Biggest blunders?

could have passed it off as a saki pot at the bachelor party...

steve

steve graber

Have you ever convinced yourself that you're wrong when you're right. Well as I'm looking at the weights closer I see a second smaller number on one of them that is far less than the larger value. My husband (bless his totally non-spatial, verbal brain) points out that leverage may be the issue. So sure enough when I put on the 500gm weight to the arm, use other weights (bless my father-in-law who collected antique weights) to 500gms in the bucket it actually weights out correctly. So the smaller value on the weight is the actual weight (which checked true), while the larger value is what it adjust the scale to measure (hope that made sense).... I am still baffled by there being such an incredibly large amount of dry material that will have to be slaked into just a 1/3 - 1/2 of the 5 gallon bucket of water (I used to mix up large trash cans of glaze and the volume ratio looks entire different)... So this may be my most embarrassing moment (not really) but isn't my biggest blunder (but it is the experience that made me feel the worse at the time since I was doing this for a friend and not myself)...

OK, I vote we give the the winning medal on this on. I sure hope you paid your dues and that life has gotten a whole lot better.

I second that, i think Russell wins the prize on disasters. I thought my disaster dropping all the glazes in one second was bad enough, but..... he beats us all! I hope your life will calm down a bit in the future, Russell, get back to making pots and enjoy it.

Monika

Classic mistake. Always clear the holes with a stick or bent bit of wire after glazing, I only did it once :o)

No metals or awards please... I thought that all of us had suffered such disasters.... I have been potting for 35 years. Most of these lessons of life happened after I got clean and sober! Coincidentally or not... I came to believe that I was and alcoholic addict 15 years ago.... These days, there are still the usual disasters that all of us suffer.... stuck lids, glazes running, pots s-cracking, license inspectors showing up at odd times, cars that refuse to be fixed.... but I seem to manage my disasters better and keep the mistakes to a minimum... Hey, I produced 800 cubic feet of first quality ware last year... Now if I only lived in a country where I could still sell that much ware a year... Oh, ah,,, the economy is recovering... ha ha ha... (yes I am simply mad!) Why else would I work like this for a living? Fortunately, no one is dropping bombs down my kiln stacks yet... like they did to Hamada, Leach and Cardue. Or enslaving me in a Russian/Chinese/capitalist factory job

40 hours a week so I can only make pots in my spare time... But it may come to that and more.. Well friends, its just great to be alive and able to still make pots... one more year.... I treasure each kiln load, each set of throwing, each wedging of the clay. Talk about a graduated list... I am grateful for my experiences in clay. Each and every mistake adds to my knowledge of the craft.. For only by getting it wrong 1000 times can a potter learn how to get it right one time!!! How many times have I centered a piece of clay perfectly in 35 years? How many perfect pots have I ever throw? None!!! Just many beautiful creations... Each one unique and different. And that is the beauty of what we all try to do. Russ Andavall

PS Keep mudding no matter what! There is no 12 step group for clay... unless you can find someone to use you as bone ash...

W_D_Great_Divider wrote:

My first wife... Oh ah... ceramics... Lets see... stack-up door fell down at cone 10, Cooled real quickly after I bricked the door back up using wet sweatshirts and kiln gloves.... My mentor bought a 100 lb bag of anhydrous silica for very cheap. We proceeded to have all the glazes shiver off the pots... Several kiln loads of pots were ruined right before Christmas... Crashing truck full of pottery.... (joined AA and no longer a problem..) Earthquake 1989... lost 60% of a bisque kiln and 8 silicon carbide shelves

14x28... back to first wife... arrived at booth drunk off her gourd and proceed to smash as much pottery as she could before I returned from restroom... But the biggest blunder I ever made was while sell Hi guys!

You are being so quiet these days and I love to read from you - so starting a topic I am pretty sure most of you will have input to!

What have been your biggest blunders? Either technical or practical - I don't care - I just want to know what big mistakes you have made (potterywise) and what you learned from them :-)

Mine up to now HAS to be making an oven dish with folded over handles, and the handles made the dish too wide to go in the oven! Next dish is gonna have handles straight up from the ends!

Marianne

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My teacher is all of the above - great personality, increadible experience, but when a visitor asked her how long it took to learn to be a potter, she answered that she was still learning!

She doesn't throw much anymore, as her health is not so good, but her sculpted and slab-built pieces are just fantastic - and she can TEACH! I learn something new every time I am there!

The saying goes "Those who can't, teach" - but in my eyes, that is not a negative - in fact, it is a positive when it comes to potting - if you don't have the strength/energy to make stuff - teach us newbies how we can make stuff! I am blessed by my teacher having the time and energy to teach me what she knows :-)

Marianne

I have Arthritis, and I'm lucky; I have good drugs, a Wife who does WONDERFUL massage, 3 smashing grown up Kids, I'm bloody minded enough to keep trying to be normal (what is normal?), AND I can still make pots. Like you Russ I'm thankful that I can still do what fires me up. I love my life. If I get knocked off tomorrow I would have NO regrets at all. It's a blast!

Steve Bath UK

In article , Russell Andavall writes

experience,

The lady who taught me a lot of what I know is not young either. She still throws, but only makes for her own pleasure now. She still teaches a class but is giving that up at the end of the year. The biggest compliment that she ever gave me was recently asking me to take her first class of next term because she is going to away visiting family.