Hello new forum!
Aug 16, 2015 22:22:26 GMT -6
Post by adammacmillan on Aug 16, 2015 22:22:26 GMT -6
Hello new and old friends!
I'm trying to be better about both contributing to the crystalline craft, and shamelessly self promoting (in other corners of the interwebs). Here my little bit of my story...
I guess I'm genetically predisposed to making pots. My parents both have been making pots since the 60's/70's, and that's how they met. I was fortunate enough to be able to grow up messing around with mud and eating off of nice handmade stoneware and porcelain plates. However, I didn't really start putting any time into making things until late high school. It was around that time my father taught me two important life lessons. #1 - Handmade pottery makes a great present and #2 Girls like presents...
I started off doing raku, but we lived in a fairly suburban area. It was a little tricky because of all the smoke and the neighbors didn't appreciate it. So we did small loads and funny things like soak all our combustibles in used cooking oil. Turns out the neighbors don't call the cops on you when they just think you fry a lot of chicken outside at night.
My father starting making pots in Eureka, CA in the 60's with another great potter - Robbrect Troost (another forum member). Robert lived on the north shore of Oahu for a long time and somewhere around 2000, he started doing crystals. Dad and I decided to take a trip down there to visit and see what was going on, so we booked a flight and we ended up getting stuck in Oahu with Robert for the better part of a month due to the 9/11 tragedy and he taught us the ropes with crystalline.
It still took us a few years to get things working right with the different clays and chemicals, but we finally got there.
My parents, sister, and I all make pots, but we only do a combined ~30 hours a week at best. Just enough to pay for the studio/supplies and be able to buy other people's art.
I will do pots full time some day, but for now I develop bio-ceramics and devices for the medical industry. It's great to be able to see the industrial side of things (and what can be done when you can spend a few million to make perfect ceramic powders worth a few hundred dollars a gram) and use some of that experience to improve the work in the studio. I have a great time using things like spectroscopy or scanning electron microscopes to figure out defects in clay bodies or glazes, and if I start to get a new crystal, what exactly the composition is so I can either get more or less. Throwing is very meditative for me and glaze chemistry appeals to my technical side. Currently, I've been trying to do more things with mattes, iron microcrystals, and trying to create interesting iridescent glazes based off manganese or molybdenum. Never enough time to do it all, though.
Anywho, I like to teach and give/share tips. Please anyone feel free to ask questions and I'll help when I can.
I'm trying to be better about both contributing to the crystalline craft, and shamelessly self promoting (in other corners of the interwebs). Here my little bit of my story...
I guess I'm genetically predisposed to making pots. My parents both have been making pots since the 60's/70's, and that's how they met. I was fortunate enough to be able to grow up messing around with mud and eating off of nice handmade stoneware and porcelain plates. However, I didn't really start putting any time into making things until late high school. It was around that time my father taught me two important life lessons. #1 - Handmade pottery makes a great present and #2 Girls like presents...
I started off doing raku, but we lived in a fairly suburban area. It was a little tricky because of all the smoke and the neighbors didn't appreciate it. So we did small loads and funny things like soak all our combustibles in used cooking oil. Turns out the neighbors don't call the cops on you when they just think you fry a lot of chicken outside at night.
My father starting making pots in Eureka, CA in the 60's with another great potter - Robbrect Troost (another forum member). Robert lived on the north shore of Oahu for a long time and somewhere around 2000, he started doing crystals. Dad and I decided to take a trip down there to visit and see what was going on, so we booked a flight and we ended up getting stuck in Oahu with Robert for the better part of a month due to the 9/11 tragedy and he taught us the ropes with crystalline.
It still took us a few years to get things working right with the different clays and chemicals, but we finally got there.
My parents, sister, and I all make pots, but we only do a combined ~30 hours a week at best. Just enough to pay for the studio/supplies and be able to buy other people's art.
I will do pots full time some day, but for now I develop bio-ceramics and devices for the medical industry. It's great to be able to see the industrial side of things (and what can be done when you can spend a few million to make perfect ceramic powders worth a few hundred dollars a gram) and use some of that experience to improve the work in the studio. I have a great time using things like spectroscopy or scanning electron microscopes to figure out defects in clay bodies or glazes, and if I start to get a new crystal, what exactly the composition is so I can either get more or less. Throwing is very meditative for me and glaze chemistry appeals to my technical side. Currently, I've been trying to do more things with mattes, iron microcrystals, and trying to create interesting iridescent glazes based off manganese or molybdenum. Never enough time to do it all, though.
Anywho, I like to teach and give/share tips. Please anyone feel free to ask questions and I'll help when I can.
