what a perfect platform it was for social commentary. Of course, having Richard Notkin as a visiting artist when I was at SIU should have made that abundantly clear (I can be so thick!). At the same time I was researching Italian Renaissance slipware and tracing it's roots back across the Mediterranean to early Byzantine and Islamic work. This confluence made me think about how my work could incorporate the patterning on the pots of these two cultures coming together as a way of trying to understand the conflict of our own time. The project sparked an interest in the culture of Islam, but more with the people than the religion. Here are some of the things I have been looking at:

Renewables

When I'm not working on my pottery, I spend a lot of time thinking about how to do more with less. I like to go to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore where I found the double pane windows for my greenhouse at $2 a piece. I think energy consumption is a big issue for potters physically and ethically. I wonder what potters might do in an economy were people don't want to buy as many pots. Here are some of the things I found in no particular order:

The World of Ceramics

Clay is wonderful squishy stuff. It has driven great leaps in human development. It is mythologically and perhaps literally the place of life's origin. It is too big a topic to cover, but maybe new and old alike can find some introduction in these links.

History

Potters have a unique relationship with history. In much of the rest of the art world history is something to be shattered in pursuit of the new. In clay that connection to the past is never truly severed because just by making something from clay you are tying it to human cultural history and whatever you say after that is related. I think fired clay's permanence influences this connection by enabling us to physically touch history. You won't understand your own work in clay until you see these connections to the past.

Organizations

Potters are great at getting together. Here are a few of the groups I know:

• National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts
• Functional Ceramics Workshop
• Clayart Internet Forum
• American Ceramics Society
• Artaxis artist network
• Access Ceramics.org
• AKAR Gallery has great pots for sale
• absolutearts.com has free artist listings

Media

Suppliers

Potters in My Kitchen

I've always wanted to know about the pots that other potters have in their kitchen. Here's a list , again in no particular order, of some of the potters in my kitchen. Followed by my kitchen wish list. Some of the links are to the potter's own web pages, some are linked to pages with the most images of their work, and the rest are linked to a Google search for the potters who don't have much online now but may in the future.

If you aren't on the kitchen list and you think you should be send me some images and a price list and I'll let you know.

Kitchen Wish List

This might be a good time for me to mention my contact information just in case anyone wants to send me a pot. You know, its never too early to start thinking about Christmas.

The Care of Pots

I have very high standards for my pottery, and I try to make work that enhances the lives of the people who use it. It is through use that functional pottery becomes a collaborative art where user and maker can combine to create the meaning. To say that a piece is functional is not the same as saying that it is utilitarian. The only purpose for something utilitarian is to do its job with the utmost ease of use and efficiency. A plastic pitcher is much more utilitarian than a ceramic one, but it lacks the sense of touch and connection that is possible in the handmade clay pot. It is important to understand when you acquire handmade pots that they may need more special care than a plastic jug or your typical restaurant china.

The first thing that needs to be established concerns what condition you would like your pot to be in ten years down the road. Personally, I love going to an auction or a museum and seeing a pot that shows the decades or even centuries of daily use etched into the surface of the glaze in tiny scratches or maybe a small chip. It shows a history of connection between the object and the people who owned it, or what I like to call a patina of use. Many others thrill at the site of a pot that looks as though it just came out of the kiln yesterday.

My work is durable and strong but there are a few things you should keep in mind if you want your pots to look forever new. The high gloss glaze I use can be scratched by abrasive surfaces like the raw clay bottom of another pot, or by rubbing against one another in the cabinet or a dishwasher. I suggest using a square of fabric between plates and bowls when they are stacked. I have also noticed a slightly matt surface developing on some of the glazes when they have been washed in the dishwasher every day for many months. It poses no problems with the pots, and it can be avoided by washing them by hand in mild soap.

Earthenware clays by their nature contain high amounts of iron and can therefore get extremely hot in a microwave oven. The obvious solution to this problem is to not microwave the pots at all, but have found that if I use a 50% power setting for a longer time, the food gets hot without overheating the pot. I always use a hot pad just in case. My cups and teapots can be filled directly with boiling water and all of the pots can be used in the oven. Some caution and common sense should result in many lifetimes of enjoyment and use.

Working the Web

I'm new to building websites, in fact this is my first one, and I know many of you are thinking no wonder he tried to cram so much stuff on here. Many? Who am I kidding? No one will even get this far. (Except for my neighbor Jaci, who is doing some proof reading for me, Thanks Jaci! and maybe my mother, Hi Mom!) People go to potter's sites to see the pictures, think about buying something, and maybe get to know a little about the person who made the work. What's the point then? I love to share what I know and maybe, when I get lucky, do a little teaching. My hope is that someday one of my students or someone newer to ceramics might come along and get something out of how I do things so that they can apply it to how they do things.

When it comes to site building I used my faculty credentials to pick up a copy of Adobe CS4 Web Premium with Dreamweaver. I went straight to their website because it was the same price as the discounters and seemed much more secure. I then used my month long free trial of lynda.com to learn CSS, HTML and Dreamweaver. This worked for me because I'm somewhat computer savvy and technically interested. I would not recommend Dreamweaver for anyone who does not want to at least try to read CSS and HTML. If you poke around Adobe TV you can get a good idea what its like to use the program. I am a Mac guy and I have used iWeb to build a prototype page and found it really great for anyone who likes that OS, but it does have some compatibility issues with old browsers. I think people with old browsers are always going to have issues so I don't worry about it too much. (If you have an old browser and my page looks like dookie, let me know!) If I was more technically challenged and still wanted to do my own web page I would look into going with your web hosting company's online page building tools. Most of them look pretty simple, and there's no software to buy. Cnet.com has a good review site for hosting companies and you can use it to quickly compare sites. Here are some of the sites I used when I was learning to build this site:

• About.com
• Web Design Library
• Max Design's CSS page layouts
• lynda.com (all kinds of software tutorials)
• World Wide Web Consortium
• CSS Play

My hosting site is InMotion Hosting I liked it because it fit my plans for the site and they have a great reputation for customer service. If you have any questions about web stuff don't hesitate to get in touch.