bonsaiTALK Community - View Single Post - pottery surface treatment

Boondock,
You might notice that I deleted my first complimentary message, that I felt I should make, at the start of this thread. I thought about it/this quite a while since yesterday and decided I should be truthful at the risk of being thought otherwise by artists I know, or even possibly thought of as mean.
Anyway, here goes.
After I looked closely at the pictures of the two pots you posted yesterday it was obvious that you were block sanding the greenware pots. The opened grain and grit pieces missing from sharp edges was a true sign of this. After a few questions/answers my thoughts were proven out. After thinking about this for a while, and deciding if it was actually ANY of my business, I have some comments.
Aside from being dangerous ( and taking a ridiculous amount of time) sanding geenware pots is generally not thought well of by potters. Believe me, you were not the first to think of this. Heres how I know.
In the late 90's when I started making bonsai pots , and before I got my first kiln, I had a local potter/bonsai friend ( who, BTW,won one of the first place positions in the 2nd NBF pot competition the year after I had won a 2nd place in the first one) fire some of my first slab built shohin and mame containers which is what I first started making. I had sanded the sides, rails, etc. of a pot that I had broken a chip out of and then repaired with clay mender. I liked how it came out so I did it to several other pots. I mentioned this to him. He frowned, and then he told me what I just told you. Sanding is generally frowned upon as a means to have a nice clean, straight pot. It is a side-step to actually building a nice clean,straight pot. I stopped immediately, and began working on the skills to get me where I wanted to be. I never looked back, but still have one of those pots saved here at home.
I haven't seen, at least I don't think so, another sanded pot until I saw these. I think you would be hard-pressed to find a hand-made bonsai pot at any bonsai convention, US or otherwise, that has sanded pots for sale, except possibly by newbies to the art. The occasional sanded/ground foot bottom to remove glaze and level is perfectly acceptable however.
As possible future competition it really doesn't matter to me if you continue this method, but, as a fellow artist I thought I should mention it. This is all probably a mistake on my part!
What you, and other newbies, need to concentrate on is getting down the techniques to produce the art as it should be done, not try to fool people in a roundabout manner. You need to learn how to construct those walls thinner and get them dryed, fired and completed without warping. I understand the attraction to obtaining straight walls, etc. by making them real thick, but that is not the solution, just as sanding them is not the solution to make them flat and crisp. Practice and work and more practice is the solution. MANY things effect your outcome and these are the things you need to sort out.
You mentioned in your opening that you had decided to make a hand-built pot look hand-built and not like molded pots you had seen elsewhere. At least this is how I took the statement. Perhaps you were actually talking about hand-built pots that didn't show any flaws? Either way, you defeated your purpose there, you produced a sanded pot that looks like a sanded pot with thick walls to any "in the know" potter. I'm not quite sure how you thought you were making them look "hand-made" moreso than any other potters hand-made pots. The hand-made look doesn't come from sanded open-grained clay with chippy sharp edges. It comes from an individuals personalized techniques that leave his mark , or style, on a nice piece of art.
This is akin to most things in the bonsai art, and any other art I would imagine. Side-stepping the needed skills just doesn't produce quality items that are appreciated by folks who appreciate the art, or any art.
I seem to sense this a lot in peoples ( on the net) descriptions of their sloppy wheel thrown pots as "looking hand-made" . Well, a sloppy pot is a sloppy pot, it doesn't look hand-made, it looks ....sloppy! An artist needs to know how to throw a perfect pot first, then if you want to stray from the norm...knock yourself out. If you look at the body of work of any great potter you see perfect along with the "contemporary or rustic" ( for lack of a better term right now) look that is adopted in certain circumstances. You don't see sloppy work continually. As I said before, folks "in the know" see this right off.
I'll bow out of this now that I've given my opinion. I hope you take it in the way I meant it since sometimes I don't come across too well with criticism and on this forum criticism is often not understood in the light it was meant.
Before I go, I'll leave you with a picture of a pot from 1999 ( I think) that was done the same way so you will realize that I know from where I speak about past experiences. This pot was selected by Levon from the many pictures I sent him for his book. I still have this pot on my shelf here. This was one of my last sanded pots.
Regards,
Dale