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  1. That seems so odd to me! A lot of sculptors make maquettes (smaller versions of large works) in clay for later scaling up and also many high-paid sculptors work in clay as their primary piece to make plaster (or other) molds from for bronzes at the foundry. To my way of thinking: Design, balance, structural integrity, texture and (most importantly) thinking in 3d can all be easily learned with clay before attempting to go into something more difficult, expensive or time-consuming like wood or steel. Many 2d students that I've taught have absolutely no idea how to think in terms of 3d and wha
  2. It makes total sense to do this in a classroom setting. You have knowledge about glazes which should be passed down to the students in a ceramics environment where the end result is not going to have as much importance (so lessons can be learned) as studio works by someone making art for a living (and all the freedoms/pitfalls that presents). But at some point, students who stick with it after graduation will see that there are alternatives/cold finishes which - more and more as time goes on - are acceptable by the larger world of art for non-functional works. It's nice to know that the
  3. Why don't you build your pieces out of glass or steel or wood? Put yourself in my place and think for a minute how you would react if someone asked you - someone who has worked in clay for a long time - that? Why did Rodin make his final pieces bronze? Why did Van Gogh use oils instead of tempera? Why does any artist choose their medium of choice? It just seems like an odd question to me for this particular thread about "cold finishes". Given that people were seemingly attacking my choice of cold finishes, it seemed like yet one more odd thing to ask, IMO. First, it would have been harder
  4. Exactly my thinking. The end look is everything on non-functional pieces. Are they potentially fragile? Yes, and so is glass sculpture, so are many types of sculptural works, even those which are vitrified. (Check out jennifer mccurdy's work sometime if you want to see things that are far more fragile than mine!) There seems to be some here that want to put me in a curmudgeonly camp of not agreeing/arguing with people about "what is ceramic" or "what is acceptable", when my question was basically "what do YOU find acceptable", which means there are no Right or Wrong answers. B
  5. I got into sculpting in 2007 when I wanted to represent dimensional structure more for a solo show I had coming up dealing with houses. That first set were all bisque and all painted. That started my obsession with clay. I began to make more sculptural pieces with time and, to me, (maybe I'm wrong) they are sculptures, not paintings. I don't always paint the surface, some I did low-fire bisque glazes and stopped at that point. But if you want to think of me as a painter, that's no problem. As long as anyone is looking at my work, that's half the battle! :-) Also, I have no degree, I we
  6. The 2nd firing is only needed if the piece is to be functional and hold water or be handled a little rougher without any caution for breakage. My work is almost all non-functional, except for some LED tealight pieces that I've made in the past or incense burners. Most of it sits on people's shelves in their homes or display cases. I've got several of them myself and none have experienced any damage to date and I started the process of working this way over 10 years ago. Does 2nd firing make the piece more sturdy? Of course. I'm not arguing that point at all. Does it make it ceramic? (uh
  7. Thank you so much, you are validating all the things I've been thinking the last few days. Perhaps my question was a catalyst to help potters and other clay sculptors either open their minds a tiny bit or slam them shut permanently. TBH, I really didn't understand the "outdoors" thing at all, most high-end ceramics that people pay a fortune for don't end up outdoors for any reason. I also thought about the gold leaf situation and was going to bring that up, but by that point I had thrown up my hands and walked away from this for a bit.
  8. Yes, they are, in many cases, very fragile. But there are sturdy ones as well. I don't own a kiln and transport to the kiln I use is a tricky proposition (picture lots of packing materials and a car-load of boxes!). So taking them back home, glazing them and then yet another 50-mile transport to and from the kiln over hilly and bumpy roads, (not to mention a 2nd firing) is a lot of risk to take on for me, especially for the commissioned pieces. If I owned a kiln, I'd probably take much bigger risks with the work since it would only be moved from the bench to the kiln in each case.
  9. I like challenges. :-) And I had clay and like making challenging sculptures with it.
  10. And several said it doesn't really matter and not to worry about it, so I took both as answers and was fine with that. However, then you put words in my mouth and mischaracterized my original question which I find odd, especially for a moderator to do, especially to a new person to the forum. Your response to my defense of my own question seems rude to me and not very welcoming and not very good moderation, IMO. Bye.
  11. I'm not sure any of my pieces (other than my concrete works) live outside in anyone's yard. It would be the same as putting one of my paintings outside in the yard. The chances of someone putting a table-top sculpture of mine in their yard is pretty slim.
  12. No, that's not what I asked at all. Here's my original question: "Are alternative finishes a big no-no in the ceramic world at large?" and my title was/is "Question about alternative finishes for ceramics, Acceptance by ceramic artists." The subject is (and was supposed to be) general acceptance by ceramic artists of cold finishes. Others may have delved into the "is it art" question, and I might have replied a bit, but that was not my original intent with this thread at all. I'm not sure where you got "is this ceramics?" or "is this art". I know what I make is art, I'm ver
  13. Just for a clarification, they actually told me "Because they are painted, not glazed".
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