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Charging For Glaze Use


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Does anybody have an efficient, easy, and fair way of allocating glaze expenses to potters in a

community situation?  Members aren't charged specifically for firing pots - we just fire up the kilns

whenever there's enough ware for a full load.  There's a flat monthly fee.

 

If we brushed glazes, we could just have everybody buy their own stuff.  But we mix dipping glaze

from raw materials  and put them in 5 gallon buckets.

 

Casey

 

 

 

   

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Do your members need to buy their clay through your studio? You could add a surcharge to every bag of clay, which will cover the cost of glazes that will typically be consumed per bag of clay.

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An honesty box?

 

"A flat monthly fee to have work fired seems rather strange" said the man who gives people using my studio free clay. "I suppose that if you assume a member will make less than one kiln load of work in a month the income flow would offset the costs pretty fast."

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Our center charges $40 for 25# of clay which includes bisque , glazes, glaze firing and use of the studio.

We do have some equation and charts based on size of piece you want to fire  but fortunately no one does this very often.  Take home clay costs $15 and those potters all have kilns at home.  Only clay bought at the studio is allowed to be fired. Google search reveals various ways studios handled this matter.  One charges $4.50/ lb.

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When I was teaching at a community studio, I prepared a spreadsheet that listed each of the studios glazes, what was in each one, and the cost of making an 8000 g bucket.  Costs ranged from as low as $14 for clear to $40+ for some others. 

 

I did this for two reasons.  First, students need to understand the costs of glazing and the costs of "wasted" glaze slopped on table tops, floors.  Second, the owner was perpetually out of key ingredients needed to make new batches and I was interested in just how much inventory was needed to keep on hand.  The students were appreciative; the owner, well . . . let's just say the place is no longer in operation due to financial problems. 

 

You need to know the cost of your glazes before you can figure out how much to charge -- either as an add-on to clay or dues or as a separate fee. 

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