CELEBRATING FINE CRAFT

ARTICLES: The Tortoise and the Hare in Pottery

Written by: Ken Wilkinson
August 04, 2010

One of the central marketing and explanatory concepts for craft products is that of “handmade”. The skilled and creative human hand is the primary mechanism for the transformation of material into object.

Like so many concepts, reality has much more nuance. In the real world, the hand receives a lot of assistance. The craft maker has a choice of raw material, tools, and transformation processes. In general, these were developed to speed up the production process, thereby allowing the maker to produce more. However, greater efficiency has creative implications in addition to increasing the speed of production.

Let’s look at the range of decisions available for potters in three key points of the process for making ceramic goods: the choice of clay, the choices around a wheel, and the choice of the heat source for a kiln.

At one time, potters found their own clay source, dug it up, and prepared it for use. This was hard, slow work which limited ceramic production to the specific geographical areas that possessed accessible bodies of suitable clay. Today, other options exist. The potter can buy dry clay and mix in other ingredients in order to get the desired characteristics. The potter can buy commercially pre-prepared clay that are ready for use. As one moves along the spectrum from digging your own to mixing your own to using a commercial product, the work of the potter speeds up. Significantly less time is spent in obtaining and preparing the raw material.

Ease and efficiency brings creative implications. Clay dug by the potter contains more than clay. It is dirty, with small chunks of plant material or rocks. Even with cleaning and preparation, every batch of clay is different. As one moves towards the faster and more convenient material, one also obtains greater “quality control” - that is, a more homogenous and predictable material with which to work. Prepared clays lack their own particularistic character - just as blended scotch lacks the distinct characteristics of single malts. The variety in the finished product that are intrinsic to the variety of the basic material disappears - as does the necessity that the potter must be able to deal with this variety. Further, a particular range of skills is unnecessary. The individual potter no longer needs the skills required to locate, mine and process clay. Finally, a reduction in the potter’s role in clay preparation results in a reduction in the knowledge of the media. The more you prepare the clay, the more you understand it.

The next “speed” question facing the potter is whether to use a wheel, and, if so, how the wheel is to be powered. In this case, the speed continuum goes from not using a wheel to using a wheel powered by human muscle to using a wheel with an external power source. Using a foot-propelled wheel is much quicker than building a piece by hand. A wheel with an electric motor is faster yet. Like the movement along the choice of clay continuum, movement along this throwing continuum also has effects on the nature of the final product, and on the skill set required. As methods get faster, so does the capacity for precision and uniformity. In this continuum, the skills needed are transformed rather than simply abandoned.

Finally, we come to kiln heat source. In this case, the speed continuum available to the potter goes from wood to natural gas to electricity. A wood firing is measured in days, a gas firing will take 10 to 12 hours, and an electrical firing can be as quick as 4 to 5 hours. Cooling times are also impacted in a similar fashion. In the case of the heat source continuum, the speed question is even more profound than the kiln time would indicate. In the case of gas or electric kilns, the potter can be elsewhere doing other things while the pots cook. With a wood kiln, constant attention is needed. In a very real way, the task time for a gas or electric kiln is only seconds or minutes (flicking a switch, turning on a time, or programming a computer control) while as long as a week is needed for a wood firing.

Along with speed comes predictability. The slower the heat source, the dirtier it is in the kiln. Ash and smoke all come into play. Indeed, for a wood firing, this is the source of the aesthetic effect. The primary glazing effect is produced by flame, smoke and melted ash.

In the case of wood firing, the glaze formula is smoke. A typical glaze formula for a gas reduction kiln is shown in the accompanying sidebar. The appearance of increased complexity for the faster glaze is deceiving. The look of the wood fired piece is affected by the temperature inside and outside of the kiln, the type of wood, the air currents within the kiln, the flashpoints for the flame, and the location of individual pieces within the kiln. With a wood fired kiln, the best one can do is influence these conditions. By contrast, with a fast electric kiln these variables can be controlled and replicated. Both approaches require a high degree of skill and knowledge. For the fast approach, knowledge is measured and technical. It is pre-planned into the piece. As we get slower, knowledge becomes more intuitive and experience based. The skill is applied throughout the process rather than pre-programmed.

In firing, slow means social. The time needed for a wood firing combined with the need for constant attention necessitates a collective effort. This allows for community building and knowledge transfer.

At every step, the decision about “fast” or “slow” has aesthetic implications for the pieces produced. Fast techniques result in precise and uniform products that are replicable. They can be turned into formulas, recipes, and design plans. Slow techniques are more intuitive. The variables are less controlled creating an intrinsic diversity in the work.

There is a temptation to conclude, from this, that the slow approaches are more creative while fast leading to factory-like production. Again, reality has more nuance. One result of the control, replicability, and pre-planning of fast approaches is that they allow more scope for a conscious expansion of creativity in colour, form, and even function. In the slow approaches, much of the creativity comes from the attempts to influence variables. In the fast approaches, these variables can be controlled - leaving the artist free to be creative in design. Distinct character is added by design rather than by material and process.

The quest for a perfect piece is a long and elusive one. With the slow approaches, the quest for the magical moment of the perfect piece is one of slowly increasing one’s ability to influence the uncontrollable. Experience is transformed into intuition. Intuition is transformed into soul. With the fast approaches, the same quest becomes one of progressive refinement and incremental improvement. It creates technical excellence. In this creative race between the tortoise and the hare, there is no winner except for the lovers of craft.