Ersatz Soubriquet

Male

Spring, TX

United States

Profile Information:

What is your experience with ceramics in general. (Long answer encouraged)
Started in ceramics while training to be a teacher, back in 1972. Qualified as a teacher but became a production potter, in England, then Iceland, then Finland, and back to England in the 1980s to start my own pottery. Earthenware, stoneware, raku... Mostly stoneware cone 10, gas, oilfired, woodfired, salted.... and electric fired. I'm a pyromaniac by choice, I delight in getting 25 feet of flame from a sliver of wood, I love the roar of a happy kiln, the cone of fire over the chimney while reducing on a starlit night.I was successful enough as a maker, (my pots at last count were in over 32 countries), but I was not so good at running a business, so I ended up closing the pottery and getting a real job to pay the bank off.
Even there, the years building and firing kilns were useful, as I became, among other things, a combustion engineer.
But once a potter always a potter, I'm restarting in Texas.
Where I live I can't have a live flame kiln, I'd like to have a woodfired kiln, but That might have to wait a little longer, as I live in a place that is tinder-dry and wooded.
What is your current involvement with electric fired ceramics? (long answer encouraged)
Just restarting. Bought two kilns via a school auction, (still have another to sell, in England), and have also bought a peter pugger and a Shimpo Whisper wheel. I'll never be throwing hundreds of pots a day again, but I hope I can learn to zone out again and let my subconscious take over.
All our content is viewable by the public. Why do you want to be a member, when you can already see everything as a non-member?
I thought I needed to be, in order to view the content!

I think over the years, that I've learned much that might be of use to others, but I'm here mostly because I still want to learn from others.
I'd like to be a participant, not a bystander.
Where do you work on your ceramics projects?
home studio
How did you find this network?
Link or reference from another site

Comment Wall:

  • Norm Stuart

    Ersatz Soubriuet is humourous, but what's your real alias?

    Jun 3, 2014

  • Nadine Mercader

    Welcome to our network, I am eager to see some of your pots!

    Jun 4, 2014

  • George Lewter

    I gotta tell ya, Mister, we don't take too kindly to a lot of sesquipidalian obfuscation round these parts. In fact, we've been known to throw pots.

    Jun 5, 2014