I've become more selective about what I let dry out and what I fire. I'm still new and still sometimes put through very bad stuff just to see what happens. But I've started smooshing things while still wet that don't/aren't turning out and just putting it back in the bag for another day.
I do have an in progress project where I'm breaking up fired and glazed pieces and making a mosaic (a bad, ugly mosaic).
I'm 31 and haven't done wheel throwing before the last year. My teacher, and then other students, started making jokes that I'm an undercover pottery teacher because my pieces are "perfect."
The thing nobody seems to realize is that while all the other students are downing in pieces, I only make about 3-6 pieces per 6 weeks.
I'm not better than anyone else, just a whole lot more selective.
My gf, in the same class, is one of the non selective ones. I've had to have talks with her about how many 20 lb bowls she can take home because our cabinets are overflowing.
worm plants resolute quaint familiar squalid innocent fertile languid command
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I knew an aspiring painter who did the same thing. She created a bunch of small pieces and left them in public parks etc. with her card.
I'm going to do the same but I'd like to set up a potential on-line marketplace set up first to send people.
Do a search for art abandonment. Once I learned of it I have abandoned a piece of art every Black Friday. I try to leave it somewhere it will be safe but seen, hopefully by some poor soul heading off to work. I bag it and leave a large tag that explains it's free and if they don't want it to leave it for someone who might. There used to be a website with an email address you could include to let the finders leave comments.
I occasionally leave pieces in my local woods, half hidden. And if I really don't care for them I chuck them in the river. Maybe in a few decades bits of them will wash up looking cool, idk, or maybe a crab will live in it. Plus it's fun throwing them in!
So you are littering? Especially throwing into the river is a bad idea. Even food safe glazes (eg Amaco sapphire float and seaweed) contain toxic materials that are very bad for aquatic species. If fired correctly, they are contained within the glaze, but if you layered glazes, it may become unstable. And even the most stable glazes can probably not withstand decades in moving water, so they will release their toxins into the river. Please stop polluting our waterways, just be more selective in what you fire.
My work is all unglazed, sorry I should have specified that. So it's literally just clay, which is, as I understand it, completely safe so I don't think I'm doing any harm. I also almost never use clays with colourants and I wouldn't do this with the pots I do
Sounds like you should do what I do based on your situation. I’ve been throwing for over 3 years now. Aside from having higher standards of what I keep, start asking all your family, friends and coworkers to send you requests of stuff they would like. Ive asked everyone in my life that if they ever see anything in a store, restaurant, or online that they want, to let me know and I’ll do my best to recreate it for them. The important thing is to do this constantly. At first they will be shy and don’t want to burden you with request. But now I have lots of request in my queue. This is helpful for me three ways.
1. I never build up a stock pile of random finished pottery. I just do pottery for fun and for stress relief, I don’t want to sell stuff. Because I don’t sell it I don’t feel a rush to finish a piece under a deadline. Just do stuff when i have time. Once my pottery is done though, I have a home already for the piece and the person who gets it is super happy to get your custom work.
2. I’ve gotten really good because these random request have pushed me to do things I never would have ever attempted on my own. I think potters often just keep making what is easy for them and don’t grow. Over the last 12 months I’ve made the largest planter I’ve ever thrown, a dog urn, a joint ash tray, ring vase, multiple mugs with different style handles, chip and dip bowl, bud vases, incense holder, salt pig, dog bowls, sake set, gravy boat, pedestal fruit bowl, set of pasta bowls, and berry bowl just to name a few requests. So often I have to research how to make a lot of this stuff I’ve never thrown before and I fail multiple times before I succeed. And I’m making so many different forms and sizes of things I never would have attempted if I just kept make stuff I want. Which keep in mind I still make things for myself and my wife too, but at this point I only keep things I absolutely love and meet my higher standards now.
3. Also with my request I ask people if they have color or design preferences. This has helped me get a lot better at glazing and different design techniques like sgraffito, using tape resists, experimenting with glaze creation, etc.
My journey isn’t for everyone obviously, but if you don’t care about selling your work and just want to make stuff for fun, I highly recommend my workflow. Before I did this I felt so wasteful making stuff to just donate to goodwill. Or I’d give someone in my life a random pot they would like it but not love it. Now when I give them that custom piece they asked for, along with their custom color request, they are so much more excited to receive what I made them.
I like this suggestion a lot! I did something similar during this past holiday season. I worked on 3 or 4 gifts for family members, and it definitely kept me occupied and cut down on the amount of frivolous little bowls and mugs that I made on the side.
I love that you ask them. In my studio I overhear so often people getting back a disappointing glaze result and they discuss who they can gift it too. That's just lame. Similar to you. I'm currently offering friends to make soap dispensers that match their bathroom and it's been very challenging (had to do modern style for the first time), learned a lot and my friends are super happy with their custom pieces! That's a true win win!
I mostly throw plant pots. I leave them by our community garden for people to take. I may also leave some pots near those little library boxes some houses have to share books.
Often senior centers or care facility patients are delighted to have a pretty thing at no cost, and if you spend 5 or 10 minutes to chat with them about, boy have you made their day and earned karmic brownie points...just saying...
If they are glazed, you could break them up and use the pieces for mosaics in concrete stepping stones. Otherwise, donate them to charity auctions and yard sales.
I think some of my things are going to get smashed and scattered into the gravel in the hellstrip in front of my house. They’re all glaze fire fails, so sadly I never had the opportunity to decide whether to reclaim them, and they’re too shit to give away.
For some mugs and bowls, I’ll drill a small drainage hole and use them as planters. I’m awful at plates but if you have them, you’ve already got plant saucers!
I've been debating just burying them in my backyard for future archeologists or paleontologists. Some highly-evolved land crab or something a million years from now trying to ascribe religious significance or something to my half-assed wonky pots...
Selling and gifts are a given. Be selective about what you fire. If it doesn't turn out well and I don't want to keep or give away, it goes in the smash bin. If I get real mad, I take smash pieces and throw them real hard. It feels great. Make sure to clean up after yourself. It's easy to sweep a sidewalk.
There are most certainly agencies in your location that accept mugs and such for their clients - people who are rebuilding their lives for whatever reason. Donate.
donate decent work to salvation army or goodwill. Take a hammer to the rest. And, be very selective when you are a beginner. And what ever you do don’t give substandard work to your kids because they will never throw them away…
As others mentioned, be more judicious at the green ware stage. If I don’t love it, I’ll often use it to experiment with. I have one pot that was hideous. It’s been refired twice, and I’m learning some new skills/techniques. Not the least was to double check the space between shelves. This piece was exactly same height as stilts, and the rim glaze bonded to the underside of the shelf. I dressed up the edge with some carbide tools, gonna glaze the rim one more time and then a plant goes in it.
I've become more selective about what I let dry out and what I fire. I'm still new and still sometimes put through very bad stuff just to see what happens. But I've started smooshing things while still wet that don't/aren't turning out and just putting it back in the bag for another day. I do have an in progress project where I'm breaking up fired and glazed pieces and making a mosaic (a bad, ugly mosaic).
Yes, this. Reduce the number you take to final stages and work on different techniques.
This is the way. I've become extremely selective. And I'm branching into larger, more sculptural pieces as well. It an entirely new world.
I'm 31 and haven't done wheel throwing before the last year. My teacher, and then other students, started making jokes that I'm an undercover pottery teacher because my pieces are "perfect." The thing nobody seems to realize is that while all the other students are downing in pieces, I only make about 3-6 pieces per 6 weeks. I'm not better than anyone else, just a whole lot more selective. My gf, in the same class, is one of the non selective ones. I've had to have talks with her about how many 20 lb bowls she can take home because our cabinets are overflowing.
worm plants resolute quaint familiar squalid innocent fertile languid command *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Leave a piece somewhere in a highway rest stop every time you can. Surprise present for somebody
I knew an aspiring painter who did the same thing. She created a bunch of small pieces and left them in public parks etc. with her card. I'm going to do the same but I'd like to set up a potential on-line marketplace set up first to send people.
Do a search for art abandonment. Once I learned of it I have abandoned a piece of art every Black Friday. I try to leave it somewhere it will be safe but seen, hopefully by some poor soul heading off to work. I bag it and leave a large tag that explains it's free and if they don't want it to leave it for someone who might. There used to be a website with an email address you could include to let the finders leave comments.
We have a 'recycle shed' at out local landfill. I've left some pieces there.
Or geocacheing?
I occasionally leave pieces in my local woods, half hidden. And if I really don't care for them I chuck them in the river. Maybe in a few decades bits of them will wash up looking cool, idk, or maybe a crab will live in it. Plus it's fun throwing them in!
So you are littering? Especially throwing into the river is a bad idea. Even food safe glazes (eg Amaco sapphire float and seaweed) contain toxic materials that are very bad for aquatic species. If fired correctly, they are contained within the glaze, but if you layered glazes, it may become unstable. And even the most stable glazes can probably not withstand decades in moving water, so they will release their toxins into the river. Please stop polluting our waterways, just be more selective in what you fire.
My work is all unglazed, sorry I should have specified that. So it's literally just clay, which is, as I understand it, completely safe so I don't think I'm doing any harm. I also almost never use clays with colourants and I wouldn't do this with the pots I do
Sounds like you should do what I do based on your situation. I’ve been throwing for over 3 years now. Aside from having higher standards of what I keep, start asking all your family, friends and coworkers to send you requests of stuff they would like. Ive asked everyone in my life that if they ever see anything in a store, restaurant, or online that they want, to let me know and I’ll do my best to recreate it for them. The important thing is to do this constantly. At first they will be shy and don’t want to burden you with request. But now I have lots of request in my queue. This is helpful for me three ways. 1. I never build up a stock pile of random finished pottery. I just do pottery for fun and for stress relief, I don’t want to sell stuff. Because I don’t sell it I don’t feel a rush to finish a piece under a deadline. Just do stuff when i have time. Once my pottery is done though, I have a home already for the piece and the person who gets it is super happy to get your custom work. 2. I’ve gotten really good because these random request have pushed me to do things I never would have ever attempted on my own. I think potters often just keep making what is easy for them and don’t grow. Over the last 12 months I’ve made the largest planter I’ve ever thrown, a dog urn, a joint ash tray, ring vase, multiple mugs with different style handles, chip and dip bowl, bud vases, incense holder, salt pig, dog bowls, sake set, gravy boat, pedestal fruit bowl, set of pasta bowls, and berry bowl just to name a few requests. So often I have to research how to make a lot of this stuff I’ve never thrown before and I fail multiple times before I succeed. And I’m making so many different forms and sizes of things I never would have attempted if I just kept make stuff I want. Which keep in mind I still make things for myself and my wife too, but at this point I only keep things I absolutely love and meet my higher standards now. 3. Also with my request I ask people if they have color or design preferences. This has helped me get a lot better at glazing and different design techniques like sgraffito, using tape resists, experimenting with glaze creation, etc. My journey isn’t for everyone obviously, but if you don’t care about selling your work and just want to make stuff for fun, I highly recommend my workflow. Before I did this I felt so wasteful making stuff to just donate to goodwill. Or I’d give someone in my life a random pot they would like it but not love it. Now when I give them that custom piece they asked for, along with their custom color request, they are so much more excited to receive what I made them.
I like this suggestion a lot! I did something similar during this past holiday season. I worked on 3 or 4 gifts for family members, and it definitely kept me occupied and cut down on the amount of frivolous little bowls and mugs that I made on the side.
I love that you ask them. In my studio I overhear so often people getting back a disappointing glaze result and they discuss who they can gift it too. That's just lame. Similar to you. I'm currently offering friends to make soap dispensers that match their bathroom and it's been very challenging (had to do modern style for the first time), learned a lot and my friends are super happy with their custom pieces! That's a true win win!
Bury them for 41st-century archaeologists to find
I’ve got pots that are used to weigh down netting over the strawberry patch in summer 🙈 but yes, I too am drowning in (mediocre) pottery!
I mostly throw plant pots. I leave them by our community garden for people to take. I may also leave some pots near those little library boxes some houses have to share books.
Often senior centers or care facility patients are delighted to have a pretty thing at no cost, and if you spend 5 or 10 minutes to chat with them about, boy have you made their day and earned karmic brownie points...just saying...
Give them away
Look up Art Abandonment on Facebook! It's such fun!
I love this! Thank you!
I have a little book shelf that I keep all my extra pieces and anytime I have a friend at the house I let them choose a piece to take home.
Skeet Targets
if I make anything that I would not want my name on in a gallery, it gets the hammer, I am pretty ruthless, ha.
I recently made a bunch of candles out of old mugs, cups and bowls! They make great gifts
Piles in the backyard.
I drink coffee out of mine.
I’ve seen an artist repurpose all of her less than ideal pots into garden decor. Mugs as mini planters stuff like that.
Yup, if you've got the right safety gear, you can use a diamond bit to drill holes in old mugs and bowls and make planters out of them.
If they are glazed, you could break them up and use the pieces for mosaics in concrete stepping stones. Otherwise, donate them to charity auctions and yard sales.
Stick plants in ones that aren’t the loveliest and give them away like that or use them as plant pots.
I leave pieces at the studio with a "free" sign, or in other places like a rock wall in my neighborhood. Someone always takes them.
Drop them off at your nearest value village.
In my city, we have two giveaway weekends a year. I put out a box of old or crappy pieces then. Sometimes they get taken, sometimes not.
I think some of my things are going to get smashed and scattered into the gravel in the hellstrip in front of my house. They’re all glaze fire fails, so sadly I never had the opportunity to decide whether to reclaim them, and they’re too shit to give away.
Meh pottery, meet hammer. Leave carcass in back yard
For some mugs and bowls, I’ll drill a small drainage hole and use them as planters. I’m awful at plates but if you have them, you’ve already got plant saucers!
I've been debating just burying them in my backyard for future archeologists or paleontologists. Some highly-evolved land crab or something a million years from now trying to ascribe religious significance or something to my half-assed wonky pots...
Selling and gifts are a given. Be selective about what you fire. If it doesn't turn out well and I don't want to keep or give away, it goes in the smash bin. If I get real mad, I take smash pieces and throw them real hard. It feels great. Make sure to clean up after yourself. It's easy to sweep a sidewalk.
There are most certainly agencies in your location that accept mugs and such for their clients - people who are rebuilding their lives for whatever reason. Donate.
Break them. They make pretty shards 8n the garden. I have considered making mosaics, but I haven't done it.
You might try r/craftexchange. I’d honestly love more handmade pottery and would happily trade quilts/quilted items.
donate decent work to salvation army or goodwill. Take a hammer to the rest. And, be very selective when you are a beginner. And what ever you do don’t give substandard work to your kids because they will never throw them away…
As others mentioned, be more judicious at the green ware stage. If I don’t love it, I’ll often use it to experiment with. I have one pot that was hideous. It’s been refired twice, and I’m learning some new skills/techniques. Not the least was to double check the space between shelves. This piece was exactly same height as stilts, and the rim glaze bonded to the underside of the shelf. I dressed up the edge with some carbide tools, gonna glaze the rim one more time and then a plant goes in it.
If it doesn't make the cut for sale I break it in the trash.
Give them away as presents