oldlady

kaitlyn, reread your original post. i remember searching all over the city to find a suitable apartment when i worked in manhattan. there were places offered that clearly were illegal. that was in 1985 and i know it only got worse with fewer rentals available. recently, there was a storm that sent floodwaters into some of those buildings killing people without egress from those apartments. i am hoping you are not living in such a dangerous situation.

min, that 3 point lift gadget looks perfect! do you have a brand name or source for purchase? and your squishy bucket idea is terrific, too.

hi, welcome to the forum. we have all kinds of members, hypochondriacs and others. if you are reasonable about using common sense and stop doing things you know are wrong, there is no reason you cannot share your living quarters with a studio. several questions, the dust you need to worry about is airborne silica and perhaps some glaze chemicals. do you make your own glazes inside your studio or do you use stuff in a bottle from the supplier? do you have a door separating the two parts of your home? if not, a very thick plastic shower curtain can keep the excess heat and many fumes out if you can find a way to hang it. higher is better. if you make a large amount of dust, when does it happen? a mugfull is large. stilt marks indicate earthenware, is that what you use? do you have a kiln in that area? how often do you fire if you do? in my can be disregarded opinion, you are worrying too much. sanding stilt marks is not going to kill you unless you are doing it all day long without a break for about 30 years. a dose of reality would be a good step for you to take. whatever source of knowledge about ceramic making you now use, try some of the excellent books by an expert in the field of health issues caused by this kind of activity. i have not thought of her in years so my memory banks are not being searched well at this time. someone else will know it and post the answer if i do not wake up at 3am with her name on my lips. MONONA ROSSOL!! good old brain.!

why are you including the MDF inside the wrapping? i usually see people wrapping only the pots in plastic. that way it doesn't matter what kind of board you put it on.

i would continue to ask the original shop BY TELEPHONE! get to a technical person or whoever fires the kiln. only that person can tell you what may be different about your firings in the past. perhaps your kiln is different in some way. what do you mean by standard speed? have you tested the heatwork with cones?

phil never said a word about being ill. wash st is just around the corner from my house. a lot closer as the crow flies. he started the round table discussions as soon as they opened. he showed examples of awful results of glaze firing and i contributed one of my spectacularly bad ones. it got added to the box to show the next group. he told me that not having a chemistry based education meant i was walking on a razor blade and would fall off sometime. the next time he saw me he said he liked my work. the memorial was stuffed with people who knew him. when bill van gilder walked in, he was covered in clay. we all agreed it was a tribute to phil that he would appreciate. lovely man, always generous with his time and advice.

i can't remember, both were in the 1970s. i had a $69 spinning tiger wheel and i had a paragon 88 kiln before i moved into the first home i owned, a condominium apartment. i remember getting the thick wire run into the bedroom that became my studio there. i think i replaced the little wheel with a pacifica when i bought the apt. my mother in law decided to give me the down payment but i had already saved it up so i got the wheel then. still using it. don't cry at the price, about $250 for each at the time. including shelves and posts for the kiln.

johnny, i have been doing this for years. i just use some WD-40 inside the bowl and spread it around, all over with a foam brush. get it in and out of the texture. once it is inside the mold it will only affect the clay that you press down into it. no mess. smell is not awful. cannot see enough detail about the bottom. use a circle of cardboard where you want the bottom to be flat.

to see the color of the piece you have, wet part of it and look fast. it will dry back to what you see now but in that brief time it is wet, you can see what it would be with a clear glaze on it. not that you plan to use one on that piece, just giving you more info than you have right now.

have you ever tested the clay to find out how hot to fire it? is the pot you tried to cover with this slip made of a different clay? there are lots of things that need to be just right in order to use a found clay.

i never realized my whammer dammer would be so hard to find as a finished product. the very elegant looking fancy ones look very pretty. i just want to smack the clay into place so i did it myself. if anyone in another country wants one, try a business that sells wood for building houses. i know we call that wood "lumber" while in the UK it is called "timber" so i am only calling it wood. a hardwood that has little grain would work for that very smooth surface. if you find a business selling wood, ask for a piece about a cube shape about 10 mm and 72mm long so you can use most of it for the large part and have a handle left at one end. the dealer may be able to shape it for you or suggest one of his customers who can do it. it cannot possibly cost more than shipping and might be ready very quickly.

to anyone seeing a kiln like the photo in the original post, that is a really good kiln for a first one. notice how little firing has been done in it. look at the shiny metal above the peepholes. nobody fired that thing to 2300 degrees as it says on the label. if they had, there would be smoky burn marks at the top of the peepholes. the very clean top bricks show minimal heating. the floor is pristine, nobody ran glazes all over it. the elements may be original to the date of purchase. i would bet it was used by someone whose hobby was painting bisqued ware from a " ceramics shop" that today we would call a "paint your own pottery". that would mean it was only used to cone 06, about 1800 degrees F if i remember it right. the sitter is not as clean as it could be, a damp rag would remove that white stuff. the tiny bits of surface rust i see here and there are nothing to worry about. yes, it is not in sections for easy moving but it is only 18 inches deep and not that heavy. it is not so wide that going through a normal door will be a problem. it gave good service to someone back in the 1970s and would continue to give good service today with the proper electrical connections. it would be a definite buy for me.

take it apart. you might not have left it with protection from drying out in the hopper and the final nozzle. that end can just dry up and prevent anything from exiting. your clay in the center of the machine might just be spinning around, unable to move foreward.

CATHERINE, GOOD NEWS! i just found a youtube video about pitfiring. there are several men doing it and one is andy ward ancient pottery. several others. they all show how to process raw clay. have fun!

strange question so i will ask, what are you hoping to accomplish? are you trying to change the color of the clay to white so colors appear more vibrant? a description of your purpose might give you more info than your original question.

welcome to the forum. how will you get them hot enough to change from clay to pottery? this is a really difficult thing to do, lots of research and testing is involved. i do not know anyone who has done this beyond the great american indians who have made wonderful things for centuries. maybe you can find a video of one of the most famous, Maria Martinez and her son. we do have a member in the southeast US who does something similar, perhaps she will reply. you might look at your local library for books discussing making pottery so you have the vocabulary to discuss the processes involved.

mark, what is your nearest large city that supports a newspaper? i realize "nearest" could mean hundreds of miles. if you call the newspaper and ask for the plant manager, you might reach someone who can send you some if you offer to pay for the shipping and packing. they really need to get rid of them after their side is no longer working for them. you really need two, a top and a bottom. the usual newspaper size is the size of the new york times or washington post, not small. always ask for measurements. if you can't find anything, i can always get some sent to you as a last resort. you might send a mug so they are amenable to a later request as well.

the element photos do not show anything but the wall and shadows. hold the camera inside the middle of the kiln. point the lens toward the wall and parallel to the wall. now you will get a shot of the actual elements inside each groove. that is what you want. you have one in the curved section at the top. it looks ok, the rest could be sitting straight in the grooves but crowded right next to each other, jam packed. not good. the repair pros will like your other photos except for being sideways like lots of phones show. i do not have a cell phone and just wonder why they come out sideways.

you have checked the continuity of the elements but are they sitting neatly in the slot running straight up and down or do they lean over on each other? as a buyer of a used kiln, few people know about this sign of wear. it is natural for the elements to eventually wear out and one of the signs is the leaning. the electricity still runs through but not enough. you will have answers here from the experts in kiln repair but it is not hard to look ant the elements first. photos of your kiln taken from holding the camera inside it about halfway down will show them clearly. if it is something else, you will get an answer if your photos cover the entire kiln. i am sorry if you are an electrical expert and i misread your post as a beginner.

have only seen kilns of this size and loads like this in shared studios where lots of potter's work is on the shelves. incredible amount of work for one person. i bow to your superior ability, as always. please tell me that you leave the shelves in place between firings. even though they are advancers, stacking those shelves must take (or have taken) many hours. in just this kiln.

i am probably missing something important in the photos shown on my computer. to me, the colors look as though someone added water to the underglaze. the result is the very pale areas and the darker ones are where the water did not have much of an impact on the color.

are the belts worn? look underneath and test them by pulling them off just a bit. they are just big rubberbands and eventually wear out. this is only an idea not something i have experienced.

underglazes make nice washes. i would try a white underglaze if it is an appropriate finish to the piece or if you plan to use a clear glaze on top.

if the base is that thick, an opening of at least a quarter of an inch that will not be glazed will help the item dry. drying completely will take a long time so putting the base onto something absorbent, like drywall, will help it dry evenly. if, after a while, the drywall looks dark, move the piece to a dry section of drywall. you do not want to blow this up in your kiln so be sure it is absolutely dry before firing.