[Clayart] Cookie cutters and commercial stamps

Sun Oct 27 12:54:10 UTC 2024

Hi LJ - 
You wrote:
"It's how those items are used that shows the creativity of the artist not whether or not the artist has made each of those tools."

Yes, absolutely.  I just think that making some of your own tools and stamps introduces an additional level of originality to anyone's work.  I always encouraged my students to look for interesting patterned or textured objects that could be used on clay, and they were very resourceful in the forests around the Appalachian Center for Craft.  I would never say anything to discourage people from buying Rick McKinney's stamps and rollers, or any other commercially-made pattern or texture tools.  But I have also found that people are often hesitant to make their own tools because they assume that store-bought tools will be better than any they can make themselves, and that's usually not true.  

This conversation has come up many times on Clayart.  During the approximately 15 years that I wrote the Tool Times column in Clay Times magazine, a good percentage of my writing was about making your own tools.  Unfortunately, the magazines are not available for free online.  ISSUU.com has them for $5.95 per PDF copy.  As a teaser they let you leaf through the first twenty pages or so online, but not far enough to get to my column.  

Regarding bisque stamps, check out the handout on my website.  It is remarkably easy to make bisque rollers and stamps with intricate patterns and textures.  If anyone is interested, look at the "Current and Recent Work" in the gallery on my website to see some of the patterns I create with the bisque stamps and rollers I have carved.  
- 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 Dragonbelly Ceramics via Clayart
Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2024 9:25 PM
To: Clayart international pottery discussion forum <clayart at lists.clayartforum.com>
Cc: Dragonbelly Ceramics <lisa at dragonbellyceramics.com>
Subject: Re: [Clayart] Cookie cutters and commercial stamps

But where do you draw the line? I use all sorts of found objects to texture pieces, from leaves from my garden to lace found at yard sales. While I do make bisque stamps, I've also purchased some rollers. Why? I'm not that skilled in carving designs.  I've even designed and 3D printed some. And I occasionally use printed letters.

It's how those items are used that shows the creativity of the artist not whether or not the artist has made each of those tools.

Another example: I use a strong arm centering tool to accommodate for arthritic changes in my wrists and thumbs. Without it, I can't center more than a small amount of clay before experiencing severe pain and I would have had to give up throwing a few years ago.

I just don't believe there are hard answers for what is or is not handmade.

Best,
LJ Cohen

On Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 7:06 PM Vince Pitelka via Clayart < clayart at lists.clayartforum.com> wrote:

> 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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