Do-It-Yourself

In the past all potters were do-it-yourselfers. Now DIY thinking is being mocked. Has the pendulum swung so far the other way that suppliers are teaching us helplessness to increase their profits? And educators to reduce their workload?

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DIY means "do-it-yourself". The opposite and increasingly popular thinking pattern is DIFM (do-it-for-me), DIFY (do-it-for-you) or DFM (done-for-you). DIFYs mock DIY, calling it "DI-Why bother". Throwing money at problems, outsourcing, contracting out has made many people rich in big business but it has also sky-rocketed prices and created increasing helplessness in companies. This thinking is filtering down into every aspect of life, including pottery and ceramics, increasing our costs and reducing our abilities.

DIFM is a new dragon in pottery. It is not just happening among hobby potters, but even among the pros. It could be termed learned helplessness. It is about convenience and skipping the fundamentals. It often ends up being about paying prices for glazes that would have mortified our forebears (e.g. $250 for the glaze needed for one $50 box of clay). It is harming others because the short-cutting is often done to quickly create ware and sell it for high prices, often flooding the retail pottery market with ware that should be relegated to the learning process, given as gifts to family or just trashed. DIYers are people who make hundreds, even thousands of pieces to perfect their skill. They make at least some of their own glazes and they know why they do it. They notice things like crazing and do what is necessary to prevent it. They are aware of leaching and know how to sanity check glazes. They know that safety labels on glaze jars are not what they seem. They know the difference between and dipping glaze, brushing glaze and first coat dipping glaze. They know what crawling is, what causes it and how to prevent it. They know how to mix plaster and use it. They know how to throw properly. Even make their own molds and do slip casting. DIYers save a lot of money and can create a sustainable business.

At Digitalfire we are passionate about do-it-yourself. That is the way to understand the materials and processes and produce better quality ware. It is amazing that even in industry DIY is dying. Manufacturers are depending more and more on suppliers, not just for products but they also outsource know-how to them.

Related Information

Smash Pots to Make Better Ones!

Learn their dirty little secrets.

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One dirty secret that a fracturing piece can tell you is: "I am weak, easily broken". I just filled two five-gallon pails and three boxes (I use a nylon hammer, and safety glasses, of course). Every type of clay and glaze I use. Every temperature. I started with a commercial Denby stoneware piece to get a feel for how quality ware should break. It becomes immediately evident which pieces are weak by the way they shatter (and how high a strength-bar commercial ware sets). Breaks with knife-like edges indicate strong body/glaze combos. Strong ware breaks into fewer pieces. Crazed ware is really weak. Ware with glaze compression (even if not shivering) explodes on impact. Low-fire ware can be very strong when glazes fit (and even better when it is fired to cone 03 or 02). High-fire ware can be surprisingly weak (if not vitreous or glaze fit is poor). This is an example where individual potters can take responsibility for ware quality and learn when to avoid DIFM thinking.

Michael Cardew might be turning over in his grave!

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This post got a lot of negative reaction on social media. To be clear, I work both sides of the fence, making my living on selling prepared glazes and clay bodies but I get my satisfaction being closer to the materials and processes. That is what enables me to give customer support. I am not an artist, ceramic art is outside the scope of this page. For part of my life in the craft of pottery I am also guilty of what I lament below. In all my years dealing with customer traffic at our store I have never once had a customer that was offended by seeing new clay and glaze recipes we are discovering in the studio and lab, that are better and cheaper than prepared ones. But online some are somehow offended by what follows. 80 manufacturers are selling convenience and encouraging disconnection - although I work for one of them I am a voice of caution about this.

This book was once a “Bible” of hobby and professional potters. They were independent and resourceful. They made their own clays and glazes, knew the materials, built their own kilns. Now we scan social media sites for ideas on layering expensive prepared goopy brushing glazes and hope they melt together into something presentable. Many have even forgotten how to wedge clay properly. We describe processes using mystical art language and exchange likes and poor advice on social media. Those who still know how to retotal a recipe and venture into mixing their own often end up in the online trafficking of an endless parade of recipes that don’t work. Now we even outsource design to AI. Even Nigeria, the very country about whom Cardew wrote, has lost its pottery tradition.

I never appreciated the book back there. Even though he came to visit us in 1973. I have always just taken whatever clay I needed out of our warehouse, but now that I very often make my own clay it really resonates. I got this copy on eBay, I value it as an inspiration to be more closely connected with the planet and the minerals it gifts us (of course I would not do everything as he does). He was no dinosaur, he understood and taught glaze chemistry and material mineralogy, his work was the basis for many prepared glazes we buy today. "Progress" is defined by some as convenience products that make modern ceramics easy. But I believe that, for many, progress is arming yourself with a little more understanding - it enables making better quality ware, in less time, for less expense and time than with prepared products.

By Tony Hansen
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