Lately I've seen several posts on blogs that discuss the issue of how thick or thin to make a pot. Related to this is the question of how heavy or light a pot should be. I think the answer is "it depends." It depends on what type of pot you're making. In general, larger pots need thicker walls, so the walls of a larger pot might be just as thin in proportion to the rest of the pot as the walls of a much smaller pot. Also, I like to carve some of my pots, so I leave the walls thicker to accomodate that. In other words, thinness isn't an absolute goal that we must strive for in every pot.
When we consider the weight of the pot, we also have to consider things like the appropriateness of the weight for the type of pot that it is. A mug, for instance, can be excessively heavy and is unpleasant to hold in the hand. This is accentuated because of the way mugs are designed with a handle on one side. Maybe some of you are like me and when I have an overly heavy mug, I find myself holding it by the body and not by the handle. On the other hand, I've found that when tumblers have thinner walls they conduct heat more rapidly making the tumbler too hot to handle. If the walls are just a little thicker, especially toward the bottom, it keeps the heat from being unbearable.
Besides our own perceptions of a pot's appropriate thinness and weight, we should always remember that people who inspect our pots for purchase are making their own judgments about whether or not a pot's weight is appropriate. Their judgment is based on broad experience with vessels of all shapes and sizes, made of materials like plastic and glass that are much lighter than clay. So no matter how light I make my pitchers, they always seem "too heavy" to buyers. Why? Because they're comparing them to the extremely light glass and plastic pitchers they're used to using. So each pitcher I sell is going to be used as a display piece, another vase with a spout and handle.
Speaking of vases... a vase that's just sitting on top of a piano or on a coffee table doesn't need to be light because stability is paramount. About a year ago I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine who helps put up ikebana displays at the Honolulu Museum of Art. I asked him to look at one of my pots and tell me if it would be good for ikebana. He picked it up, put it back down and said, "No, it's too light." He went on to explain that in ikebana, you need a pot that has a relatively heavy base because so many of the arrangements have elements that jut out assymetrically from the pot. If the pot doesn't have enough weight, the branch would tip the pot over.
So how thin or light should a pot be? As thin and as light as it needs to be!
When we consider the weight of the pot, we also have to consider things like the appropriateness of the weight for the type of pot that it is. A mug, for instance, can be excessively heavy and is unpleasant to hold in the hand. This is accentuated because of the way mugs are designed with a handle on one side. Maybe some of you are like me and when I have an overly heavy mug, I find myself holding it by the body and not by the handle. On the other hand, I've found that when tumblers have thinner walls they conduct heat more rapidly making the tumbler too hot to handle. If the walls are just a little thicker, especially toward the bottom, it keeps the heat from being unbearable.
Besides our own perceptions of a pot's appropriate thinness and weight, we should always remember that people who inspect our pots for purchase are making their own judgments about whether or not a pot's weight is appropriate. Their judgment is based on broad experience with vessels of all shapes and sizes, made of materials like plastic and glass that are much lighter than clay. So no matter how light I make my pitchers, they always seem "too heavy" to buyers. Why? Because they're comparing them to the extremely light glass and plastic pitchers they're used to using. So each pitcher I sell is going to be used as a display piece, another vase with a spout and handle.
Speaking of vases... a vase that's just sitting on top of a piano or on a coffee table doesn't need to be light because stability is paramount. About a year ago I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine who helps put up ikebana displays at the Honolulu Museum of Art. I asked him to look at one of my pots and tell me if it would be good for ikebana. He picked it up, put it back down and said, "No, it's too light." He went on to explain that in ikebana, you need a pot that has a relatively heavy base because so many of the arrangements have elements that jut out assymetrically from the pot. If the pot doesn't have enough weight, the branch would tip the pot over.
So how thin or light should a pot be? As thin and as light as it needs to be!
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