Spotlight: Nick Joerling shifts gears Techno File - Ceramic Arts Daily

from the editor
respond to shall@ceramicsmonthly.org
Well, here we are, folks, at the relaunch issue
of Ceramics Monthly. Most of you know by
now that we have been working on this for
quite some time, and it would be redundant
for me to list all of the things we have tweaked
and shuffled in order to arrive here (you can
read my letter from last month if you want
the list), so I suggest you dive right
in, flip through and have a good
look. Honestly, anything I would
have to say about the merits of this
issue matters very little at this point.
All the work has been done, the tests
have been run, everything was formed,
dried, glazed, and fired, and here we
are at the unloading of the kiln: fingers
crossed, held breath, slightly increased
heart rate, feeling the lid hoping it’s
just cool enough to open, peeking at
the top shelf, telling ourselves not to
jump to any conclusions, retracing
all of our steps in loading, trying to
keep our unrealistic expectations in
check while still believing that this
will be the one.
Of course, like anyone who really
knows how to have a good kiln opening,
we’ve already opened the kiln,
put the seconds back in the studio
for reglazing, taken a hammer to the
duds, and gathered what we think are
the best mix of pieces and laid them
out for the sale. Come on, it’s not a trick, it’s
just good marketing—best foot forward and
all that. We do this in the honest hope that
you find that one piece you are looking for,
even if you don’t know what it is yet. We hope
that a few things may pleasantly surprise you,
and make you look twice. And we understand
that some of our work may not quite jive with
your expectations or preferences, but we trust
that you will let us know and tell us why.
I suppose the difference here (aside from
the most obvious differences between a kiln
and a magazine) is that you’ve signed up for
ten firings a year—so we will continue to test
and tweak, like any good clay geek, adjusting
and improving in small ways as we go. Heck,
10 march 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org
we even take the occasional commission, so
let us know if you are looking for something
specific. My email is right up there at the top
of the page, just a click away.
And for those of you who will look
at what we are doing with an eye toward
submitting content, our writing and photo-
graphic guidelines have been updated, and
we welcome ideas and pitches for articles,
departments, topics, tips, glazes, exhibitions,
artists, trends, or just interesting events and
people that affect the culture of clay. Just go
to www.ceramicsmonthly.org and click on the
“Submit Content” link.
As I’ve said before, and as you may have
noticed from the volume number on the contents
page, this is the 59th continuous year
Ceramics Monthly has been in publication,
and that is a lot of history and legacy that, if
not respected, can push against a relaunch like
this. So part of our process was to look back
through the archives and track our history
to make sure that, as we move forward into
what CM will become, we respect and value
the reasons we are where we are. And at the
end of the day, those reasons all come down
to you—I mean us—I mean people working
in clay. I was a reader of CM long before I
ever worked here. I think I may even have
been a reader of CM before I worked in clay,
When redesigning the content, as well as the look and feel, for the new Ceramics Monthly, we made sure
to keep the history and legacy of the publication in mind—all the way back to the first issue in 1953.
Turns out, people have been smart about clay for a long time!
thanks to my high school art teacher having
it around the classroom. So, of course I think
we have arrived at a wonderful combination
of what has always been good about CM and
what it can be moving forward, but I’ll say
again that this will only be true if you play
your part in this dialog. Those of us here on
staff have begun the process—we’ve laid out
the results from the first firing—and we now
await our critique.