Making Marks

Signing your work.

I often enjoyed seeing maker’s marks on pots and other tool markings of the trade. Maybe dimples from the tongs or the fingerprint left in the clay on a handle attachment smear. The marks of makers are not intentionally done out of pride or ego. Those marks and prints are simply part of the process of making. When we create for the sake of creating, we leave marks on the work, society, and culture in unique ways. Fingerprints and maker marks are the interactions with the material that let us know a human was there.

Some ways are destructive and lazy. You can still see “Bill loves Sue” with a heart-shaped outline carved into the oak tree at the Starrucca Creek swimming hole. In my opinion, the maker's marks need to happen naturally. If it’s forced, you start to lose trust as the reason for creating is compromised for money and fame. In time, folks will buy just for the name rather than the look or quality of the pot. The carving into the tree at the swimming hole is almost grown over now. At times, the famous potter Warren McKenzie intentionally did not sign his work. Warren would sell alongside other local potters so customers would buy and enjoy the work rather than look for the name.

I see it starting to happen here at the pottery at some of the annual shows in the pottery shed. Some will flip a mug and comment I forgot to sign it or there was no logo stamp. They usually miss the fingerprint in the glaze on the rim or my palm print on the side of a bowl. I look closely to try and find them in other makers’ work I buy. Making marks show in other mediums also, not just those made of clay. Painters, writers, woodworking, photography, and thousands of other vocations, trades, and crafts all leave their making marks in some way as they work through the creation processes. I have not been stamping pots for the last 3 months. My kitten has knocked my logo stamp someplace. I may need to buy a new one at some point. But I’m in no hurry.

I hope you create some good work today and leave a mark on your work and the world in some way. Leaving a mark is quite simple, actually. It’s a thing you do not need to plan for, but marks happen each time you create a thing. It comes as a bonus gift for being human. It is already fired into your style. Creating more will have those makers' marks show up more prominently. I hope you make some maker’s marks today. If you like, feel free to show them to me!