HANDMADE.... OR IS IT?

When you go to a craft store, a craft fair, an artist's studio, or a gallery to buy a piece of claywork, you frequently have the underlying assumption that the work you are about to purchase is "handmade". This is a reasonable expectation.

The word "handmade" however is a little vague in its exact definition. Unfortunately, there is no legal, commercial, or governmental standard that is a strict definition for this term when it comes to the sale of crafts. Most anything can be labeled or described as "handcrafted" or "handmade" and still be "legal".

Because of this fact, there is a wide latitude in how some people define what craftwork is "handmade". Some people will stretch the term to its absolute limits, while others are so conservative that the expectation is difficult to fulfill. Sometimes this lack of common understanding leads to disappointment when the craftsperson's definition of "handmade" and the consumer's definition don't match.

Let's look at the dictonary for some guidance on this matter:

Handmade : made by hand, not by machine.

Handwork : work done or made by hand, not by machine.

Websters New World Dictionary

Not much help from the good old dictionary, is there? What it comes down to is that the definition of what is truly "handmade" or "handcrafted" is pretty much left up to some personal interpretation. As a consumer and appreciator of handcrafts, you yourself, will have to form a concept of what you define personally as truly a "handmade" piece.

The simple truth is that most potters use some form of tools or machinery to assist in working with clay. "Pinch pots" formed by using only the hands are the major exception to this. However, if these pinch pots are fired in a kiln instead of in an open bonfire, then a machine, the kiln, is used there too. By some people's definitions, just about any commercially produced car could be reasonably labeled as "handmade", and by others definitions unless you raise the sheep, sheer the wool, grow the plants to get the dye, and so on...... the sweater you knit from the wool is not really "handmade".

You'll have to decide this one for yourself! How much does the hand of the maker need to be involved in the actual design, fabrication, touching, refining, altering and perfecting of the work for it to be called "handmade" for your personal standards?

Once you have decided what level of personal involvement you expect the artist's own hands to have taken in the genesis of the piece you are planning on buying, and what "machines" are acceptable in a "handmade" item, then you can ask some educated questions about the forming methods involved in the making of a piece you are considering for purchase.

To ask the correct questions for ceramics, you need to educate yourself to a little bit about the potter's craft and how it is practiced. This is no different really from becoming an educated consumer of other things such as food, clothing, or healthcare. This and these following webpages should help you to do this.

Bernard Leach, famous British potter and champion of handcraft, has the following to say about the impact of the machine, mass production, and industrial practice on the production of pottery:

"The use of machinery to increase output and lower costs involves a division between designer and exeutant (who in the main is a machine tender), which limits artistry almost exclusively to the designer on paper. He in turn must make his plans of delegated work strictly according to what the particular machines and their attendants can do with given material. Behind him stand a formidable array of directors, managers, buyers, salesmen, unions, and shareholders. An error of calculation may result in thousands of dollars being lost. Small wonder that imagination and feeling can get little play. The margins are too narrow, the background unpropitious, cutthroat competition and the vulgarities of advertisement too rampant. Even under favorable conditions the absence of overall personal responsibility at every stage of execution , combined with standardization of raw material, and absolute uniformity of exact repetition inherent in the process of mass reproduction, reduce the possibility of expression to a cool hard abstraction far removed from the warmth and character and spontaneity of direct handcraftsmanship."

Bernard Leach.......................
"The Potter's Challenge" 1975

After reading this quote, there is no question about how Mr. Leach felt about the use of increasing levels of machines in pottery production!

Handcrafted pottery is a discretionary purchase in this day and age, not a functional necessity, and therefore potters tend to look carefully for competitive solutions to improve the bottom line. Certainly one possible competitive approach involves a careful look at production volume and production costs. In an attempt to make a reasonable living at pottery making here in the USA, some handcraft potters have focused on numerous means of assistance to increase their production levels and decrease costs.

Toward this end, some potters are now using tools that were considered "cutting edge" mechanical factory technology at the beginning of the last century. Others are using out-sourcing approaches that are exactly the same as those employed by modern computer chip manufacturers. The current term in use for these approaches to volume production is "assisted technologies", in the potter's parlance.

The "Assisted Technologies"

These "assisted technology" procedures being used today by some of the potters who routinely show and sell their work at handcraft venues are a bit controversial, to say the least. Some people say these approaches to production are inappropriate and deceptive, while others say that all that really matters is the merits of the work produced....not how it was actually made.

Let's look at the roots of this controversy.

At the end of the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution was in full swing. As part of the move from the reliance on handcrafts to the development of inexpensive, widespread, centrally produced manufactured goods, the owners of the large potteries found that skilled hand throwers and hand builders of clay wares were in very short supply, demanded higher and higher wages, and were limited in their ability to increase production beyond a certain "human endurance" functional barrier.

So were born devices and approaches to production of pottery that allowed unskilled labor to produce pottery quickly, which reduced production costs, or enabled the owners to find a more ready source of very inexpensive, yet skilled laborers. This search still goes on today in all areas of manufacturing.

One of the first of the mechanical pottery making devices to come along in this search was the "jigger" or "jolly" wheel.

The Jigger and Jolly Wheel

Another technique developed to reduce the hand working skills needed to produce pots was slip casting.

Slip Casting

A modern invention, the hydraulic press is a fast, modern tool.

The Hydraulic Press

The latest "90's" trend in all USA business arrives in the crafts too.

Off-Shore Manufacturing

It's Your Decision

So...... those are the controversial techniques that tend to raise the hackles of many people in the "handcraft pottery" field. Unless you are a potter yourself, you probably had never heard of any of them before looking at this website.

If you have read this far, I imagine you now feel a little better educated about clayworking. You now have an overview of some somewhat esoteric pottery production techniques, and hopefully enough information to decide for yourself if these particular approaches to pottery making cross over your personal "boundary line" from the realm of true handwork to the world of the mass produced.

Truth in Advertising

John Baymore's personal definition of "handcrafted" does not include the utilization of any of the above listed "assisted technologies" in the production of his own work.

Artist Potter's Studio Machinery

So........... probably 99.9% of all US contemporary potters use some sort of machines or tools to assist in the production of their work. The more controversial ones which are utilized by a small minority of potters were listed above. The following machinery seems to be pretty typically accepted in the production of what is today considered "handmade" claywork.

If this type of thing matters to you, you can learn a little about more traditional pottery production by clicking on the items listed below, and decide for yourself how you feel about these particular pieces of equipment being used by a potter.

Maybe you will find that even the use of a potter's wheel is too much machinery for you to accept the term "handcrafted" for the resulting work.

Potter's Wheels

Slab Rollers

Extruders

Press Molds

Hump Molds

Hand Tools

Size Gauges

Kilns

Programmable Controllers

Clay Mixing Equipment

Other Support Tools

Studio visits welcome. Please call 603-654-2752 to make sure I am there.

This page last updated:

02/25/2002 03:40 PM