Why I Sometimes Smash Pots

I don’t relish in this moment but it happens from time to time—breakage exists in every industry and there are times were vessels need to be smashed to bits. Rest assured, over the years I’ve taken a bucket of shards like this to landfill, instead they sit and accumulate until somebody comes to collect them for various artistic endeavours, think mosaics, pulverised to dust to add to fresh clay and press-moulded with or even mixed with concrete and poured into moulds to create a terrazzo of sorts, so, it’s all up-cycled at least. It’s also worth realising that I normally accumulate a bucket like this a year, (and those shattered in this video were from an unusually poor firing). They were razor sharp and jagged on the base and a number of the rims had split, my fault for firing too hot. The black clay had bloated and the lid was covered in thin pockets of glaze and stoneware that would continue to fracture, creating sharp craters. 95% of seconds and thirds that are usable are saved and kept I boxes to give to friends and family when they visit, I’m also gradually collecting it for an eventual studio seconds sale. I know it’ll come up, but it’s often suggested that these pots are donated to people in need, to which my answer would be, I’m sure potentially dangerous, chipped and serrated-glassy pots aren’t necessarily what people in need are after or need. I understand the sentiment but I’d rather auction off good work and donate the proceeds from those, who simply donate a portion of my income. To a degree these pots represent me and my art and years of craft, so I have to careful about letting go subpar pottery, in the same way a chef might be careful about serving food that’s burnt or potentially dangerous. I’ve had seconds and thirds of mine appear online and on eBay, pots I sold for pennies or gave away now declared as firsts are sold for tenfold the price, which feels disingenuous, yet it’s a hard issue to avoid as obviously, I have no control over the secondary market. I think by having millions of followers online, it can portray an image that my output is very high, that I have staff and a whole complex enterprise, (there are enquires regarding such perceived situations on a daily basis). Yet, I’m one person who creates somewhere between 1000-1500 pots a yearmy output is low and a vast majority of pots are successful. I’m a one-man operation entirely and I fire less than twelve times a year, on average, since social media and YouTube have become such a large part of my practice. The only thing I suppose I can’t avoid is the wasted energy in the pots that have been smashed, but generally speaking I live quite a minimal lifestyle, I don’t drive, I don’t purchase many clothes, often scouring second-hand jackets and trousers and I take the train every day for work. Yet, at the same time, much of pottery is sent abroad, so I often question if the world needs more pottery, is what I do for a living just contributing to the downfall of the planet? Or if it encourages people to buy from individual artists as compared to larger factories, is that better? Or is that all a bit fatalistic? If a single craftsperson destroying a tiny handful of pots or other work online triggers you, then I’d hate to think what your reactions would be to the waste and atrocities huge corporations and factories around the world produce. I know it’s easier as here, you have a direct link to me and I read the comments, whereas with say, BP who can you really be in touch with so directly to express your disgust? I know it’s easier to comment directly in an environment like this, to me, but acting as if breakage doesn’t exist and shouldn’t simply ignores how most industries actually work. It happens in restaurants, museums, tile-factories, space agencies, your local supermarkets, gardeners, musicians, every craft or profession where you work with your hands and objects encounters breakage. This isn’t to minimise what I do, but often comments arise when I post smashing videos like this that that seem ignore the fact that sometimes things need to be broken or are broken accidentally, in this case, due to over-firing them in the kiln. #fail #smash #pottery #amsr #oddlysatisfying #craft #ceramics #ceramiccasualties