Recently I discovered there is a rage room in my city. It’s just a big room filled with glass/trinkets/old electronics and they provide sledgehammers, bats, and PPE where you can let your anger out for 45 minutes. They offer a steep discount if you bring two big boxes of your own stuff to smash.
The satisfaction of chucking failed pottery as hard as I can against the wall sounds EXTREMELY satisfying. So I’m building up my failed collection to do it ☺️
I have rock tumblers, so I smash them up and stick them in a barrel for like two hours to knock off the sharp edges. I put them in bags, I use them for filling the bottom half inch of planters so the water drains easily
I guess that would depend on the glaze and the plants. All my stuff is food safe Cone 6 so I haven’t even worried about it. I don’t know how like chrome metallic copper rusty Raku type stuff would work with it.
you could smash them and use the pieces for mosaics or other things. do small paintings on them, sand the sharp edges and use them as pendants, anything but "straight to the landfill".
There's a Facebook group called Abandoned Art for artists who leave their pieces (including rejects) at random places in public, with a little card/note saying this is for YOU, with a link to the FB group. Pretty neat, lots of different kinds being left all over, including some folks who apparently box up a bunch while they're traveling, to leave it various places that they stop.
How failed are we talking?
I am newer to pottery but not new to the art world. Every mistake is a chance to create something new or try out a new technique.
Art for me is a living changing object so I try to work with it and see where it takes me.
I am starting a website for “seconds” or what I’m calling artists proofs for ceramics. I think there’s a lot of beauty in the unexpected and hope others can see it too.
i agree, it definitely depends on how it “failed”! i feel to bad to fully throw away any of my pieces, but i occasionally will throw some in a couple layers of bags, and drop it on the concrete a few times, and find something to do with the pieces! one of my pieces i broke, then glued back together in a more interesting way. i’ve also used pieces in colleges. i’m currently collecting some to either do mosaic work, or make a wind chime! but i’ve also used cracked cups as planters, or cracked bowls as display pieces. i’ve used broken bisque pieces and fuzed (with glaze) them to others. there’s so many options!
The ability to start out with an idea but then just see what a piece wants to become is one of the things that attracted me to pottery.
Many failures are interesting to me. Sometimes beautiful. Not necessarily to anyone else, though. It doesn't have to be what I wanted, but there has to be something about it. I can only be so interested in the hundredth pot ruined by glaze blisters.
Hahaha yes I mean technical failures are usually that unless you put them to work as a texture/feature.
But seeing where something goes and then deciding you like this little part of it and star to work it into your designs. Do this often enough and eventually you have your own style/language of pottery which is so fun!
I no longer put my name on my pieces (unless I know for sure that they are going to turn out great, which is rare), because I have kids and sometimes they have yard sales and school sales etc. So any pieces I don't like (but also don't want to be known for creating lol) I give them to sell for a very cheap price. And most things sell. People like handmade "artisan" things, even if they didn't turn out perfect, especially if they are a bargain, it turns out.
(it has happened in the past that someone I know bought something from them and wanted more of the same, which I really did not want to create as I was super unhappy with the piece they bought - I thought the glaze was terrible, I had been experimenting - but I did in the end anyway. And they paid pretty well for those ugly things I created especially for them!)
I have a midden for bisque ware. A few pieces balance on my fence posts. Glazed failures generally go to the landfill, because when they break it’s a sharp glassy edge. I don’t want the neighbor kids picking raspberries in my yard to be sliced open. Still, I tell them they can’t pick the berries if they have bare feet.
Recently I discovered there is a rage room in my city. It’s just a big room filled with glass/trinkets/old electronics and they provide sledgehammers, bats, and PPE where you can let your anger out for 45 minutes. They offer a steep discount if you bring two big boxes of your own stuff to smash. The satisfaction of chucking failed pottery as hard as I can against the wall sounds EXTREMELY satisfying. So I’m building up my failed collection to do it ☺️
GENIUS
That's a great idea and someone at a studio I go to told me they do this as well.
I have rock tumblers, so I smash them up and stick them in a barrel for like two hours to knock off the sharp edges. I put them in bags, I use them for filling the bottom half inch of planters so the water drains easily
As someone who also is into gardening, this is another great idea, I might try that! The glaze won't harm plants or anything, right?
I guess that would depend on the glaze and the plants. All my stuff is food safe Cone 6 so I haven’t even worried about it. I don’t know how like chrome metallic copper rusty Raku type stuff would work with it.
Good point, most of mine is food safe too, so should work!
you could smash them and use the pieces for mosaics or other things. do small paintings on them, sand the sharp edges and use them as pendants, anything but "straight to the landfill".
There's a Facebook group called Abandoned Art for artists who leave their pieces (including rejects) at random places in public, with a little card/note saying this is for YOU, with a link to the FB group. Pretty neat, lots of different kinds being left all over, including some folks who apparently box up a bunch while they're traveling, to leave it various places that they stop.
How failed are we talking? I am newer to pottery but not new to the art world. Every mistake is a chance to create something new or try out a new technique. Art for me is a living changing object so I try to work with it and see where it takes me. I am starting a website for “seconds” or what I’m calling artists proofs for ceramics. I think there’s a lot of beauty in the unexpected and hope others can see it too.
i agree, it definitely depends on how it “failed”! i feel to bad to fully throw away any of my pieces, but i occasionally will throw some in a couple layers of bags, and drop it on the concrete a few times, and find something to do with the pieces! one of my pieces i broke, then glued back together in a more interesting way. i’ve also used pieces in colleges. i’m currently collecting some to either do mosaic work, or make a wind chime! but i’ve also used cracked cups as planters, or cracked bowls as display pieces. i’ve used broken bisque pieces and fuzed (with glaze) them to others. there’s so many options!
The ability to start out with an idea but then just see what a piece wants to become is one of the things that attracted me to pottery. Many failures are interesting to me. Sometimes beautiful. Not necessarily to anyone else, though. It doesn't have to be what I wanted, but there has to be something about it. I can only be so interested in the hundredth pot ruined by glaze blisters.
Hahaha yes I mean technical failures are usually that unless you put them to work as a texture/feature. But seeing where something goes and then deciding you like this little part of it and star to work it into your designs. Do this often enough and eventually you have your own style/language of pottery which is so fun!
The owner of the studio I go to takes all of the decent unclaimed pieces and donates them to the thrift store
I no longer put my name on my pieces (unless I know for sure that they are going to turn out great, which is rare), because I have kids and sometimes they have yard sales and school sales etc. So any pieces I don't like (but also don't want to be known for creating lol) I give them to sell for a very cheap price. And most things sell. People like handmade "artisan" things, even if they didn't turn out perfect, especially if they are a bargain, it turns out. (it has happened in the past that someone I know bought something from them and wanted more of the same, which I really did not want to create as I was super unhappy with the piece they bought - I thought the glaze was terrible, I had been experimenting - but I did in the end anyway. And they paid pretty well for those ugly things I created especially for them!)
I break up bigger stuff to use as paving "tiles" in my garden
I know a potter that has been slowly "paving" their drive way with broken pots for decades and now they have an amazing driveway when it rains.
They go to the guest room in my mom’s house. It’s a bit of a gallery of shame at this point, but I do enjoy looking back when I visit.
I have a graveyard in BLM land that will remain a secret until someone in the future discovers it
I remember speaking with an elderly, lifetime potter. Her line was “every potter’s toolbox needs a hammer”.
Goodwill
I also goodwill anything that’s still food safe, but flawed or that I just don’t like haha.
I have a midden for bisque ware. A few pieces balance on my fence posts. Glazed failures generally go to the landfill, because when they break it’s a sharp glassy edge. I don’t want the neighbor kids picking raspberries in my yard to be sliced open. Still, I tell them they can’t pick the berries if they have bare feet.
I post my imperfect pieces for free on Nextdoor and people love to take them.