[JBaymore]

For those that celebrate with a gift -giving traditions at this time of year..........


Did any ceramics making related presents magically materialize for you this holiday season?




Check out joining the Potters Council ( www.potterscouncil.org ) for more networking possibilities, peer mentoring opportunities, discounts on books, magazines, and DVDs, health insurance, credit card merchant programs, and many other member benefits.

[ericthepotter]

My wife got me a copy of the book "Marguerite Wildenhain & the Bauhaus". It's a book about the famed Pond Farm potter and was edited by Dean Schwarz who was a student of Marguerite and my college pottery instructor. I've admired this book for several years and was so surprised and thrilled to get it!

[SShirley]

I got a really nice, heavy duty dolly that converts to a 4 wheeler. Boy, do I have plans for that! My husband knows better than to give me jewelry or frilly stuff. Tools are my favorite gifts!

[Brian Reed]

yup got a giffin grip. I think I will like it for vases.

[Mark McCombs]

Gift certificates which will be traded in for glaze material.



:-)

[Conniefi]

Going to buy ceramic canvas with gift certificate. Maybe some glazes too....

[scoobydoozie]

I received a portable 16x16 light box with lights and camera stand for photographing my ceramic works! Charged my camera batteries and will be snapping away this weekend.

[ayjay]

My kiln controller expired a few days before Christmas, an unexpected and expensive nuisance but a blessing in disguise. I managed to get hold of a replacement s/h unit supplied by a local kiln specialist, it's a better model than the previous one, I can now programme in controlled cooling. He's also fitted two contactor switches in the kiln so I no longer have 6+KW going through the relay in the controller which is what fried it in the first place.

I'd already bought myself a heat gun, (I like doing crack-pots) and a tiny set of digital druggies scales for making up small batches of glaze for tests.

I'm not sure if they count as pressies if you buy them yourself - but you do get exactly what you want that way. :Dsrc="http://ceramicartsdaily.org/community/public/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif">

[Deanna]

JBaymore, on 26 December 2012 - 09:51 AM, said:

For those that celebrate with a gift -giving traditions at this time of year..........


Did any ceramics making related presents magically materialize for you this holiday season?

Yes! I got "The Pot Book" by Edmund de Waal. Beautiful! I also received a wonderfully decorated little ceramic box made by Mark Nafzier.


Check out joining the Potters Council ( www.potterscouncil.org ) for more networking possibilities, peer mentoring opportunities, discounts on books, magazines, and DVDs, health insurance, credit card merchant programs, and many other member benefits.

[Iforgot]

I got the decorating with majolica dvd from the CAD bookstore.

[Iforgot]

Mark McCombs, on 26 December 2012 - 03:51 PM, said:

Gift certificates which will be traded in for glaze material.



:-)

Me too!

[winchellclayworks]

Santa (aka the whole family) chipped in and bought me a Shimpo Aspire wheel

[TJR]

I BOUGHT THE JOHN BRITT GLAZE BOOK. A STEAL AT $21.00 CANADIAN. I THINK IT WAS ONLY $17.00 U.S. I keep it by my bed and read it every night. Luxury!.I am also looking at buying a set of 3 metal snowmobile dollies from Costco for $20.00. Man, I am a big spender. Life is pretty good!
Greetings of the season to everyone. Feel free to wish me a Merry Christmas.
Tom Roberts[TJR]

[fuoco di forno]

Yes! I got a 5-days workshop (payed by my husband) at the ceramic school La Meridiana, in Tuscany. Will leave tomorrow, Jan 3. I'am so looking forward to the workshop and to Tuscany.
Happy New Year to all Potters Council and Forum members!

Evelyne

[kilnpriestess]

Shards and more shards thrown-up by the Hong Kong’s ocean currents, that’s what I put under my Christmas tree this year. I was lucky to visit Hong Kong during Christmas this year (my husband and I often go there during the holiday season to visit his family) and I was able to get a ferry to one of my most treasured beaches for collecting shards from the South China Sea. This year I found a couple of shards with the whole oval design of my favorite blue and white motif—a stylized folk-art linear crane (bird) with the what appears to be the body and tail of a fish. In addition to locating my cache of shards this year (I have been recontextualizing them as elements in my latest body of conceptual sculptural work) my husband and I traveled by ferry to the city of Zhuhai where we found several whole teacups decorated with this simple pattern! I was thrilled to be able to afford two of these vintage cups and finally be able to add them to my collection of daily ceramic ware from a few generations ago. (I would describe these teacups as once-common goods from a by-gone-era that are old, but not bona fide antiques.) I like collecting unbroken old ware that was once produced in the regions around Hong Kong because these rather roughly produced types of china represent the kinds of dishes that people in the region regularly used.

Kong and I were happily surprised to find several teacups bearing the crane pattern design in the tea-ware shop in Zhuhai because up until this time I had only been able to locate a degraded version of this cobalt transfer design, which had been shoddily applied to very crude bowls that were being sold in a Hong Kong store specializing in restaurant supplies and dishes. The bowls were crammed under a lot of other merchandize in the back ofthe store and even the owner had forgotten about them. Although the Zhuhai teacups are not really old antiques, they were a bit costly just the same. (As Hong Kong and China becomes grander, it also becomes all the more expensive.) The rest of the lovely shop where I stumbled upon the crane patterned teacups was crammed full of very expensive Yixing teapots and heavenly blue and white porcelains. Everything, including the tea was beyond my pay grade as a Senior Lecturer at the University Brunei Darussalam. (Kong and I made the over-night trip to Zhuhai so that we could leave a copy of my book and other materials with our acquaintance, the Vice-Chancellor of the United International College inZhuhai. We also had lunch with the faculty responsible for arranging student exchange positions in the hopes of learning about any possibilities for sending our students abroad. None of this was sponsored by these institutions, so I was frugal with my Christmas money this year and only purchased the twolovely crane bowls to put under our tree.)

I hope that next year that I can again visit Hong Kong for Christmas to collect more shards and perhaps buy a piece of Chinese history by way of, once common, but now rare, service-ware.

[Dinah]

I bought The Pot by Edmund De Waal last year. If you don't have this in your book shelf, shame on you! Don't waste money on crap How To videos or some such. Buy this book. Also, check out De Waal's conversations with curator at The V&A Museum, London, UK. Looooong interviews. And I recall a lovely interview on BBC World Service a couple of months ago. Revelatory. Inspirational. You will find yourself wanting to be more articulate and knowledgeable about your subject matter. And why not? No excuses. Nobody respects the tongue tied inarticulate artist/maker living in a garret. [Please, not mocking anyone who has issues.] His Hare with the Amber Eyes is also a must read. Puts EDW into context. I'd also like to pass along in a totally random golly I like these UK potters: Robert Cooper with some incredible tea caddies. Weep and learn. Yoko Sekino-Bove with some wonderful glazes; and Fliff Carr with just some lovely designs. That's it.

Always happy to get your ping back with your offerings too.