Joseph's Research Journal

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Making coils is so relaxing now, I find it so easy to get lost in the process of rolling. And if I had time I would just fill the board with coils but I didn't have time today.

This pot has a base with was paddled out to the right thickness.  The bottom coil of the pot was paddled out to a uniform before being added to the base, which really helped with getting that section to the right thickness where it is harder to fit the tools.

[josephsresearch-blog]

I keep finding more similarities to music and making craft, and Wood's writing always fascinates me. 

It is something I have thought about before when it comes to teaching, giving a narrow focus to learn.  From this we can then teach why they use those details in the object, and how they might use details like that in future work.

[josephsresearch-blog]

This week I was working on the way I touch the clay and the marks I leave in the making process.

The process of making coils is relaxing to my mind as is throwing.  It is becoming a process that is so repetitive it is almost meditative.  I need to try and move on to describing how I make it is I go along, to practise before filming.

[josephsresearch-blog]

Researcher Development 5th November

While listening to Lucy Wright's talk on the Researcher Development program talking about her methodology, I suddenly made connections with my own work.

"thinking through making" and then "thinking through making together"

Combined with the fact is was all about performance, I started to think how this related to my own work.  From the workshops I have taken and the ones I have taught, I would split it into two parts.

Part 1:

Teaching ceramics in an informal setting starts with a performance of the teacher making, going through how the technique is used and why.  It is usually big and bold and eye catching. The teacher is thinking through making.

Part 2:

Then the whole class goes about trying to repeat the teachers techniques to make their own design.  The teacher offers advice and critique and hands on close up if they deem it essential.  This is the whole class thinking through making together.

I have been to workshops and demonstrations that are just part 1 and makers use this performance to sell pots because thinking through making helps tell a story that people can relate to in the work.  It is making me think about how important the performance is in non formal teaching.

Adam Field marking the cup ready for carving porcelain

[josephsresearch-blog]

The Craftsman by R. Sennet (2009)

There are two quotes of the many from this book that seem to relate to how the practical side of the research has been developing. 

"Doing something over and over is stimulating when organised as looking ahead" (page 175)

"Boredom is as important a stimulus to craftsmanship as it is in play; becoming bored the craftsman looks what else he can do with the tools at hand" (page 273)

These two quotes almost a hundred pages apart seem to fit together so well.  I have been making coils over and over again with a look to teaching them at some point in the research process, but I have been bored with the results. 

I want to make something that can't easily be made on the wheel, so I looked around for things that could change things.  using a makeshift Korean style hammer and anvil changed the feeling of the object, and I have started trying to thing of found objects people taking a class remotely could easily find and use.

[josephsresearch-blog]

I have settled with 1 kg segments of clay they make decent sized coils which make a good sized piece of pottery.  At first I went through the same process as before using a metal rib to smooth off at the end, and it  just doesn't feel right.

Then on the second piece I discovered a piece of wood under my bench, and it started taking it away from just a round object that could just be made on the wheel, with the addition of an anvil which is actually a hump mould it started thinning the clay, adding texture and it started changing.

[josephsresearch-blog]

Although I love to pot, I am beginning to question whether the world needs any more stuff. We are weighed down by objects. I think there is some future in using my ceramic knowledge to make and fire sculptures, the performances seem to provoke creativity

Having read Sebastian Blackie's "Dear Mr Leach" it was this one quote  that really stuck out in regards to my research.  It also hit home to me on a personal level as it is something I have struggled with, I really don't have the desire to make more "stuff".

At the same time I love the process and I love showing other people the process involved in making an object, from throwing to hand building.  The process is a living thing whereas the object at the end just seems like a dead lifeless thing.

[josephsresearch-blog]

The Kiln Question

For Weeks I had something stuck in my head that I named "the kiln question" It was along the lines of even if I am teaching beginners online they won't have access to a kiln and won't be learning the skill of kiln management.

After watching "Julian Stair: Quietus - A Documentary" and how he was using the kilns at the brick factory and presumably their kiln technicians it stopped the question dead.  If people want to fire their work and don't have a kiln, they will find a way and don't need to learn kiln management unless they plan to make it a career.

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Making coils a few weeks ago as part of the practical part of the research

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Master's by Research

Back in September I started a Master's by research program, my research is into ceramics and how it can be best taught via an on-line course