if I say that modern pot-making has never been truly all-manual, it may attract a lot of blame from the industry and outside, but it is true. Can it be called "all-manual" by patting a barrel? Take a light element device as an example. In the process of getting up the tube, at least six tools are used, such as: mud set, turntable, rectangular lathe, ruler, knife, racket (I don't count the mud stool as a tool), while taking a good picture of a tube is only "beginning to take shape". It needs to be shaped and shaped with other tools. The most routine is to use a grate tube, which is usually made of bamboo. Sometimes, different parts of a barrel need to make a number of grates with different radians. It is only the primary stage in the process of making a pot to grate and shape the barrel, or it is full, or straight, or turning, or smooth, which requires the artist's eyes to reach (not to mention the manufacture of accessories such as mouth and handle). Everyone has his own methods, and some innovative methods are even less known. The legendary "mold only" is not born, it is a kind of design, (here, let's talk about the master's design), and the mold can be divided into an internal mold and an external mold. The accurate shape of the barrel can be called an internal mold, called a swinging barrel, and the grate type belongs to an external mold, called a grate barrel. Any technique can't be separated from the shooting barrel and the grate barrel. The cover ring for the cover and the helmet head all belong to the mold. At present, there is almost no "pinch" for round cover buttons, and most of them are "cars". . . . . .
No matter what method is used, it is very difficult to make a good pot, but the difficulty of making a pot is not in workmanship, but in design and sample review. Those who make low-grade pots in the countryside have been low-grade pots for more than 3 years, and they are savvy and artistic, and they can live well in a few years. The beauty of form and rhyme is the supreme realm to judge the quality of a pot. All the elements and manufacturing techniques of a good pot serve form and rhyme.
So, I think that even if you make a rough pottery by hand, you will return to the primitive society, not to mention the fine work like teapot. Modern pot-making is more and more demanding for strict craftsmanship, which will inevitably lead to the progress of technological techniques. The better the pot works, the more auxiliary tools are used. Master Gu Jingzhou advocates making a good pot. First of all, we must make a good tool. The so-called "if a worker wants to do a good job, he must sharpen his tools first". Considering the students' pot-making skills, Gu Lao will often let his disciples make good tools first, and pot artists who can't make tools will never make them. Can it be called "all-handmade" by taking a barrel? Folk handicrafts around the world may only be called "all-handmade" when Yixing makes pots. I have studied the historical materials of purple sand in Ming and Qing Dynasties, but I don't seem to have seen the name of all-handmade. If I see an ancient book that says, "So-and-so pot, Shi Dabin in Ming Dynasty, and Yang Pengnian in Qing Dynasty are all-handmade", that is a joke that makes people eat rice, and this kind of joke is happening everywhere at present, which makes people relish.
Handicraft is handcraft. Why should it be labeled as "complete" or even "pure"? This is not a bluff. What is it? Many people are willing to be fooled. Some artists (businessmen may be more suitable) and some pot merchants take advantage of the situation to raise the pot price, saying that their own is "all handmade" and others' is semi-handmade. In the end, it is pot friends who pay the bill. In recent years, a lot of network "teachers" and network "drummers" have emerged, advocating the concept of "cultivating pots with pots". And the semi-manual statement is even more unreasonable, half by hand and half by machine?
Therefore, I generally refer to it as traditional handwork, and both the old method and the new method can only be called handwork, not a whole word. Making pots focuses on mud, shelf and statutes, while playing with pots focuses on aesthetics, charm and function, not on how to make them. Garbage pot products are garbage no matter how they are made, and good pot products are good pot products no matter how they are made. These are deeper things, and it is not mysterious to say many unique techniques and skills.
You don't need too many distractions to play with pots. As Mr. Bian Weng famously said, "Half sober and half drunk, a day of leisure and a day of immortality"!