2 Ceramics Monthly William C. Hunt........................................ Editor Barbara Tipton ...................... Associate Editor Robert L. Creager ........................ Art Director Ruth C. Butler.............................. Copy Editor Valentina Rojo ....................... Editorial Assistant Mary Rushley............... Circulation Manager Connie Belcher .... Advertising Manager Spencer L. Davis .............................. Publisher Editorial, Advertising and Circulation Offices 1609 Northwest Boulevard Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212 (614) 488-8236 Ceramics Monthly (ISSN 0009-0329) is published monthly except July and August by Professional Publications, Inc.—S. L. Davis, Pres.; P. S. Emery, Sec.: 1609 North­ west Blvd., Columbus, Ohio 43212. Second Class postage paid at Columbus, Ohio. Subscription Rates:One year SI 8, two years $34, three years $45. Add $5 per year for subscriptions outside the U.S.A. Change of Address:Please give us four weeks advance notice. 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All rights reserved December 1985 3 4 C eramics Monthly Ceramics Monthly Volume 33, Number 10 December 1985 Feature Articles A Rational View of Wood Ash by Robert Tichane .............................................. 24 Ceramic Criticism................................................... 26 Patrick Crabb .......................................................... 29 An Architectural Clay Studio by Peter King...................................................... 30 Kentucky Clay......................................................... 37 Judy Trim................................................................. 38 The National Craft Showroom by Leta Clark ...................................................... 40 Faenza Prizewinners ’85......................................... 44 Bad Manners by Marilyn Lysohir............................................. 48 Departments Letters to the Editor.................................................. 7 Questions.................................................................. 11 Itinerary.................................................................... 13 Where to Show......................................................... 16 Suggestions............................................................... 19 Comment: Ceramic Art and Communication by Rodger Wood.................................................. 21 News & Retrospect.................................................. 53 Technical: Evaluating Clay Bodies by Robert Schmitz............................................... 69 New Books................................................................ 75 Classified Advertising............................................. 76 Film & Video............................................................ 77 Ceramics Monthly Index: January-December 1985.................................... 79 Index to Advertisers................................................ 80 The Cover Detail of “Bad Manners,” a life-size installation sculpture by Pullman, Washington, ceramist Marilyn Lysohir. Handbuilt food and flowers, thrown plates, cups, saucers and candlesticks were underglazed, clear glazed and fired to Cone 04 in an electric kiln. Figures were slab built, coated with colored terra sigillata, burnished and fired to Cone 04 in a gas kiln; chairs and table substructure are made of wood. For more information and a view of the whole installation, see the article beginning on page 48. Photo: Rick Semple. December 1985 5 6 Ceramics Monthly Letters Bartering Your Work trade. After I had won the “Golden Hands” was scraping clay under his fingernails as he Well, well. I just returned from Japan award two years in a row, they were worried weighed it. Later, he would clean his fin­ to find that Ross Murphy, famed for his widely that I would win it a third time and they gernails and bank his “profit.” No one knows unread but widely commented on article would have to retire the trophy. Naturally, just how much he got away with. dealing with selling (“How to Sell Your Pots this caused a bit of resentment and a number It was a world gone mad. Clay! Clay! Clay! Profitably,” June/July/August, 1984), hasof death threats. It was all that mattered. With each fresh finally seen the light and given in to the sur­ Well, I was worried; I admit it. I’m just strike the whole region broke out in a new vival instincts of the egalitarian potters’ com­ a potter; I have feet of clay. At least it looks epidemic of clay fever. munity. The IRS will undoubtedly do a lot like it until I wash them. Everyone was occupied with either getting of auditing of potters because of “Bartering I heard that the diggings were good in it, gambling it or hiding it away. One old Your Work” (November CM). Knowing the New York, so thither I slunk. I had several miner became a recluse; we used to see him U.S. government and its machinations, they good years there, but then the clay ran out. scurrying down alleys, searching through trash will want to check up on everyone who has As luck would have it, I heard they had cans, and collecting old newspapers and bot­ read this article. So if you haven’t read it, struck clay in Kansas. I painted my wagon tles, which he piled up all around his house. you’re safe; but if you have, just pretend thatand off I went, arriving right at the peak of Everyone thought he didn’t have a dime. He you can’t read—remember, you’re an artist the clay rush. I wish you could have seen it. disappeared finally, and after a while they and just visual. Prospectors and miners, camp followers, all figured he must have gone off and died, But back to my main point: It was good whiskey peddlers, cardsharps and swindlers, or was bushwhacked. They searched his house to see Murphy do a double back flip with a and all with that greedy glint in their eyes, and made a surprising discovery: he didn’t full twist out of the neocapitalistic, profit- all believing they were going to strike it rich. have a dime. oriented, nonfunk marketing strategy to be­ I bought me an outfit and soon had staked That’s the way it was: some made it big come a worth-based, new-right-survivalistic, three claims. Two of them didn’t pan out, and some didn’t. well-groomed, ceramics accountant with and I sold the third for a pittance. If I had Of course, I finally got lucky and won the nonsocialized dental care. The only compa­ only worked that claim two more days. .. but Claymore Mine in a showdown game of Cra­ rable ceramics gymnastics which comes to what good does it do to ponder the impon­ zy Eights. I’ve never tried to work it real mind is the time I watched Herbert Fliffis derable, to think the unthinkable, to screw hard, being content to produce just enough try to modify his potter’s wheel. Fliffis had with the inscrutable? Folly, I say! But if Ito keep the sheriff from the door. just received plans from John Branney for had just dug a little more, do you think I Wellsir, I guess I saw it all. When the the use of an AC, sync-generated polarized would still be here? No, I would be in Monte bottom dropped out, everyone left for the next motor to drive a kick wheel. Herbert and his Carlo, or Sydney or Paris instead! boomtown, still with that hopeful glaze in friend, Big Daddy Don Grogletts, decided Of course others were hitting respectable their eyes. They all took off, that is, except that if it worked for that type motor it would veins. I’ve seen many miners come into town those that are sleeping peacefully in Potter’s be better to use an old dragster’s alternator. with lumps of clay as big as your fist. The Field. Fliffis only made two errors. First, he forgot saloons were booming. I was there the day I’m all done with chasing rainbows. So to remove the alternator from the super­ that George van Loon, now known as “The what if they call me “Old-Timer.”