Rae Reich

Carpet tape is wide and sticky on both sides. It can stick to carpet, so bisque should be no problem. I think it’s removable (if done soon and has not had a heavy weight applied for a generous period of time ) Question: Why does it need to be sticky on both sides? @Babs do you mean contact paper? Good suggestion!

Carpet tape sticks to carpets as well as floors and is wide. Probably removable. Question: why double-sided? Hard for me to imagine why you want the upper side to be sticky too.

@Chilly - Perfectly said! Copying for the front page of my Glaze Book!

Compacting the rim with a scrap of clay-bag plastic is a trick I learned to give you a dense enough surface at the rim to absorb more glaze. Sometimes a clay is just so rough, with high shrinkage, that the bigger particles still poke out here and there. A judicious use of a bit of silicon carbide shelf, or other fine-grained grinding stone will take off burrs.

@Pyewackette, seems like you’re doing most things that I would advise. One more thing, though - speed. You are indicating that you want to throw your porcelain forms faster. That’s something to work on after you have successfully produced the forms consistently. Struggling with the reclaim probably has made you a better thrower. When I started throwing I spent a summer on a Lockerbie kickwheel with earthenware. That’s when I learned my most useful throwing skill - matching my movements to the speed of the wheel. When past the raising stage, in order to get the most from my energy spent kicking up that wheel, I began moving more slowly as the momentum of the kick slowed. I found I had much more control over the shapes and they distorted less from excess torque. Electric wheels encourage us to go fast. Students often don’t learn to ease up on the pedal as the shape is refined. The kickwheel teaches that by its nature. A smoothly working foot pedal can allow the thrower the same control, it just takes more attention.

Throw with little water to reduce flopping. Avoid making thick/thin areas. When it starts going ‘off’, you’ve probably lost it, so be attentive to tiny corrections. Never leave water in the bottom. Artificial drying must be done very carefully since differences inside-to-out will make further throwing uneven. Better to use the rib to scrape wet surfaces up, I think, than a sponge.

@Pyewackette, pool noodle prices in Nowhere are better than here! Love your bucket-filling noodle! off topic: I use pool noodles to keep my boots standing up in the closet

@Pyewackette, I think the pre-slit foam pipe insulator ’noodles’ cost less than pool noodles at your local big box hardware store.

Being an older, smaller person, I have to agree with @Pyewackette that rechargeable batteries make some tools too heavy for me to use easily. However, with enough spare batteries and efficient recharging protocols they can make big complicated jobs much easier. Also agree that battery expense and lack of interchangeability is a huge complication. I would be grateful if some industry standard were devised and applied - it’s been a few decades since they came into use. So, I guess it depends on frequency and convenience …

100% dipping and pouring, until I got a spray booth. Much experimenting to decide when it worked well and when, not. Maybe 85/15 after that. Brushing and airbrush for effects/decoration.

I don’t have clay formula recommendations, but you might consider making an engobe or slip of some of your remainder to coat exposed/necessary areas of pots made from another clay. Test First!!

The extension leg kit for my Brent C is really too tall for exactly the seated position I need for scoliosis, but I use it anyway. I have a padded stool (not swivel, that’s not stable enough for me) that’s the right seat height and I put boxes on each side for the foot pedal and a foot rest. I need to keep my legs extended more than they are when seated at the shorter Brent, but about the same as when seated at the Lockerbie kickwheel (just used for slow work, now). I do sometimes stand to throw, too, depending on the piece.

Focus and Follow-through!! Planning ahead and dealing with the unexpected. Learning to criticize constructively. Learning to accept criticism constructively. Asking “Why” and “How did this happen?”

I would sort them into Need Sooner and Need Later to decide how to inventory. Photos, which fade, and even cumbersome written descriptions, on the storage boxes are useful for Long Term, but, as you’ve noted, become quickly outdated for tracking inventory churn unless you become very disciplined about documentation. Bar codes linked with photo, description and location information, cross-referenced, all on your phone or laptop would be tidy and efficient, as long as you update the information religiously in the records and on the boxes. If you have an orderly mind, you can devise a spreadsheet to do most of that, with identifying labels that you print or write up as needed.

Washers and dryers do not take kindly to clay. You have noticed the immediate effect on the machines, but it is also harmful to put clay residue into your water pipes, where it will accumulate and clog. Washing machines and dryers will wear out your clay rags sooner. Rags that are always used for clay can just be rinsed regularly in a bucket and hung up to dry overnight. If you live in a damp or humid area, extras will be needed. Some of my rags are probably forty years old, bought a box of red shop rags that are very pale pink now. (Red rags don’t get lost in the slop bucket.) Small clay accumulations on shop coats, aprons and pants should be allowed to dry and then scraped off as much as possible before machine washing. Thick caking on clothes that are regularly used for clay should be rinsed in several waters (in a tub that doesn’t drain into your sewer) after scraping and before washing. Most light colored clays won’t stain, but iron oxide is forever - although there’s a product called SoilLov that does a good job on blood that might work.

+1 for using a strip of plastic bag to compress and smooth the rim

@Callie Beller Diesel, this is my speculation, based on observation : I think that cast molecules are basically ’stacked’ as they’re poured. Is there compression there? Gravity during pour? Does deflocculant settle the molecules differently? I think hand-building does some alignment of molecules during formation and some of it is compression. And I think that throwing clay, and to an lesser extent, jiggering, aligns and compresses the clay the most. How that affects carving: Cast pieces at leather-hard are less flexible, break more readily and the cut edges are often more ragged. A double-edged carving knife that looks like a x-acto with a curved tip makes a cleaner cut on porcelain - cast OR thrown, but it doesn’t do straight lines as well as it does curved lines. Breaks of dry and fired walls are less linear and fracture into crumbs.

Do you notice a difference between the compressed hand-built surfaces and the poured slip-cast when carving? Do you carve all the way through the walls?

Yes, oils on hands are sometimes responsible for the problem. Do you also use gloves to unload the bisque? If you are wet sanding your bisque ware, it could be that you have not completely removed sanding dust from the surfaces. As long as the pieces are wet, you might as well scrub sanded surfaces thoroughly with a brush or green scrubber and rinse well.

I’ve thought that my overglaze has crawled sometimes because I rubbed or disturbed the underglaze while green, so that a surface gets a bit less smooth where rubbed and, later, the glaze doesn’t adhere in the same way. Alternatively, the fired underglaze could have been touched before the overglaze.

Note: Throwing vs Casting - In my experience, to carve holes through thrown porcelain, stoneware and earthenware is different than on clay cast in a mold. The clay of a poured form has less integrity when cut and carved, compared to the aligned clay molecules that have been wheel thrown. Thinly cast forms are more fragile both before and after firing.

1. Consistent wall thickness, carve when leather hard, keep moist or covered until carving is done 2. Very narrow cutting blade , best ones are less than 1/8”, needle tool to fish out trimming scraps 3. Plan holes so that there is enough structure to hold itself up when high heat softens the clay at the peak of firing, geometric designs are most reliable 4. Dry slowly, covered loosely 5. Gently smooth rough edges with a green scrubber when clay is no longer damp 6. Some experimenting will be necessary to determine glaze thickness and application 7. Clean excess glaze from holes with a needle tool Here’s a video from a Korean master:

Your collapsed piece is quite interesting as it is and demonstrates the nature of clay as it interacts with fire. Romance! Physics! As you have discovered, you will need a different design to stand tall in high fire. Re-think your construction and make something that is structurally sound to show off your glaze.

Nice, Lee! On my iPad it displays edge to edge. Scrolls and slides and links smoothly. Don’t know enough to critique further on bells and whistles, but I’d be happy to have this site. Thumbs up!

Definitely trim the feet asap after throwing, as soon as the rims are firm enough. The longer you wait, the more chance of the foot’s clay drying unevenly. Cover the cups with plastic if you have a bunch to do, keep the bases moist until trimming.