Thoughts from Michael Cardew

"...there has always been a struggle between the adherents of the Just
Price and those of the Natural Price, between idealism and realism. The
doctrine of the Just Price says that a thing's price should represent the
just reward for faithful and diligent work, sufficient to maintain the
maker and his family on what is described as frugal comfort. The adherents
of the Natural Price say that prices are simply regulated by supply and
demand: a thing is worth no more, and no less, than what it will fetch.

The first, with its ethical emphasis, tends to be the view of the honest
and industrious artisan. The second is that of the businessman. A potter
who in any degree feels himself to be an artist should I think incline to
the second rather than the first. In spite of its idealism, the doctrine
of the Just Price is rather narrow and limited. Honesty, in its deepest
interpretation may indeed (as E.M. Forster suggests) 'get us to heaven';
but for the artist, there is no salvation except through his art. 'Art is
like roses: it's a rich feeder'; it cannot flourish without wealth in some
form. It may be, as the poet says, 'Above Either', yet 'the argument is
better for Affluence than Poverty'.

The arguments for the just price, say first, that potting is a way of life,
not a means to other more limited ends. The potter is working to supply
his neighbour's needs and for the love of the work itself. Being honest,
he will be industrious, and this too helps his art; the more he practices
it the better his work becomes. Therefore he aims to make as many pots as
he can, and this will keep his prices moderate. He works for people like
himself, who are mostly of the hard-working but impecunious middle classes,
at need even for the really poor. He would undermine his own integrity if
he so priced his pots that only the rich and great, whose motives are
falsified by the search for status-symbols, can afford to buy them. If
they buy his pots they will not use them, but imprison them in glass cases.
That market is soon saturated, and leads to no new inspiration. For the
true potter, inspiration springs up not in vacuo but in response to the
real needs of daily life.

The argument for the other side says that the market is ethically
impartial; its prices, governed by the mechanism of supply and demand, may
be disastrously lower or absurdly higher than the Just Price. A potter's
output is limited in quantity, and there comes a point where if he tried to
force himself to increase his output, the quality would suffer. It is true
that good pots are best made quickly; but it takes a long training before a
potter reaches this stage unless he is content to make mediocre pots. His
chief aim is not to make pots quickly but to make pots which are 'quick'
and not dead. If his work is good, the demand for it will normally tend to
exceed the supply, and its market value will then inevitably rise. It is
perhaps only in heaven that 'good design costs no more than bad.'

Faced with the choice of abandoning the Just Price or betraying the quality
of his work, he will prefer the work. If he keeps his eyes too narrowly
focused on how quickly and efficiently he can make pots he will be putting
economic and ethical values above the quality, technical and aesthetic, of
what he makes. His work is his raison d'etre and to his work he owes his
first loyalty. Though price is not his preoccupation he will not waste his
energies by pitting himself against the forces of the market, just as he
would not try to use his hands to beat a machine at its own work. Whether
his inspiration is to make humble domestic utensils or gigantic and
monumental pots (and a good potter usually wants to make both kinds), his
eyes are not fixed on what prices these things will fetch but on what in
his dedicated egoism, in the bottom of his heart, he wants to make. Rich
or poor, he is by nature free and not a slave."

I think it's those last two lines that are most important.

Cheers!

Lets get down to business.

I've spent the last week working my brain overtime trying to figure things out for the ACC show in February. I've been making lists of potenially wholesaleable pots, doing lots of math, and overall stressing. I haven't settled on a making list yet but I need to get to work anyways. I cleaned my studio for the first time in awhile so now I have nothing left between me and the wheel.


I just did a firing in the gas kiln with mostly porcelain work. The firing went very well and I'm pleased with the whole load, the first time in years that I've been happy with a reduction firing. I also had about 30 test glazes and a few stoneware mugs. This should last me awhile, the only thing that sells slower than woodfired pots are clear glazed porcelain pots.


New brushwork pattern I've been toying with, this particular one is pretty much a direct ripoff, care to guess from who?


Bowl.

Scott Cooper inspired jar.

Ame glaze, stoneware on the left and porcelain on the right.

Grouping of pots.

That's all for now.

Cheers!

Coming Soon...

Every fall I run a special sale on etsy, I like to think of it as a customer appreciation sale. Last year I offered $2 shipping on everything. This year I'm having a cup sale. Mugs and yunomi all for the low price of $12 with $6 shipping in the US. A nice woodfired cup shipped to your door for under 20 bucks, not a bad deal. It will go up Friday morning at 9am CST. Mark your calendars!

Cheers!

Bow down people.

I am apparently a master blogger. This is serious business. All shall love me and despair!

Online Masters Degree

http://www.mastersdegreeonline.net/top-blogs/top-pottery/

Good day to you minions.

Whiteware.

I've let another week pass in epic blog failure. I've made about 100 pots in porcelain which I've been glazing today. Mostly in a simple clear glaze. I've done a couple runs of this stuff before, it's a nice change every once in awhile. I have no camera at the moment so you will have to take my word for it. Perhaps I'll get some photos when I open up the kiln.

Concerning my last post, for those of you that are sitting on the edge of your seats: the ipod was returned. I had to clamp down the vise a little harder and get the department chair involved and eventually it was returned anonymously. Make pots, don't steal.

A few months ago I read the book "Shopclass as Soulcraft" by Matthew Crawford. I give it about a 6.5/10. The first half was very interesting, I did find myself having to re-read some passages and occasionally use the dictionary. The second half was a bit mind-numbing. In simplisic terms the book argues the case for work in the trades(as opposed to the abstract career path via college route) for a wide variety of reasons. The irony being that you would strongly benefit from a college degree in english or philosophy to be able to read this book. A good read all the same, though I would borrow it rather than buy it. I'll leave you with this quote from the book:

"The satisfactions of manifesting oneself concretely in the world through manual competence have been known to make a man quiet and easy. They seem to relieve him of the felt need to offer chattering interpretations of himself to vindicate his worth. He can simply point: the building stands, the car now runs, the lights are on. Boasting is what a boy does, because he has no real effect in the world. But the tradesmen must reckon with the infallible judgement of reality, where one's failure and shortcomings cannot be interpreted away. His well-founded pride is far from the gratuitous "self-steeem" that educators would impart to students, as though by magic."

Not in my classroom.

An email to my advanced students today. I don't tolerate any of this BS.

To the person who picked up the ipod touch in the classroom on Monday:

1)If you picked it up by accident please return it to my office.

2)If you stole it:
a)You can return it to my office tomorrow, my door will be open most of the day. No questions asked.
b)Stealing from a fellow student makes you a sorry excuse for a human being.
c)If you do not return it and I find out who did it you will be failed out of my class and I will recommend suspension to the department.
d)I have no tolerance for stealing, want to test me? Every advanced student now has an F until it is returned. Mid terms are coming up soon, don't want an F? Find out who stole it.

Love,Brandon

stuff.

Well, I don't have much time so I'll lay out the current news quickly, Scott Cooper is gonna hate this post ;)

I just fired the salt kiln last weekend, it was the best firing yet. In fact the last 2 have been really good. I'm going to try to get it loaded and fired again this week. My wood kiln is currently incapacitated...but more on that later.

I've posted more brushes on etsy in a whole variety of sizes. People seem to really like them so I'll keep making them. I have more available than what's posted and I can also do custom brushes.

Part of the reason I'm so busy is because I'm helping Saybra with a show she's having next month. She mounts all of her photos in a slightly nontraditional way so it's a fair amount of work for the both of us. You can see a few images of her work here.

I was accepted into the ACC show in Baltimore for February, I'm pretty excited though it is a little daunting. I have very little work right now and I need to get cracking. I have about 1000# of clay in the drying racks right now so as soon as it's ready I can get going.

I have a draft for a post about education that will rate pretty high on the PBPRRSEC scale, so look forward to that and my unapologetic views on the subject.

Cheers!