How to Win Converts and Influence Students

Abstract

In the creation of a work of pottery, not only the intent of the artist and the actions of the potter’s hands but also the properties of the material from which the object is being made must be taken into account. Those properties extend beyond the immediate state of the clay as it is being molded as well as the way in which that material changes as it is fired and as it ages. There is a reciprocal interaction between the materials and the artist. The potter chooses different clays for different purposes and alters his/her pressure on the material and the time and temperature of its firing to suit the properties of the particular clay. The wrong method for the wrong clay does not succeed. But beyond the success or failure of the production process, the shape that is made constrains only weakly what the object’s contents will be. From the look of a bowl one cannot predict with any accuracy the history of what it will contain during its lifetime.