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Status Updates posted by Joseph Fireborn
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dropped my bison trimming tool that I have had and used for 9 years.
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I know! I emailed him immediately, but it looks like his etsy shop is closed and his facebook hasn't been updated in a while. I am guessing maybe he is out of the business or has moved on?
I saw a lot of people on Etsy are now selling the same type of tool, but his craft was so good. Hard to accept moving on!
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The handle fits my hand so very well.
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I'm guessing that the carbide broke when you dropped it...how many pieces? If you have any welding experience, you may be able to silver solder the pieces back together and grind the joints to the original cross-section. Otherwise consider taking it to someone that does have such experience...
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About to mix glaze for the first time in 3 years. Excited and terrified at the same time.
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Denice,
The firing was subpar; as to be expected I presume after 3-4 years of not firing consistently. I have dismantled my pottery studio and it is all sitting there unused. I am debating on selling it all. I just don't have the urge right now, but I know I cannot replace it for the price I will sell it for, so I haven't.
I am terribly sorry to hear about your cancer. You are on the right path, search for only the best doctors. I went through years of cancer treatment and if it wasn't for the best doctors in the south east I am pretty sure I would not be here typing this message for you today. I wish you all the best and I know if anyone can beat it, you can.
Much love!
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Thank you for the pep talk, I am going to start calling tomorrow, I tried Friday and everyone was closed. What I am going through is nothing compared to what you had to endure. I wouldn't sell your equipment, stuff it in a corner. You will be wanting to get back into it in a few years. I sold my kickwheel after I bought a used Brent. The man who bought it was around 45 years old, he had done pottery in high school. The day he purchased it he just found out he had been appointed to a high level security job with the government. Several months later I received a photo of a pot and a message that my kickwheel had saved his life. He said his new job had so much stress that throwing every night is the only thing that kept him sane. You better hang on to it, who knows there maybe another pandemic in a few years. Just a thought, have you ever considered making teapots, you can start out with a one cupper and work your way up. With love Denice
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Everyone's journey is different. Doesn't mean it isn't hard to endure. Don't compare and contrast, just focus on you and your plan.
Kiln in a corner.
My wife said the same thing and she is a brilliant woman who I always listen to. So for now it sits in a corner. The kickwheel story is sort of the same story as mine. My hands were badly frozen up and I had nothing during the day, so it sort of saved my life in a way as well.
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Spring time in Georgia. Beautiful weather inspires me to get out in the studio. I just cleaned it up and organized it, which means I very well might make some pots for the first time in 2 years. Had to make sure the potters wheel even still worked today. Thankfully it buzzed right up. Kiln turned on as well! Whew!
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Are you going to post pictures Denice? When/if you do please tag me. I would love to see it.
As far as the shoulder, yea. I am trying to keep everything to a minimum. My work is super simple now and I have optimized the flow of my machinery and stuff so well that I don't have a ton of physical labor to do anymore.
I worked at Starbucks as a peak supervisor and working the espresso machines for 4.5 years just destroyed my shoulder. Picking up gallon jugs of milk 500-600 times a day pouring it, steaming it, pouring that and pumping syrups then bending over and putting the milk back in the fridge... Just wrecked me.
Thankfully I have moved on.
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Ow that sounds like that could cause a lot of problems, our friend carried a heavy mailbag for 35 years. When I was 20 I worked in a dental lab and had to stand on a ladder and lift a 25 lb bag of plaster over my head and dump it in the plaster bin. They finally gave the job to a man, it was causing to much commotion with the other workers. The other women didn't think I should do that job and the men would look up my skirt (uniform). I don't think that type of work did long term damage to me, I am 70 and have MS and can still pick up a 25lb bag of clay off the floor with one hand. I laid out my mural yesterday, I have to remake quite a few tiles. It is three dimensional and is a landscape of Arizona so getting a good fit has been quite challenging. Denice
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That story is so amazing. Classic workforce story. I can't wait to see your mural.
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Merry Christmas!
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I bet your having a great Christmas with your little one running around the tree! Denice
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And a Happy New Year!!!
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Yes happy new year to all
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I thought about all of you fine people today so I figured I would come say hello and that I love you all!
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me, three! hope all the folks around you are well and that you are happy.
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four and surely there are more
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Hi Joseph! Greetings from Montana. Hope all is well. We have a lot of smoke blowing in from CA, Idaho and Oregon. Very dry here.
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Firing some test tiles to get kiln back in action. Somewhere along the last 2 years I lost my schedule so I am trying to figure it out all over again!
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Finally maybe at last back to pottery now that my youngest is 8 months old. Life is crazy!
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My studio was in a small building in our back yard when my son was a baby, they didn't have baby monitors yet but I had this weird radio system. I would work in my studio and listen to him sleep, when he woke I would here giggling and playing. I knew my time was limited. I would start cleaning up and head on into the house about the time of the first cry. He started walking at 8 months old so I really enjoyed listening to him and not having to follow him around the house. Denice
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They're intense at that age! The work gets slower, but it still happens.
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Threw my first pots in almost 8 months, used my mixed clay blend with course grog and chicken grit. Made 3 vases! felt good.
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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all you wonderful people.
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Happy holidays to everyone. Denice
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yes happy holidaze
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Made some breakthroughs in my glaze work this week. Finally going to have some stability in the final product which is what I needed to move forward in production quantities for online, future shows and galleries!
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Working on a soft blue glaze today to celebrate the gender of my baby on the way. I think I might do some limited edition work in a very soft robins egg blue since that is my favorite mason stain to date. Finally getting some time in the studio again. Life is crazy.
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Thanks Old Lady and Benzine!
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Congratulations a Libra, my birthday is October 15. Libra is a great first child, I was quiet and had lots of patience, Libra's are all about balance and peace. Most Libra's are very artistic so you may have a potter in the womb. Denice
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Congratulations. So much to look forward to.
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That moment you have been making jars with a gallery and also a lid inner gallery that are so perfect that when you wax them they no longer fit inside of each other... perfection. Then that moment where you realize you forgot to turn on a preheat for your greenware to fire in a glaze firing and remember at 540F before you have a terrible disaster in your kiln and you stop it and vacuum it the next day. Thank you Jesus.
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Single firing, I take it?
I have neither the skill nor disposition to attempt that... I have had some of my students, make that decision for me though. Thus far, it has been on wares, that I didn't stack...
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I am OCD, on my kiln. I will check the program numerous, times, check that the vent hood is on, etc. Because that one time that you don't...
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Going to run some line blends today. I want to matte down my standard white glaze slightly. I want it to be more of a sheen satin and not a solid glossy glaze. Taking a much needed day break from my studies.
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Think about using this glaze to do your line blend - https://digitalfire.com/4sight/recipes/cone_6_dolomite_matte_base_glaze_121.html
I used this and a clear in a line blend to get an excellent satin white liner glaze. Came out to use 40% clear and 60% dolomite matte. Had 3 good candidates to choose from. I was looking for a white liner that was not to shiny but not scratchy.
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Cool. I will try if what I did doesn't work. Yarr!
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How is everyone? It has been a while. Just wanted to check in and say I love and miss you all! Fired my kiln today. First time in 8 months I have even touched a pot. Made me realize how much I miss this community. Hope everyone's pots are great and their glazes are perfection!
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Knowing how dedicated you are you will make an awesome teacher. Kudos on your grades and Masters acceptance.
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It's a wonderful career to have, Joseph. I too have been an economist but have spent the last twenty years teaching secondary math with a middle grades specialty.
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Gabby that is awesome! I am so excited to be there in a few years.
Thanks Min for those words of encouragement!
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Firing the kiln tonight. Extending my firing to 20 hours from 18. I have pretty much settled on my glazes so I am now just trying to fine tune my single firing schedule. I have 4 glazes total and 2 wood ash pastes. All of the glazes are white. How hilarious is that? The last white glaze I added forms a lot of crystallization so I wanted to hold longer at the right temps and I also slowed down my cooling from cone 6 to 1800G at 125F per hour. I am firing two platters that I can barely fit in my kiln, so I am excited that they come out good so I can give them away.
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Firing kiln with a bunch of vases with my wood ash glazes and modified slips. Excited to see them tomorrow night.
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Tom, I posted some pictures of a vase just for you.
Enjoy.
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I think they are reasonable representations of wood fired pieces, fresh out of an electric kiln.
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I am not trying to replicate wood fired pieces, I just really like those surfaces.
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Just peeked in my kiln full of test tiles with wood ash mixtures, pastes, and soda washes. Some very very promising results. Can't wait for the next 250F to cool so I can open that beast and spend days looking at every inch of every tile! It has been way too long since I have run a kiln load full of tiles.
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Nice. I have some really beautiful wood ash results that I just pulled out of the kiln. I am very happy with them. Formulated them all myself. Getting the hang of the feldspars. Out of the earth and into the fire was an absurd recommendation from John. I miss him.
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I talk to John on occasion still.
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I just emailed him thanking him for all his past post. They are enlightening.
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We had two nice days in a row here. I cleaned the studio up a good bit today and tomorrow I am going to mix up some ideas I have had brewing for a while: chicken grit, course grog, red sand, white sand(with smallstones) and black ice porcelain into my red rock clay. Nom Nom Nom. I am going to mix the black ice and red rock at different amounts looking for a dark black reddish body that I can spray with soda ash solution(safely) and then rub wood ash/flux mixture all over it dry. Then fire it on top of seashells! Can it get any more exciting!? I think not! 2018 is going to be a great year. I am only working with 2 glaze bases: Charles Titanium Grid 10 and Milky Gloss. The rest will be ash and soda mixtures. I also won't be glazing the entire pot anymore. Looking for that sheen. My elements are going to hate me, c'est la vie! But I also have to replace my controller tomorrow. Busy day Busy day!
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Finally over my cold. I had such plans for this break, but between a family cold, kiln controller dying, and freezing cold garage I haven't gotten much done. However, I am going to accomplish a lot in the new year! Going to continue to work on my surfaces and glaze development. Exciting times.
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good time to plan for the next steps you want to take. drawing what is in your head, checking if you are prepared for actually working with clay when it gets warmer and you feel better.
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I have spoke to a bunch of people who had a miserable holiday break including myself and my husband. My husband told me yesterday that he couldn't wait to get back to work at least he gets paid for being miserable. The gray skies and extreme cold doesn't help. I am still down and out from my MS relapse, I have two half finished pots in my studio but they are so cold I don't have a problem with them drying out. Denice
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Enjoying the chilly weather by my warm kiln cooling down while I throw pots in the garage. Couldn't ask for a better day.
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Changing elements and TCs. Then doing the element break-in firing while I clean my studio and mix some glaze. FUN DAY!
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And finished about 30 minutes ago. Gotta love L&L. Making frenchfries to eat while my kiln breaks in! Yummm. Pictures going to the forum post about the TC's now.
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Ahhhhh! Studio is nice and clean. Swept. Mopped. Hand sponged all surfaces. What a great way to start next week. New elements, new TC, clean studio, and some new glaze test!
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Those days when you wake up with tons of plans and do nothing. Bleh. Guess I will just work twice as hard tomorrow.
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I have had a week like that, I am still managing to get a little done in my studio everyday. Maybe next week I won't be so busy. Denice
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Welp. Got stuff done today. Sprayed and lined an entire kiln load. Hopefully if everything comes out good I will be listing it all. It excites me that I used only 2 glazes! hahah.
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Peeped into my peep holes. Beautiful greys!
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I am so happy with my work! I never thought I would say that this early in my career. Although I am still testing new glazes and new techniques. The majority of my kiln loads are finally being made to sell. How cool is that! Toot Toot!
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I am happy for you also, I know you have been working towards this moment and all of your hard work paid off. Denice
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Photos???
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@Marcia Selsor I know! It is raining here and I was planning on spraying and cleaning up a bit. Instead I am just going to throw all day.
@Denice Thanks!
@Roberta12 umm, you can check my gallery or my instagram link in (profile.)