PLEASE ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF,

I’M A MAN OF CLAY AND GLAZE

PUSHED MUD AROUND FOR SEVENTY YEARS

OR TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND DAYS.

Robin Hopper is a man of many parts, mostly worn out, rusty or dysfunctional, due to a lifetime of excesses! He started working with clay at the age of three and is still doing it over 70 years later. His lengthy, peripatetic career as a mudpusher has included side trips into working as a Professional Actor, Stage Designer, Property Maker, Stage Manager, Stage Carpenter, Grocer, Greengrocer, Jazz Musician, Teapot, Wine and Beer-Bottle, Trumpet, Trombone and Bugle Player, European Travel Guide, Founder of Several Clay/Art/Craft Organizations, Alchemist, Geologist, Primatologist, Linguist, Ornithologist, Botanist, Ceramic Historian, Educator, Author, Garden Designer, Lecturer on Japanese Garden Design, Laborer and Star of Stage, Screen and Potter’s Wheel!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

COLOR MY WORLD




                                    HI EVERYONE, HAPPY NEW WEEK!

I’M GOING TO START THIS WEEK WITH A NEW IDEA, A THOUGHT OF THE WEEK SPECIAL FROM BOTH MY AND OTHER PEOPLES’ EXPERIENCES.  THE FIRST IS ABOUT GIVING THANKS. THIS ISN’T A SERMON, JUST OBSERVATIONS.


WAY BACK IN THE MID 1970’S WHEN I STARTED TO WRITE ANYTHING, I WROTE A SERIES OF ARTICLES FOR THE BRITISH CERAMIC MAGAZINE “CERAMIC REVIEW”. THEY WERE IN RESPONSE TO ONE OF THEIR READERS QUESTIONS ABOUT SIMPLIFIED GLAZE AND COLOR DEVELOPMENT. THE ARTICLES CAME OUT IN A THREE MONTH SEQUENCE, APRIL, MAY AND JUNE  1976.. I WAS STUNNED AT THE DEAFENING SOUND OF SILENCE THAT FOLLOWED.  IN THE FOLLOWING FIVE YEARS I RECEIVED FIVE LETTERS AND ABSOLUTELY NO OTHER FOLLOW UP. NATURALLY, I THOUGHT IT WAS OBVIOUSLY A WASTE OF TIME AND ENERGY AND I COULD USE MY TIME MORE PROFITABLY ELSEWHERE. SO I QUIT WRITING SINCE IT APPEARED OBVIOUS TO ME THAT NOBODY WAS INTERESTED OR THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE RESPONSE THAN FIVE LETTERS IN FIVE YEARS. THE WORLD OF THE WRITER IS PROBABLY MORE ISOLATED THAN ANY OTHER AND FEEDBACK RESPONSE TO WHAT YOU WRITE IS CRUCIAL TO THE WRITER’S MINDSET.  HEARING NOTHING CAN BE DEVASTATING. THE WRITER ISN’T LOOKING FOR PATS ON THE BACK, JUST PROOF THAT HE OR SHE ISN’T THE ONLY PERSON LEFT IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD, OR THAT HE OR SHE IS TALKING TO A VOID..


                                                             COLORS FROM COPPER



                                         COLORS FROM NICKEL IN VARIOUS GLAZE BASES



IN 1981, I WAS INVITED TO DO A THREE-MONTH TOUR OF WORKSHOPS THROUGHOUT AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.  PEOPLE KEPT COMING UP TO ME AND ASKING IF I WAS THE ROBIN HOPPER WHO WROTE THE GLAZE ARTICLES, AND WHY DID I STOP. I SAID ”BECAUSE I GOT ALMOST ZILCH RESPONSE FROM PEOPLE LIKE YOU!”

                                                   COLORS FROM CHROMIUM

WHEN I RETURNED HOME TO CANADA THERE WAS A HUGE PILE OF MAIL WAITING TO BE DEALT WITH. ONE OF THEM WAS FROM THE LATE TOM MARSH, OF U.LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, USA, A FINDER OF NEW AUTHORS FOR THE CHILTON BOOK COMPANY.  THEY WERE LOOKING FOR A GLAZE AND COLOR BOOK TO FOLLOW UP ON DANIEL RHODES’ “CLAY AND GLAZES FOR THE POTTER”  I SAID I MIGHT BE INTERESTED BUT DIDN’T THINK THERE WOULD BE MANY SALES, AND MY TIME WAS VALUABLE, CITING THE NEGATIVE RESPONSE TO THE ARTICLES IN CERAMIC REVIEW. TOM TOLD ME IN REPLY THAT HE KNEW OF PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD USING MY ARTICLES AS COURSE TEXTS IN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, AS WELL AS BY STUDIO ARTISTS.  I WAS LITERALLY DUMBSTRUCK AS I HAD NO IDEA OF THIS. AS FAR AS I WAS CONCERNED, THERE WERE ONLY FIVE INTREPID SOULS WHO HAD EVER READ THEM! SO I AGREED TO WRITE THE BOOK AND TITLED IT “THE CERAMIC SPECTRUM”. IT WAS PUBLISHED IN 1984 AND IS STILL GOING VERY STRONG NEARLY THIRTY YEARS LATER. THINK WHAT MORE I COULD HAVE WRITTEN IN THOSE INTERIM  YEARS. HALFWAY THROUGH WRITING “SPECTRUM” I STARTED THINKING OF ALL THE BOOKS I USED TO LOOK FOR THAT JUST WERE NOT THERE SO I WROTE “FUNCTIONAL POTTERY: POTS OF PURPOSE”.   HALFWAY THROUGH THAT I THOUGHT THERE
NEEDED TO BE AN IN-DEPTH BOOK ON THE CERAMIC SURFACE. IT BECAME “MAKING MARKS”.  BETWEEN THEM THEY DEALT  WITH ALMOST ALL ASPECTS OF A CERAMIC OBJECT. – FORM, SURFACE AND TECHNOLOGY – A CERAMIC TRILOGY.

SO THE MORAL OF THIS STORY IS: IF YOU READ SOMETHING, BE IT BLOG, BOOK OR ARTICLE, THAT CHANGES YOUR LIFE OR THOUGHT PATTERNS AND  IMPROVES YOUR UNDERSTANDING,  THEN JUST JOT DOWN A LITTLE NOTE AND SEND IT TO THE AUTHOR. THAT SINGLE POSITIVE ACT COULD ELEVATE THE WRITERS PSYCHE, MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD AND POSSIBLY BRING FORTH MORE.  NOW, IS THAT SO REVOLUTIONARY – SAYING THANKS OR GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE.  AT THE TIME WHEN I WAS GROWING UP SAYING “THANKS” WAS AN EXPECTATION. IN TODAYS “GIMME, GIMME”  SOCIETY IT APPEARS TO BE A DISTINCT RARITY. IN PSYCHOLOGICAL TERMS IT IS CALLED ”POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT”.
 

 

 COLORED CRYSTALLINE GLAZES – CONE 6 ELECTRIC  FIRING



 

6 comments:

  1. I agree- which is why I leave a stone (O) to show that I've visited...or would you prefer ripples in a pool? ((o))..

    Thanks to Zhoen of "One Word" blog for the idea.

    People don't comment as they don't know what to say, or have nothing to add to what has been written.

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  2. Robin, I'm with you all the way here. I remember when "Making Marks" first came out. It was a godsend in my world. I came up to visit you and brought the book with me for you to sign. We talked about the book in the car on the way back to the ferry. I told you it made me really think about what I was saying with my work. That thought has been part of what I teach my students every week. Thank you.

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  3. You are correct about receiving feedback. And I am guilty for not responding or commenting most of the time. The first ceramic book that I purchased for myself was one of yours, The Ceramic Spectrum. Since then, I have purchased the others. They are the most referenced books that I own. Thank you.

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  4. Hi Robin,

    It's too bad the internet wasn't around when you first wrote those articles. Page loads tell you how many people are interested in what you have written. When I was first starting to work with glazes, yours was one of the books I checked out of the library and then made extensive notes about which colors worked best with which fluxes. Thanks for taking the time to do all of that research.

    John Post

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  5. Hi Robin, Well i'm one of those folks you are addressing above...i've been a full time potter for over 27 years now, and 2 out of the 3 books you refer to are in my studio! Spectrum has been one of my constant references over the years, and the book on Functional pottery has well pawed pages and lots of notes added here and there! they have greatly influenced by life as a potter....so here i am now, many years later, say...a huge thank you.....and i'm sorry i haven't done this before! this new blog is wonderful, i'm totally enjoying reading all that you write....and the caps don't feel like shouting....and as you can see, i'm kinda the opposite....all lower case, just enables me to type faster!!!

    I'm a graduate of Sheridan College, 1982....and have lived most of my Canadian life (originally from Scotland), in Ontario. I've attended quite a few lectures etc given by you and always loved your personality! i now live on Cape Breton Island, a stunningly beautiful place, and with a newish studio, i'm reinventing myself once more. but your books are still here and are much loved!

    cheers, and i really look forward to each blog.

    best wishes, Linda Wright.

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  6. Good Morning Robin; As you know I took your glaze course several years ago. My classmates had many years of experience on me. You strongly recommended that I keep my eyes and ears open. I did! I returned home with my head filled with information that I didn't understand until years later. Strangely and luckily, now as I work in my studio, my excellent instructors words come back to me as I throw pots and make glazes. I hear their voices even with their inflections in my head, reminding how to create different forms. I hear your voice as I make glazes and consider alterations. If I don't know what element to consider changing, I head to your books: Ceramic Spectrum and others. My copy of Ceramic Spectrum has color coded tabs de-marcating a variety of sections for easy access to a subject matter. Last year, I was talking with another ceramic artist, who suggested that I teach a glazing course. I laughed because I feel that I know so very little on this subject. Listening to her, I realized how many potters have little to no knowledge of how their glazes are constructed. I thank you for the push to continue to learn.

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