[Clayart] Cookie cutters and commercial stamps

[vincepitelka at gmail.com]

Hi Carolyn - 
Thanks for that message.  As much as I admire Rick McKinney and others who have created all sorts of pattern and texture tools for ceramics, I've never had any desire to use them.  I wish people had more confidence in their ability to create their own pattern and texture tools.  There's a good handout on the "Documents an Handouts" page of my website about making bisque stamps.  They are all I have ever used for the abundant pattern and texture on my work.  Sure, the influence for my stamps and rollers come from all sorts of historical sources, but I adapt them and make them my own.  It's amazing how many people think that the purchased tool somehow launches them ahead of the homemade tool, when exactly the opposite is true.  
- Vince

Vince Pitelka
Potter, Writer, Teacher
Chapel Hill, NC
vincepitelka at gmail.com 
www.vincepitelka.com 
https://chathamartistsguild.org/ 

-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart <clayart-bounces at lists.clayartforum.com> On Behalf Of Carolyn Curran via Clayart
Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2024 1:48 PM
To: Clayart international pottery discussion forum <clayart at lists.clayartforum.com>; Carolyn Curran <cncpots2 at gmail.com>
Cc: Carolyn Curran <cncpots2 at gmail.com>
Subject: [Clayart] Cookie cutters and commercial stamps

I guess the internet and other almost instant forms of communication have increased the number of.people who try their hand at marketing pottery while using someone else's motif on a cookie cutter and someone else's design done with a purchased stamp or roller.  The availability of inexpensive microwave kilns and mini potter's wheels is also a factor in the abundance of  what I might call simple  bread and butter items found at
many craft shows.   Yeah,  I  myself have used  "boughten" cookie cutters
for ornaments and so have many other clay artists,  but all of a sudden I am seeing a TON  of these  look alike ornaments appearing on Ebay and Etsy
and at shows.   I may be a clay snob,  but I bristle  when someone  shows
me a "mass produceable" ornament or other small doodad  they have purchased
at a craft show and compares it   favorably with a truly individual item.
I don't begrudge them their inexpensive Christma tree decoration, but it's getting so that  the general public is beginning to think  of these items as examples of  creative craftsmanship.  They may be "handcrafted", but most of them are not examples of creativity  but of simple copy work.  Did ancient potters think this way when the potter's wheel came on the scene?
And how about commercial glazes or other supplies  that are not made from
scratch?  Plaster molds?  Laser cut  designs and 3D printers?   Thoughts
from Carolyn, the potter currently. without studio
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