Al said:
"I hope you also see my point, and you do have to admit that out of all the pots you have posted here, you have probably not shown more than three or four rectangle pots."
Gosh it's hard to please everyone!
Do you think I show EVERY pot I make? I LIKE contemporay or different styles, that's what I like to show.
Here's some facts about pot making:
It's more difficult and harder to learn the skills to throw a perfect med/lg round pot than to build a slab pot. It's just more time consuming to slab build. But, taking into consideration slab builts, this is important, the more joints/pieces the more liable to crack at some step in making. Or, warp the sides. ( note: the NBF pot comp. pot shown below was 18 pieces if I recall correctly. Sorry for crappy photo, before I went digital)
How many do you look closely at enoughon the web to see the warped sides or "unsquare" sides. When I have cracks or warps these become "Dale pots".
Ovals are a combination of both. I make LOTS of ovals, how many ( nicely even elliptical ones) do you see posted by the group potters.
There's a lot of reasons that effect me, and I'm sure lots of other bonsai potters, including the once-a-week community art center group.
Sifting through the "You oughta do's" and "Why doncha do's" and the "If I were you's"
There is the time/show thing.
What sells best.
competing with you folks that do it for kicks so don't worry about making a good wage doing it, because you already have a good job ( BTW, this is one of the things that really hurts bonsai businessmen at shows competing with those doing it for a lark and happy with paying for their tables). When I'm KING there won't be vendors at a convention unless they have a business lic. # for their state and pay taxes on what they sell. How's that for a novel idea?....legal businessmen vendors
?
Time
space
help ( none or lots)
Time
hype and fad
CHEAP imported rectangles ( and ovals)
time
95% of bonsai people are "beginners" ( no matter how long they say they've been in bonsai) who think $15 for a tree or $10 for a pot is a lot!
eBay ( for people who like to get packages in the mail)
time
making pots for all incomes. Those "Big Buck" guys like Al,... those who make Al's income look sickly,... and those who make $10/hr.
poor quality ( warped, cracked and not "square" ) versus "perfect"
Oh, and did I mention time?
Al, I wonder how many trees out there in rectangular ( or oval) pots would look just fine in a round pot. When potting trees here at home I ofter switch from rect. to oval or round and the trees look completely new to me!
One last question....
If you haven't bought a round pot since 2003, why do you want american potters ( who you don't think make enough rectangles) to make kusamono pinch pots??
That one throws me.
BTW, if you needed pinch pots/kusamono pots.....they gave away 250 of mine at the WBC banquet. No two alike!
Regards,
Dale