Twice the length from one end to the middle
Euan Craig · Ceramics technical · 2004
Tools and their use have been vital to the development of human culture and civilisation. In ceramics there are a myriad of tools and equipment available with various degrees of usefulness. The more tools one uses, however, the more mechanical a process becomes. If you take the use of tools in wheelthrown pottery to its logical conclusion you come eventually to the jigger and jolly, or the fully automated roller press equipment used in industrial ceramics. These processes can produce thousands of pots per day, all of uniform shape, size and quality, without so much as a single human fingerprint to mar their pristine perfection. Assuming the designers of these wares and the technicians executing the process are professionals, there is no reason why industrial ceramics should not fulfil all of the needs modern society has for functional ceramics, including cost effectiveness, because of the economy of scale. Unless, of course, the users of these pots, being human, require some other quality which, cannot be measured or provided by the mechanical process but can only be achieved with the touch of the human hand.