The Pissing Contest

Mine is bigger than yours! Ya well mine is wider! Ya well mine is hairer! Ya well I can piss farther than you!
I've seen some big kilns here in Seagrove and I've seen some big pots. I gotta say my favourite big pot man is David Steumpfle. If he would just change his name to something we could all spell he'd be more famous. David Leach would serve him well or maybe David Shaner. Steumpfle has even Spellcheck scratching it's bum.
David came to Starworks today to work with Dan, me and journeyman potter Jared on some big pots.  He makes it look soooooo  dang easy. David is so willing to share and help. Today was about sharing what he has learned thru trial and error. No ego just willingness to teach.
I had always thought you farted around with a small propane torch. No, David brought in a weed burner that could fire a raku kiln or melt tar for mending an asphalt road.
Big pots are something I'm not going to follow through on. You need a large kiln, a strong back, a weak mind and an indifference to success. I have always said the best bargain in the showroom is the big pot. Think how many coffee mugs you could have made to fill that space and how much you could have charged. Chances are the coffee mug will survive but put a large pot in a wood fired kiln and what are the chances of success?
David has followed Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour theory and has put in that many or more hours into big pots. It is the reason he does it so effortlessly and with a pretty good margin of success.
Tomorrow we go back at those big pots. I'm struggling at how to put expression into a form that requires so much control. I gotta sleep on this and maybe by morning I will figure out how to make control into something asymmetrical and something i can torture. Thanks David for today. Dan and I and so grateful  for your tutelage and that you work for whiskey.


Comments

Anonymous said…
Daniel and Kate Johnston each make some nice big pots. Be sure to catch up with them while you are in the greater metropolitan Seagrove area.


Popular Posts