Earlham College / Explore A College

Ceramics: Explorations in Raku and Pit-Firing

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We dug clayWe learned to prepare materials and mix clayWe worked with pinch form techniqueWe coiled clayWe used various slab techniquesWe struggled with the potter’s wheelWe explored texture and the use of colored slipsWe glazed pieces and decorated with glazesWe raku-fired workWe pit-fired work in a brick pit

in a primitive pitin a stove pipe kilnin a trash can kiln

We were inspired by work seen at the Chicago Art InstituteWe worked hardWe laughed hardWe learned about clay and about ourselves

The Studio

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Meredith and Joey learn to mix clay by hand and, above,others work on glazing later in the week.

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Meredith McGriff works on a coil-built form, while Alison McDaniel and Suzanne Polivy learn to work on the potter’s wheel.

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Joey Battistelli and Suzanne Polivy are using brushto create glaze patterns on pieces. Robin Taylor-Fabeis beginning the process of inventing a leaf patterndesign on her vase form.

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Jennifer Staub and Sadie Sullivan-Davis work with glaze.

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Emily Lau, Suzanne Polivy, Joey Battistelli, and JenniferStaub work on glazing for the final days of firing.

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The Inferno

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Raku pottery is a particular type of low-fired ware produced by means of a very special firing process.

The technique, as we use it today, is a variation on a method of producing tea bowls that evolved in the late

16th C. in Kyoto, Japan, in the workshop of the Raku family of potters.

In raku style firing, using tongs, the glazed ceramic piece is placed into a kiln which is already at red heat.

(In our workshop we used an old electric kiln that had been re-fitted with a propane burner.) This photo shows

the interior of the kiln just after four pieces had been set in the kiln.

With the pieces in the kiln, the lid is closed -- in our case it was a lid raised and lowered with an overhead pulley

system. With the lid closed, the gas burner is turned up. As the temperature begins to rise in the closed kiln, the

glazes begin to melt and, at a temperature of about 1700 or 1800 degrees fahrenheit, become completely molten.

When the glazes reach that point of being totally melted they become shiny and we know that the glaze fusion is

complete. At that point, we use tongs and rapidly remove the piece from the kiln.

There are a number of variations in possible process, but, most commonly, the piece is dropped quickly into a

metal container filled with a combustible material, such as sawdust. A lid is place on the container, to create an

enclosed atmospheric space filled with smoke -- carbon and carbon monoxide.

The piece can be left in the enclosed smoky environment for several minutes or much longer, depending on

different effects being sought. When removed from the metal container, the piece is often doused immediately

in a container of water, to “freeze” the effects on the surface of the glaze, by stopping chemical reactions which

occur most strongly at high temperatures in the burning combustible materials.

When cool enough to handle, the surface of the piece may be “scoured” with wet sand, to remove carbon from

the surface and reveal the remarkable range of color and surface variations that result from the raku process.

The raku process is very spontaneous and “accidental,” with surface of the fired piece reflecting directly

the results of the firing process, itself. It is this quality of directness and the relative lack of control by the

artist which lend great freshness and excitement to raku pottery.

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of the process of raku firing, beginning with the placing of

pieces in the red hot kiln. On following pages are images

of other steps in the process -- removing the pieces from

the kiln when the glaze has melted, placing the pieces in

the container of combustible material to cause the variations

in surface and color, quenching the pieces in water to stop

the reduction reaction and “freeze” the surface qualities, and

cleaning the pieces with wet sand at the end of the process.

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Connections across time

We explored several different possibilities in the universe of pit-firing, or primitive firing, as it is called sometimes. These includedsawdust firing in a loose brick structure -- a brick square with a piece of sheet metal roofing as a lid, a style of kiln used for thousandsof years around the world and still used in many areas. In our adaptation of this timeless technique we buried the pieces in sawdust,ignited the top of the layer of sawdust, then covered the brick “pit,” to extinquish the flame and cause the sawdust to smolder, burningdown slowly over a period of many hours. This smoldering sawdust fires the pottery to a very low temperature, but it is high enoughto transform the clay into a semi-dense, semi-hard state. The smoke of the process is absorbed by the surface of the porous clay,creating unpredictable patterns that often are very beautiful and subtle.

We also created a “kiln” replicating an even earlier way of firing pottery, literally digging a hole in the ground, piling pieces of claywork in the pit, and building a bonfire around the mound of pieces. On the bonfire of sticks, we piled up dried manure and bits ofnatural charcoal. Once that mound of material had begun to burn, we covered the entire mound with an inch or so of dirt, to makethe fire begin to smolder slowly, and to attempt to create the black, carbon saturated surface of black fired Native American pottery.

Finally, we constructed two “kilns” that we came to call “Urban Pit Fire Kilns.” One of these was made from a piece of blackwoodstove pipe and one was made from a metal trash can. In both cases, an electric drill was used to drill holes in the sides ofthe pipe and the trash can, to allow air to enter them to burn the sawdust packed in them around the pieces being fired.

In all of these variations on “pit firing,” we were creating works in clay without the employment of any advanced technologies,and were, in fact, replicating some of the means by which the human creative spirit has found expression across time, across manythousands of years, across widely diverse cultures. Some of the earliest human artifacts are pots and figures created in clayand fired by “pit firing.” In duplicating these ways of working, we joined hands with those artists and potters of many thousandsof years ago, affirming the continuity of the creativity of the human spirit and forming our own sense of personal connections acrosstime.

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A thick layer of sawdust is built up in the bottom of the “pit” and then clay pieces are placed in that sawdust (or other combustible material). Sometimes materials such as straw or pine boughs may be placed in the pit in contact with the clay pieces -- these materials sometimes leave distinctive markings on the surfaces of the pieces during the firing process (see Sadie’s piece in the gallery of images of finished work). More sawdust and additional pieces are added to fill the pit. In the photo at the right, the two orangish colored pieces are pieces made from the earthenware clay that we dug in the woods on back campus.

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On the left, Naomi, our teaching assistant, and Suzanne and Joey, finish filling the pit with pieces and with sawdust. On the right, top, newspaper is wadded up loosely on top of the filled pit and lightly covered with sawdust. The newspaper is lit, igniting it and the dusting of sawdust on top of the newspaper.

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After the sawdust is clearly burning, the lid is placed on the brick pit. This causes the flame to be extinquished and the sawdust then begins to smolder slowly -- depending on many factors, the sawdust may smolder for six to twenty-four hours. After the sawdust has smoldered, burned down completely, and then cooled, the pit will be ready to be opened.

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After the sawdust has smoldered and burned down, which may take overnight or longer, the lid can be removed to open the “pit” and reveal what has happened during the firing. When it is opened it looks as it does in the image above, with all pieces resting together at the bottom of the pit, covered with the ash that remains from the burned sawdust. At the right is a fine piece being removed from the pit -- other individual pieces are shown in the gallery section.

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We found that if you don’t have a supply of bricks to build a structure for sawdust firing, or a place to dig a hole or build a bonfire, there are other ways that you can work. This experimental “kiln” was made from a piece of black metal stove pipe, purchased from Lowe’s for $4.57. Holes were drilled to allow air in at the lower part of the pipe to burn the sawdust placed in the pipe and, likewise, holes were drilled near the top to function as an exit “flue.” For a lid we used an old piece of broken kiln shelf, but a slab of dry clay would have worked just as well, as would a metal pie pan, or, perhaps, even aluminum foil. (The function of the lid mainly is to function as a damper, reducing the draft that pulls air in the bottom of the pipe, so that the sawdust fuel will smolder slowly, rather than burning cleanly and quickly.)

The stove pipe kiln was partially filled withsawdust, then pieces were placed in it andmore sawdust was added, burying the pieces,just as we did in the brick pit-kiln.

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After the pieces were buried in sawdust, crumpled newspaper was lit on top of the sawdust, above right. When the sawdust had begun to burn, a piece of broken kiln shelf was placed on top of the pipe as a lid. Notice that a small section of the pipe was left uncovered (the holes drilled near the top of pipe needed to be larger, to allow more of a draft).

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After many hours of smoldering, the sawdust had burned down to the bottom of the“pipe pit.” Meredith McGriff uses raku tongsto lift the finished pieces from the kiln, whichis still smoking some. On the right, two ofMeredith’s pieces from this firing and, in theupper right, a photo of one of the pieces fromthis first and obviously very successfulfiring.

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This may look like a trash can but, actually, it isanother experimental pit kiln, “Urban Pit Kiln #1”...

As with the “pit kiln” made out of a piece of stovepipe, we used an electric drill to drill several seriesof holes around the galvanized steel trash can. Thelight bands are strips of masking tape used to markthe spacing for the drilled holes, with a number atthe bottom to let air into the can where the sawdustis located and a band at the top to act as a flue andlet smoke out, drawing oxygen in the bottom, etc.

In use, the process was the same as that used inthe brick pit kiln -- a layer of sawdust was placed inthe bottom, then clay pieces were placed in it andburied in more sawdust. Newspaper was placed ontop of the sawdust and lit. When the sawdust beganto burn, the lid was placed on the can, to cause thesawdust to smolder slowly, rather than burn with aclean flame. We found that it worked best when thelid was set on the can very loosely, so that somesmoke could escape from the top of the can, pullingmore air in the bottom holes (indicating simply thatwe need to drill two or three times as many holes inthe band at the top of the can before using it nexttime).

The sawdust burned down, smoldered down, veryslowly. As can be seen on the final page of thissection and in the gallery section, the trash canpit kiln functioned extremely well, as did the stove pipe kiln. Both experiments produce excellentresults. One other note-- as seen in the photo of the can with the lid on during the “firing,” the trashcan pit kiln produced almost no visible smoke. The stove pipe kiln, likewise, produced almost novisible smoke, so both could, indeed, be used in one’s backyard, without disturbing the neighbors.

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Again, notice above that the lid has been placed on the can loosely. Notice also the very slight amount of smoke being produced during the firing. The firing included the two fine pieces on the right by Alison (top) and by Joey.

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This definitely is not your basic recommended back yard activity...

True primitive pit firing

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Our final experiment with pit firing was that of literally digging a pit in which to fire pieces, replicating the firing process used for many thousands of years to produce fired clay objects. We dug a pit and placed some charcoal in the bottom of it. We then placed pieces we wished to fire in the pit, on top of the charcoal, and covered them with some old pieces of bisque ware, including broken pieces. This covering shell of old pieces served to protect the work we were firing from direct contact with the fire, which might have broken them by heating them too rapidly and unevenly.

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We started with a small fire of a few sticks and twigs. Above, Meredith and Robin slowly add fuel to the fire. As more wood was added, the fire grew in intensity quite rapidly, becoming a strong bon-

fire. We don’t recommend this as a backyard exercise...

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With the bonfire burning strongly, we covered the mound with dry cow manure, as is done in primitive pit firing in many cultures. In theory, at least, the manure burns very slowly, forming large glowing coals, which hold the heat and saturate the vessels in the mound under the coals. In the process evolved by Maria Martinez, whose work we saw in a video, the mound of burning manure is buried under a hill of shredded horse manure and ash, all of which smolders, with the smoke contained by the ash and being absorbed by the clay pieces, turning them black.

In our case, we heaped a mound of charcoal (natural charcoal, a by-product of firing our high temperature wood fired kiln at Earlham) over the burning cow manure. We then covered the entire mound with dirt, to cause a very slow smoldering of the manure and charcoal. The amazing amount of heat that built up very rapidly can be seen glowing inside the mound in the lower photo, before we covered it with earth to contain the heat.

Cultural appropriation is an important element of our work and our culture today, but note that the neighbors may not share your creative enthusiasm for this process.

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The fire pit smoldered overnight. The next day the pieces were still too hot to touch when we began to uncover them, shown in the photo at the right. To our surprise, the smoldering fuel in the the pit generated enough heat that we actually fired the earth covering the pit to a high enough temperature so that even it was transformed by the heat (notice the orange color of some of the clods of earth, indicating that they have been fired to the point of transformation).

In the image above, of the pieces after the pit was emptied, the light colored pieces were ones made of stoneware clay. The orangish pieces were ones that had been made with the earthenware clay that we dug on campus. Some of them, such as the “leaf- shaped” dish of Joey’s on the left, were placed in the pit without having been fired initially in the electric kiln -- again, the orangish color indicates that the piece was fired to the point that the clay became hard and dense, transformed by the heat. In this instance, being made with earthenware clay dug on campus, fired in a pit kiln, the piece was made inthe same way as the Japanese Jomon shard thatMike had shown at the beginning of our class, a shard that may have been 5,000 years old, perhaps older! We, like the Jomon people, had used local materials to create a fired ceramic object, artifact, if you will, and had done so without the use of any technology.

A minor disappointment was the fact that we failed to recreate the black pottery of Maria Martinez and the native American potters of the Southwest, but Mike says, “If anybody wants to come back next year, we’ll use what we learned this year to duplicate or reinvent her process and achieve black-fired pottery.”

Digging and Processing Clay...

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On the second day of our exploration, we walkedinto the beautiful woods of Earlham’s back campus tolook for clay to dig. It was there, six or eight inchesbeneath the surface, as it is in most areas. In thephoto at the left, the clay is easy to recognize -- it isthe slightly orangish material that sticks together,underneath the crumbly brownish humus materialof the surface soil.

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This page shows some of the stages in the processing of

clays dug locally, preparing the clay for use in making things.

The clay, as dug from the earth, is broken into small pieces to

dry out completely. It is then mixed with a quantity of water, to

produce a very thin slurry of clay and water, called a slip. This

thin slurry is passed through a screen to catch and remove bits

of rock, roots, and similar materials. The clean slurry is poured

into a large container and allowed to sit overnight, during which

time the clay settles to the bottom and clear water comes to the

top. The clear water is siphoned off with a tube or hose, leaving

the thick clay sediment in the bottom of the container. That

thick slurry is then poured onto cloth in a wire mesh-bottomed

wooden frame, where it is able to dry out to become stiff enough

to be usable, plastic (shapable) clay.

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A Portfolio of our Work

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Pit-fired pinched form. This piece was made of local earthenware clay dug in the woods of Earlham’s back campus. The piece was made before the clay had been processed or refined -- it was used as it was dug directly from the earth. Fired in a pit-kiln, made of local earthenware, made by pinching, it represents an exact replication of the processes by which peoples across the world have made pottery, icons, and other artifacts for 10,000 years. We are connected by a direct thread of human creativity and expression across thousands of years. (Joey Battistelli)

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Raku-fired,

Simple bowl form made by pinching technique. The piece was made from a stoneware clay body and burnished before pit-firing, which accounts for the smooth and slightly glossy surface of the clay. (Emily Lau)

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Set of three small pinched bowls, made of stoneware clay body and burnished on the outside, as can be seen in the one on the left, which is upside down. These three pieces were fired in a pit kiln without having been bisque fired first; they were placed in the pit kiln as greenware. A further note of interest is the glossy spot on the interior of the bowl at the top -- an area of iridescence which may have resulted from the burning of a piece of resinous wood in contact with the surface of the piece. (Meredith McGriff)

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Pit-fired form (shown is the underside of the form). Burnished before firing, as evidenced by the soft surfacegloss, the piece was fired in the brick pit kiln. In addition to sawdust and wood chips used as the primary fuel,this piece was set in the pit against a dried branch of a yew shrub. This yew branch left a distinct “shadowing”on the surface of the fired piece. (Sadie Sullivan-Davis)

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Small pinch form, raku-fired. The surface has been carefully decoratedwith a floral motif, applied with brush and glazes. The matte black surface ofthe piece was not glazed; the matte black is the surface of the clay colored withsmoke in the reduction phase of the firing. The interior of the piece was glazedwith a raku glaze rich in copper oxide -- in the reduction phase, this was reducedto leave metallic copper on the surface of the glaze. (Robin Taylor-Fabe)

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Pit-fired pinch bowl form, fired in the brick pit kiln. The outside of the piece had been burnished, as can be seen in the top photo, where we can see the soft sheen of the surface with light reflecting off from it. (Robin Taylor-Fabe)

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Pit-fired platter made with a slab of clay. The clay carries remarkable detail of plants that had been pressed into the clay. Also present is the impression of a hand print, which creates some very rich suggestions visually

and conceptually. (Suzanne Polivy).

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Detail of the slab platter shown in the preceding photo. Again, the clarity ofthe textures picked up by the clay is very striking, as is the contrast of thoseimpressions with that of the hand. (Suzanne Polivy)

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This is another pit-fired piece made from a slab of clay, with plant materials pressed carefully into the clay to create pattern, in this case a balanced and basically symmetrical design. The variations in the fired surface of this piece are rich and are of special interest, because this piece was fired without having been bisque-fired first and the firing was done in our “Urban Pit Kiln #1” -- the metal trash can with holes drilled in the sides. The trash can worked very well, indeed! (Joey Battistelli)

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Pit-fired model of a skate board constructed from slabs of clay. The variations in the smoked surface of the clay are subtle and the spot of iridescense on the top of the wheel on the left is very striking. There is a gentle humor to the piece that is very appealing.

Clay artifacts from other, earlier cultures, sometimes including ceramic toys or ceramic representations of toys, often give us insight into those cultures from other times and other places. Will this piece represent our culture to some future culture and people? Will some future archeologist see it as evidence of the ExploreACollege tribe of the early Earlham people? (Emily Lau)

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Pit-fired bowl form made with a draped slab of clay. The bottom of the inside of the form has been textured by pressing grains of rice in the soft clay slab, creating visual and textural contrast and interest. The use of rice grains to create the pattern of texture also calls to mind ceramic vessels from some prehistoric cultures that we know were engaged in agriculture because the impressions of seed grains have been found in the surface of ceramic vessels created by the cultures. (Sadie Sullivan-Davis)

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Pit-fired pinched form with heavy texturing on the inside created by pressing grains of dry rice into the soft, wet clay when the piece was made. The interior surface texture creates a strong and interesting contrast between the inside and outside of the piece, a contrast which is both visual and tactile. The piece may give a whole new meaning to the term, “rice bowl.” (Sadie Sullivan- Davis)

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Pit-fired slab tile with pattern of parallel diagonal elements created with impressed texture of plant leaves. By the type of lucky coincidence that sometimes happens with pit-firing or raku, an area or carbon black coincides almost perfectly with the shape of the large “leaf” at the center of the composition. This piece, which is fired very successfully, was fired in sawdust in our “urban pit kiln #1” -- the metal trash can with holes drilled in it. (Alison McDaniel)

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Simple cylindrical piece formed from a slab of clay. The soft clay was impressed with the texture of a fired clay stamp made with an ear of corn. Here the texture nearly loses its identity and functions as an abstract design motif that helps to accent the vertical form of the piece. The pit-firing also imparted a vertical element that accents the form of the piece. The soft quality of the edge of the smoke-created shape meandering up the form also serves to emphasize the soft quality of the edges of the form, itself, which was made, of course, with a soft slab of clay. (Alison McDaniel)

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Raku-fired, wheel thrown piece. The diagonal line is interesting -- in post-firing reduction, the piece was placed at an angle in the sawdust. The bottom portion was buried in sawdust, while the portion above the diagonal line was not in sawdust and the color variations there are the result of “fuming” from smoke and flame, rather than from direct contact with burning sawdust. (Alison McDaniel)

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Raku-fired form built with coils of clay, resulting in a form that feels very organic and full of life and movement. It was glazed with a raku glaze very high in copper content and the glaze was subjected to very heavy reduction. (Emily Lau)

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Raku slab dish, decorated with impressions of objects pressed in the wet, soft clay during the making process and by overlapping, poured glazes. (Jennifer Staub)

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Raku-fired dish form made with a draped slab of clay. The radial pattern on the piece was created by painting different glazes on the piece with a brush. The result is a very rich surface, as can be seen more clearly on the next page in a detail photo, and the overlapping elements create a strong sense of depth and space on the surface of the piece. (Joey Battistelli)

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This photo is a detail of the raku-fired slab piece on the previous page and shows the rich, thick bubbly surface of the glaze achieved with the combining of different glazes and overlapping them to create a sense of thickness and depth. (Joey Battistelli)

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Raku-fired piece made with coils. Another organic form with a sense of movement in the undulating line of the rim. Glazed with a high copper content glaze that was very heavily reduced after firing, creating this metallic iridescent surface. (Jennifer Staub)

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Raku-fired vessel. An organic form built with coils of clay and glazed with several layers of different glazes that overlap, creating rich and unexpected variations in colors and surface. (Jennifer Staub)

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Four raku tiles. The two on the left are decorated with poured glazes and the one at thetop includes some work with green colored slip in its lower right corner (an “X” shapelinear motif). The two on the right employ plant forms pressed into the soft clay to createdecorative shapes on the surface, which are then accented by the glaze and firing.(Alison McDaniel)

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Raku-fired, coil built vase form, decorated with a careful design ofleaves painted on the surface of the piece with glazes, painted againsta background of unglazed clay. The photo at the top left shows thisvase form and several other smaller pieces decorated with a similartechnique, all from our final day exhibit in Leeds Gallery.(Robin Taylor-Fabe)

Chicago . . .

Mike said that it was a long drive, but we didn’t know it was this far!

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Gathering on the steps of the Art Institute, we are (l. to right):

Mike Thiedeman, Naomi Dalglish, Joey Battistelli, Robin Taylor-Fabe, Jennifer Staub, Alison McDaniel, Sadie Sullivan-Davis, Emily Lau, Suzanne Polivy, and Meredith McGriff

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Above we share the experience of discovering a beautiful porcelain vase in the gallery of Chinese ceramics. As will be seen in the photos on the pages that follow, we spent much time looking at works in the Asian galleries, the galleries of ancient arts of the Americas, and the gallery featuring ceramics from Native American tradition. We also spent much time in the painting galleries on the second floor, discovering and soaking up masterpieces, such as the painting of VanGogh’s bedroom in Arles, the amazing pointillist masterpiece by Seurat, and other great works of art that most of us had seen before only in reproductions in books.

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Street music in front of the Art Institute and dinner at a Thai restaurant on Michigan Avenue put a cap on a very long and memorable day.

When you have time to muse and ponder. . .

a collection of bits and pieces of writings

about art

about artists

about creative process

and other mysteriesClick here to go to the next page

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Signs from the studio door: Ad Reinhardt

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The skills you have gathered will one day come in handy.Lucky Numbers 17, 20, 22, 39, 48, 50

You emerge victorious from the maze you’ve been traveling in.Lucky Numbers 13, 24, 26, 36, 37, 54

“Oh, and one other thing. . . Don’t think. It’ll only hurt the team.”

Crash Davis/KevinCostner, movie, Bull Durham

Use your favorite pot today, for it may be broken tomorrow.

- Jewish proverb of opportunity

Fortune cookies and other advice:

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To all struggling with it, the wheel will at first seem to be clearly an invention of thedevil.

But once you know how to throw, you have wings.

Marguerite Wildenhain

The first time I found the potter’s wheel, I felt it all over, like a wild duck in water.

George OhrThe World’s Greatest PotterThe Mad Potter of Biloxi

Reflections on the potter’s wheel

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“It’s not wise to violate rules

until you know how to observe them.”

T. S. Eliot

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A pottery instructor divided his class. Some students were graded on quantity: 50 pounds of potswould get a higher grade than 40 pounds. Some were graded on quality: one excellent pot, even if astudent made nothing else, would get an A. The outcome: The quantity people went right to work,produced a lot, learned as they went, and made the best pots. The quality people thought deepthoughts about perfection and didn’t work enough to learn much, so their pots weren’t very good.

“Moral: Do your work.”“Moral: Do your work.”“Moral: Do your work.”“Moral: Do your work.”“Moral: Do your work.”

Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking.

David Bayles and Ted Orland

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Penland SchooolCeramics - first session, third dayPaulus BerensohnParticipation

In the Sunday New York Time of November 10th there was a long and interest-ing article about the artist Andy Warhol by John Lennord; Lennord ends hispiece on Warhol with the following:

“And it may be that certain forms of play are an escape hatch for us from tech-nology; a therapeutic hope..... a little more methexis mixed into our mimesis.That is, participation as well as imitation. Not just Warhol’s participation ofcourse, but ours. If all of us had movie cameras and tape recorders and silkscreens; if we designed our own furniture, shaped our own glassware, wove ourown tapestries, set our own type, we might KNIT UP THE RAVELLED SLEEVE ofself. The rush of esthetic theories upon us, while we lie numb under the ma-chines, has divided us from our own experience, has stylized our response. Wedo not respond, but attitudinize. Craftsmanship, the self-shaping of privacy, thehealth giving labor, could be our way out.”

I think that is a very important even prophetic statement - for it suggests thatwe may come into a new wholeness by making, by participating in the objects inour lives. He speaks of the automatic response we have because of the rush ofscientific and artistic progress, but that by taking a part in the process of makingit self we may have the opportunity to self-shape our own privacy, our own newI in our own time and rhythm.

If this is the task - then it is not simply a matter of just making - Lennord sug-gests to me that as I make I can also remake - that as I work on my pots I workon my person as well and it just may be that the person I am will shape moreand more the forms my work will take. Our own experience as resource! Itmakes it all somehow especially alive.

assignmenta clay autobiography

(From Paul Dieterly, an Earlham student, Spring, 1991. Paul found it in an old copyof Nelson’s book, Ceramics: A Potter’s Handbook, which he had gotten from hismother. Did she write it? Paulus Berensohn? Someone else?)

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Lee Friedlander: The Dreyfus Fund PortraitsLee Friedlander: The Dreyfus Fund PortraitsLee Friedlander: The Dreyfus Fund PortraitsLee Friedlander: The Dreyfus Fund PortraitsLee Friedlander: The Dreyfus Fund Portraits

I think that I am becoming a dinosaur, at least technologically speaking. I have justbuilt a new darkroom, which to me is State of the Art. But probably it is State of theArt 1952, or ’56, like that. It is totally analog and manual. I am one of those peoplewho still makes something with his hands, and at the end of the day I see what it is.Although my work goes through a technical process and is not direct like ashoemaker’s, I still end up with a tangible piece of work. I write these things becausethey bear on these photographs of the people who work at the Dreyfus Corporation [amutual fund, financial services company], pictures taken during 1992-93, at the re-quest of Howard Stein, the CEO.

I have always liked watching people concentrate on their work, and I have likedphotographing the process. As I began to pursue these photographs, I realized thatalthough there are thousands of people working at Dreyfus — and they were all work-ing very hard it seemed to me — I found no real evidence of what they did. In otherwords, they didn’t particularly make anything. And the higher up the echelon of thecompany I went, there was even less evidence, visually, of anything being made. Thetools became sparser and the residue (paper) was better hidden. At one point I didmention this to Howard, and he said, “Well, we make money.” And of course, I sus-pect that is true, but that’s only on paper, too. It’s not like they’re coining silver orgold.

The photographs I’ve taken show as much as I can what the people and the placelook like. From my position, the dinosaur, there is no way to know what anybodydoes on the computer. The same machine is used in a travel agency, a science lab, anelembentary shool, and here, at Dreyfus.

I do enjoy seeing that not all is machine and the results of information; there arealso human gestures, reminders of loved ones at home, daily needs, andparaphenalia.

Lee Friedlander, November 21, 1994

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Karen Karnes—

“We have been living through a time of fantastic creative exploration in whichclay has been stretched to encompass so many ideas. Clay is a totally expressive ma-terial, making permanent the most immediate, the most profound or the most trivialimage of the maker. — 1980

“... But there is another path before us, and that is to remember why we choseclay in the first place. We chose clay because it was a real and meaningful life deci-sion. The challenge today, therefore, is for the individual potter to work morethoughtfully and sensitively, so that what is made speaks even more deeply of theheart and hand that made it.” — 1986

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New York Artist. . . what does that mean? Ihave been hearing that for years. I am therest of the country and I want to know:what does that mean, beyond the fact thatyou, as a New york artist, probablyweren’t born there, but left your familyand friends to go there, to “make it.” Youare willing to work as a waitress or acarpenter to support your art habit. Sowhat? There are so many of you. What areyour credentials?You have degrees and you have ambitionand you are in some collections, andyou’ve been in shows at some of the“better’” galleries. You make your art aftermidnight, eat out a lot, and live in a spoton the earth thought of as mecca: NewYork City. The city with life spilling outinto the streets. So what. I tell you, youcan’t hide the facts. Art is a fact. Every, orany, mark you make tells the story. Youare either good at it or you’re not. Maybeyou are somewhere in betweeen. But it isgut emotion and formal restraint that youmust balance. However you come aroundto it, you must be capable of deep feelingliving intensely on the surface, jaggededges smoothed over, all of it, but from thecenter.Art has always been a basic human need;after food, clothing, and shelter, art is.Artists throughout history have courtedpain to transcend pathos. Some of thatpain has been beyond their control, the rest

of it a deliberate agony of rage andpassion. It is not obvious. It sears the fleshlike a torrid dream. Art is a life ofopposing forces, highs and lows, good andevil, alternating cycles, perpendicularmood shifts. The soul has to have it forcontentment. But within it also exists ‘“acapacity for self-examination,” said SoetsuYanagi, “including an almost total lack ofsatisfaction for one’s own work.”Art comes from people who are aware ofthe complexities of life — the awfulness, thedespair — and yet have chosen to live.Human beings have the spirit of self-sacrifice, the ability to love and be loved.Their intelligence offers them insight andcuriosity. Their awareness makes themeager to learn.Artists are the spirit, the light, the people“of integral awareness,” wrote MarshallMcLuhan.

- Judy Moonelis

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“. . . in what appeared to observers as loneliness and isolation he was able to cometo terms with himself. He was visited by depression, and frequently for months at atime, yet he was intensely productive and creative. He had by now developed confi-dence in his work, and had the essential facility for self-criticism. He allowed pottery,or more particularly the potter’s wheel, to circumscribe his efforts and he workedaccording to certain strict criteria, felt both intuitively and intellectually. He knewthat only the artist could decide for himself or herself what needs to be done, thatoutside influences were irrelevant. Ultimately he had to be able to face the criticismoffered back to him by his own work, and he knew that his work had only one critic— himself. He had gained what David Queensberry later described, quoting fromHermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf, as ‘ that calm objectivity, that certainty of thoughtand knowledge, as only really intellectual men have.’

“Hans himself at the time would hardly have seen it that way. For him his positionseemed to be an accumulation of contradictions, an ironic juxtaposition of the oppor-tunity to work and not to work, as expressed by Goethe’s dictum that ‘reflection, ifpersisted in, results in so many opportunities for alternative action that it results ininertia’ — the counterpoint of longed-for freedom with the creative paralysis thatfreedom brings. . . .”

exerpted from Hans Coper , by Tony Birks

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“Leave to your opinions their own quiet undisturbed development, which, like allprogress, must come from deep within, and cannot be pressed or hurried by any-thing. Everything is gestation and then bringing forth, to let each impression andeach germ of a feeling come to completion wholly in itself, in the dark, in the inex-pressible, the unconscious, beyond the reach of one’s own intelligence, and awaitwith deep humility and patience the birth hour of a new clarity: that alone is livingthe artist’s life: in the understanding as in creating. “There is here no measuring with time, no year matters, and ten years are nothing.Being an artist means, not reckoning and counting but ripening like the tree whichdoes not force its sap and stands confident in the storms of spring without the fearthat after them may come no summer. It does come. But it comes only to the pa-tient, who are there as though eternity lay before them so unconcernedly still andwide. I learn it daily, learn it with pain to which I am grateful: patience is every-thing.”

Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Works of art are of an infinite solitude and no means ofapproach is so useless as criticism. Only love can touch and hold

them and be fair to them.- Rilke

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“One of the basic rules for success in any field is commitment and focus of pur-pose. Not a half-hearted attempt but an honest, heartfelt, compelling commitment. Afeeling from your gut that is so overpowering that it delegates all else to a secondarypriority. But this commitment is not a singular, narrowly focused goal. It is born fromphilosophy, executed by need, and realized through search. A search that will havemany stages before the fruits of truth are forthcoming. There is no time limit or magicformula that is applied equally to all. it may take years or a lifetime if you are lucky. . ..

. . .“What does it really mean to be an artist? I use the term ‘art’ to describe the pro-

cess of creative thinking and the subsequent translating of emotions, feelings, andideas into tangible objects that in some manner transcend themselves and/or theirfunction. I do not pit art against craft. This old dead horse has been flailed enough.Let’s just get on with it. I try not to separate the two.

. . .“Didn’t you ever sit at your wheel and wonder, ‘Who is forming whom?’ If you

haven’t, you aren’t there yet, and I venture to say, neither is your work. What a joyousand enlightening experience to be finished or partly finished with a work and ask ofyourself, ‘How did I do that?’ or better still, ‘Who did that?’ Hell, sometimes I even feellike the person I always wanted to be.

. . .“Don’t make the mistake of thinking the degree, MFA or four years of college is

going to make you a potter or guarantee you a job or make you a living. Time spent inschool is good and can be of great help but guarantees you nothing.

“Art is not about that. Whether you like it or not, art and commerce have nothingin common. Art can become commerce but its inception, inspiration, its need to existcannot be commerce.

“‘Hey Don, it’s just a bowl.’ If you think that, then that’s all it is and you deservelittle financial reward, if any. It’s not just a pot. It’s your very soul on display for all tosee. It’s a mirror for artists to better understand themselves. Through our art we seeourselves more clearly. Sign and symbols, marks and gestures, forms and alteredshapes all are important.

“If your mind is working at all, you can never make the same pot twice. Thechanges may be slight but they are there. How many teapots can yo make and still beinspired? The number is infinite if you let it be.

“You cannot re-create the original vision. Take from it, experience it, drink it in,let it build you, let it lie and continue. . . .”

Don Reitz, excerpted from “It Pays to Advertise But You Must Have a Product”, StudioPotter, Vol. 18, No. 1

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I am often asked, do I consider myself an artist, or a craftsman? To me an artist is someone quite special. Youare not an artist simply because you paint or sculpt or make pots that cannot be used. An artist is a poet in his orher own medium. And when an artist produces a good piece, that work has mystery, an unsaid quality; it con-tains a spirit and is alive. There’s also a nebulolus feeling in the piece that cannot be pinpointed in words. Thatto me is good work!

When working with clay I take pleasure from the process as well as from the finished piece. Every once in awhile — very seldom — I am in tune with the material, and I hear music, and it’s like poetry. Those are mo-ments that make pottery truly beautiful for me.

I don’t think of making pots in terms of whether they will be functional. I just make them! I like to make aplate, for example, that can be used and that when it’s not in use is still complete in itself.

One of the best things about clay is that I can be completely free and honest with it. And clay responds to me.The clay is alive and responsive to every touch and feeling. When I make it into form, it is alive, and evenwhen it is dry, it is still breathing! I can feel the response in my hands, and I don’t have to force the clay. Thewhole process is an interplay between the clay and myself, and often the clay has much to say. When it isbisqued it is no longer organic, but it comes alive again in the finishing touch of the last firing — in the inter-play of glaze and form.

When I first became involved with clay, I found it had so many possibilities. To be able to carry out my ideas,to make anything good, I had to have technique and discipline. I have disciplined myself in many ways in orderto achieve my ideas. What is most important is to keep on working — you can’t wait for inspiration becausethat may never come. Inspiration most often comes when I begin to work.

Toshiko Takaezu.excerpted from The Penland School of Crafts: Book of Pottery.

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Excerpts from Cold Mountain, a novel by Charles Frazier

“The music he had made up for the [dying] girl was a thing he had played everyday since. He never tired o f it and, in fact, believed the tune to be so inexhaustiblethat he could play it every day for the rest of his life, learning something new eachtime. His fingers had stopped the strings and his arm had drawn the bow in theshape of the tune so many times by now that he no longer thought about the playing.The notes just happened effortlessly. The tune had become a thing unto itself, ahabit that served to give order and meaning to a day’s end, as some might pray andothers double-check the latch on the door and yet others take a drink when nighthas fallen. (p. 232) . . . . . . he soon had a growing feeling that he was learning things about himself thathad never sifted into his thinking before. One thing he discovered with a great dealof astonishment was that music held more for him than just pleasure. There wasmeat to it. The grouping of sounds, their forms in the air as they rang out and faded,said something comforting to him about the rule of creation. What the music saidwas that there is a right way for things to be ordered so that life might not always bejust tangle and drift but have a shape, and aim. It was a powerful argument againstthe notion that things just happen. . . . “ (p. 233)

Excerpt from Ada’s (unmailed) letter to her cousin back in Charleston:“. . . In the glass I see a somewhat firmer face than previously, hollower under thecheekbones. And a new expression, I think, has sometimes come to occupy it. Work-ing in the fields, there are brief times when I go totally without thought. Not one ideacrosses my mind, though my senses are alert to all around me. Should a crow flyover, I mark it in all its details, but I do not seek analogy for its blackness. I know it isa type of nothing, not metaphoric. A thing unto itself without comparison. I believethose moments to be the root of my new mien. You would not know it on me for Isuspect it is somehow akin to contentment.” (p. 258)

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“When you start working, everybody is in your studio — thepast, your friends, enemies, the art world and, above all, your ownideas. But as you continue, they start leaving one by one, and youare left completely alone. Then, if you’re lucky, even you leave.”

John Cage

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The transpersonal nature of craftsmanship finds direct and immediate expression in sensation: the body is

participation. To feel is primarily to feel something or someone not ourselves and, above all, to feel with

someone. Even to feel itself the body seeks another body. The physical and bodily ties that bind us to

others are no less powerful than the legal, economic and religious ties that unite us. Craftsmanship is a

sign that expresses society not as work (technique) or as symbol (art, religion) but as shared physical life.

- Octavio Paz

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The problem in pottery... is to create forms that have originated in the conception of the

potter, that have grown out of his idea of beauty, his skill as a craftsman and his total intel-

ligence as a human being.

Elizabeth Overbeck

The Chronicle of a Studio Pottery

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Creation Myths

My Aunt Louise says my hands are

all dried out and ugly.

Karen wants to know why they always

look dirty, and can’t I clean

my nails better?

Tom says, it isn’t really

art, and

my brother says, don’t give

them any more mugs,

they’ve got too many already.

Me, I’m making mud pies.

And having a grand

old time.

Hands, words, world —

Don’t matter for awhile.

- Elizabeth Campbell

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The Script

Suppliers

Recipes

Beginnings

a few other things

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The Cast

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The script

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The

cas

tJoey Battistelli, Silver Spring, Maryland

Emily Lau, Mililani, Hawaii

Alison McDaniel, Louisville, Kentucky

Meredith McGriff, Muncie, Indiana

Suzanne Polivy, New York City, New York

Jennifer Staub, Sacramento, California

Sadie Sullivan-Davis, Tipton, Indiana

Robin Taylor-Fabe, Cincinnati, Ohio

supporting roles:

Naomi Dalglish: teaching assistant, Earlham, class of 2002

Mike Thiedeman: Professor of Art, Earlham College

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When you wish to continue your work from our class. . .

You may, as we learned, go out in your backyard and make like a gopher. There likely isusable clay for pit firing ten inches under your feet. When you process it, remember thatyou break it into small lumps and let it dry completely. You soak the dried clay in a con-tainer of water, to totally dissolve the clay, and then pour it through a piece of windowscreen to remove roots, stones, etc. Let it sit overnight to settle, after you have screenedit. The next day, siphon the clear water off from the top. Then carefully pour the clay sliponto a piece of muslim (or old sheet or whatever) to let it dry out in the air to a workable,plastic state. Suggestion: when you pour the slip out of the container, leave the bottominch of material in the container and discard it later — the most coarse material (sand,small bits of rock, etc.) left in the clay after screening will be in the bottom of the con-tainer and, if you discard that material, the resulting working clay will be more plastic,more workable.

If you wish to buy clay or tools or glaze materials or other supplies, it is fairly easy to doso. There are regional suppliers of ceramic materials in all areas of the country. If youneed to try to locate a local supplier, go to a library (college or university, perhaps a pub-lic library) and look for the periodical, “Ceramics Monthly.” In the back section of C.M.,you will find listings for many suppliers of materials. Select one close to you (shippingdistance is a cost issue) and call or write or email them, requesting a copy of their cata-log. You will be able to buy dry materials to mix a clay body, yourself, or you can orderpre-mixed clay bodies in 25 pound batches at relatively modest cost.

If you cannot locate an issue of “Ceramics Monthly,” you might contact them directly —

Ceramics MonthlyPO Box 6102Westerville, OH 43086-6102

For those of you who live in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, here is the information on a good,reliable regional materials supplier:

Columbus Clay Co.1080 Chambers Rd.Columbus, OH 43212ph.: 614-488-9600fax: 614-488-9849email: ColumbusClay@aol.com

Good work to you!

Supp

lies

/ Sup

plie

rs

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a pinch of this and a touch of that...

NOTE: recipes are stated as percentage recipes — parts by weight.

Earlham Stoneware Body #5

A good general purpose clay body, which works well for throwing on the potter’s wheeland also works well for hand-building techniques. It may be glaze fired to cone 8 - 10, tocreate vitreous (water proof) vessels. It also may be used in the bisque state for rakufiring or for pit firing.

The sand in the recipe below is a fine grain natural sand from a glacial deposit near thetwin cities in Minnesota. It may be purchased from Minnesota Clay Co. You may alsosubstitute grog (ground, fired clay) for the sand in the recipe — for wheel work or smallto medium handbuilt pieces, use fine grog; for larger handbuilt pieces, you might trymedium grog. [grog may be purchased from any ceramic material supplier]

Cedar Heights Goldart Clay 39.8

Hawthorne Bonding Clay (or any plastic fireclay) 26.4

Kentucky Ball Clay, OM 4 22.1

Custer Potash Feldspar 6.5

Dark Red Iron Oxide .8

Sand (or grog, as noted above) 4.3

[can be pounds, grams, ounces, dump truck loads, whatever unit of measure, as longas you keep the proportional relationships the same]

Cla

y an

d G

laze

s an

d Sl

ips:

Bas

ic R

ecip

es

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Raku glaze: White Crackle Glaze (tested by EC student, Johanna Fisher, 1992?[sources?])

Gerstley Borate 65. [now an unavailable material, order “Gerstley Borate Sub-stitute” from Columbus Clay or other supplier]

Kona F-4 Feldspar 35.

THIS GLAZE IS VERY FINE. Try it mixed with Custer Spar, rather than with Kona spar —may give a stronger crackle pattern. (Do careful tests.) Also a good candidate for testswith various coloring oxides.

BLACK RAKU (from CeramicsMonthly article by Harold McWhinnie, “Family of RakuGlazes,” tested by E.C. student, Laura Trent, Sp. 1990) excellent raku glaze

Borax 3.22Gerstley Borate 43.01 [G.B.Substitute]Soda Ash 21.51Nepheline Syenite 10.75Barnard Clay 21.51

_____ 100.00

To the above, Add: 4.30 Cobalt Carb. and 2.15 Copper Carb.

Two important variations: 1. use this glaze under the white crackle raku for a dark ultramarine blue 2. substitute copper oxide for the copper carbonate (1:1) for strong metallic copper

Other notes: again, order “Gerstley Borate Substitute” andL note that Barnard Clay is sometimes called Black Bird Clay

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Decorating Slips (to be applied on leather-hard greenware pieces)

1. Several basic white slips:

A. White slip (Thin porcelain body) — This is a good basic white slip

Grolleg clay (Eng. kaolin) 50.0Flint 25.0Custer feldspar 25.0+Bentonite 1.0

B. White slip #2

Georgia kaolin 68.4Flint l5.8Custer feldspar l5.8

C. White slip #3

Ball clay 25.0Florida kaolin 25.0Flint 25.0Custer Feldspar 25.0

2. Several colored slips and pigments:

Blue decorating pigment

Ball clay 40.0Red iron oxide 10.0Cobalt carbonate 20.0Manganese dioxide 30.0

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2. Several colored slips and pigments, con’d.

Iron brown decorating slip (pigment) — may be used on greenware or bisque (thinly), but, if onbisque, should be bisque fired again, before glaze is applied over it (glaze frequently crawls ifapplied over raw pigment)

Approximately one part Black Glaze nine parts umber (measures by approx. volume)

Add water and thin to brushing consistency

Black bird slip (dark brown or black after firing)Good dark pigment, esp. effective for accenting textures — apply on entire surface, then

sponge off raised areas.

Black bird slip is simply a very iron rich clay, available from suppliers as “Barnard Clay (BlackBird Slip)” — mix with water and apply.

Green slip

Ball clay 25.0Kaolin 25.0Flint 25.0CusterFeldspar 25.0

To above, add: 4.0 Chrome oxide

Note: This green slip is a good model for slips of other colors, as well. Use the Ball clay/Kaolin/flint/feldspar combination, which is a basic white slip, as a base. Try tests of various per-centages of different coloring oxides added to the white slip base. Experiment. Learn from yourown experience. Have fun. Do some good work!

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Imagine — The director of NASA called you last night and said,

“We are going to send a deep space probe across the galaxy. On board the capsule,

we want to include one object that ‘speaks’ clearly of our culture in the United States

of America in the early 21st C., so that if the capsule is found by another civilization

somewhere in the galaxy, they will be able to know something of us, our culture, our

time.

“Use clay and make that object.”

Think about a dear friend or a family member who you have not seen in some time

and who you miss.

Imagine a “homecoming,” a meeting with that person. Mentally define the circum-

stances of the reunion very precisely — imagine the time of year, the time of day, the

specific place in which you will meet them, the physical setting, the light, and as many

details of time and place as you can imagine.

Create in clay the vessel or vessels that you will use to share food or drink with this

person as part of your celebration of being re-united with them.

What is “ritual” and what has been the role of ritual in human existence? Is ritual

part of our lives in the 21st C.? Do you have any rituals in your daily life?

If you do have a ritual experience in your life, write a careful description of it. If you

do not have a ritual experience in your life, try to imagine one, invent one, and write a

description of it.

Create in clay an object or objects to be used in the celebration of your personal

ritual.A f

ew id

eas

to k

eep

thin

kin

g ab

out .

. .

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For anyone interested in hardware and software information, below is a list of what was

used in producing this CD.

All of the images on this CD were taken with a digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix 990, which

produces a 3.34 megapixel image. This camera came out three years ago (1999) and has

been superseded recently by a 5 megapixel Nikon consumer grade camera, a second gen-

eration digital camera. Nonetheless, the 990 still is a remarkable piece of equipment, and I

recommend it, or its successors, very highly. We are on the front edge of an incredible

new age of imaging.

All of the work, from editing images to page design to burning the CD and printing a label

for it, was done on Macintosh computers, some of it on a G4 desktop and some on a

Macintosh G4 Titanium Powerbook.

All image editing was done with Adobe Photoshop 6.

Page lay out was done using Adobe Pagemaker 6.5.

Completed pages were exported to PDF format with Adobe Acrobat 5.0 Distiller.

The document was organized and links were created using Adobe Acrobat 5.0.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me —

Mike Thiedeman

Professor of Art

Earlham College

Richmond, IN 47374-4095

thiedmi@earlham.edu

Tech

ie S

tuff

. . .

Jomon shards

Click on any topic to go to that page or section

Title Page

What we did. . .

The Studio

The Inferno -- Raku Firing

Pit Firing

The Brick PitThe Stove PipeTrash CanPrimitive Firing

Digging & Processing Local Clays

A Portfolio of Our Work

The Day in Chicago

Verbal Shards: Some Short Readings

A Few Other Things -- The ScriptThe CastSuppliersRecipesBeginning PointsCD Tech Notes

Anasazi shards

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