This newspaper has undergone some real changes since the current
management took over. Among the most evident is the introduction of
more
“lifestyle” features, so, I decided to join in. One new section
is an entire page on “collectibles.” Of course, one person’s
collectible is another person’s junk. You just have to know which
is which.
This newspaper has undergone some real changes since the current management took over. Among the most evident is the introduction of more “lifestyle” features, so, I decided to join in. One new section is an entire page on “collectibles.” Of course, one person’s collectible is another person’s junk. You just have to know which is which.
I attended the Somerset Auction at the Community Center one recent weekend. It was the first time that I had been to a Somerset or any other commercial auction. My only experience had been with a couple of estate auctions and that is a whole different thing. In those cases, I had known someone in the family.
Commercial auctions are like buying on E-bay. You have to know what you are buying and who you are buying from. Most often really knowing what you are buying will tell you a lot about who you are buying from.
I only had to sit until the third lot to learn something about Somerset Auctions, and that is because I know something about pottery. The item was listed as a “Hand Painted Cinabar and White Porcelain Vase.” Then, the auctioneer started pitching the idea that the vase was glazed with “ox-blood” glaze, which he claimed to be very difficult to achieve and mentioned the element gold.
As a potter, I knew this to be completely bogus. For one thing, cinnabar could only be described as a color of a glaze. It is the color of red mercury oxide, or what some of us remember as mercurochrome. Ox-blood glaze is something totally different. Glazes made with Cinnabar ore would not fire to that color red.
Ox blood, on the other hand, is a fairly common glaze achieved by the use of copper (oxide or carbonate) at fairly high temperatures in a reduction atmosphere. Sometimes, the copper reds come from a use of copper, tin and iron oxides together.
So, what did I learn? I leaned that the auctioneer was pitching something that he knew little or nothing about. It pays to know what you are thinking of buying. From that knowledge, you can make some judgment about the person or organization that you are buying from. I would not purchase any ceramics from Somerset based solely on what they said about the lot. There might be a deal involved, but probably not. There is surely a better way to purchase fine objects than this.
As a potter, I learn a lot from the conversations on CLAYART, an email discussion list for potters and ceramic artists. One of the subjects for discussion recently has been the “psychological value of hand-made items.” It is important for craft workers to understand this because it is what we do. We make things by hand, or with the help of a few simple tools.
I think that there is some connection between the motivation I have for making pottery and the reasons that others have for buying it. We live in an age in which there is an increasing reliance on technology. Every day, we are urged to buy the latest entertainment, music, movie, game or whatever.
The Christmas gift season we just passed through featured ever more capable gadgets to hold our attention, Even when we use television to watch the news, we get increasingly shorter segments with more eye-catching, emotion jangling effects and less true content, if facts and ideas count as content anymore.
When we work with our hands, there is nothing else. Our attention remains focused on what we do and how we do it. If I make something that does not please me, the best solution is to take a hammer to it. But when it is right, it is something totally different from this silicon imaged world. It restores a balance to life. Morning coffee just tastes better in a mug that seems specially made to fit your own hand.
Hand-made does not necessarily mean folk art. There was a potter from Germany, an instructor at the Bauhasu, who eventually settled in Marin County. If you ever find a Margurite Wildenhain piece, buy it. Her work was the epitome of high-style modern European design. There is now a potter in Fremont named Brent Johnson. He was a student of Wildenhain and combines her sense of form and style with techniques of decoration learned from Shimaoka, a Japanese potter currently designated as a “living national treasure.” Unique creations are all around us.
Our list had some very successful potters who talk about taking the time to develop a clientele within a 50-mile radius. Within 50 miles on Morgan Hill, there are more than 1 million people and surely that is a fairly sizable market.
I would turn this around for those who art attracted to the art or the craftsmanship to be found in the hand made. The point is that there are many highly capable artisans around within the same 50 miles. It takes a little work to find them, but it will surely be worth the trouble. Just as I need to develop my 50-mile market, as a purchaser, you need to do the same.
“Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on this Earth.” – Roberto Clemente
