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Are You Started Into Your New Year Plan/program. Are You On Track?


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We are well into the new year. Have you shaken off the holidays and started beck in earnest to get your plans going?

Are you stocked up?

Some new ideas draw up and in your studio?

What are you doing to get going?I am preparing for a workshop nearby and will be doing some demos prior to the big firing day. This gives me an excuse to experiment on small pieces in a wide variety.

I love teaching!

 

 

Marcia

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I hadn't really thought about it but I am right on schedule, my studio is clean and reorganized and I have started throwing.  I am going to do John Baymore's throwing exercises to increase my hand memory this week.  I have a new terracotta clay recipe mixed and ready to freeze test,  I need to replace shattered tiles on a fountain.  Feels good.        Denice

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I hadn't really thought about it but I am right on schedule, my studio is clean and reorganized and I have started throwing.  I am going to do John Baymore's throwing exercises to increase my hand memory this week.  I have a new terracotta clay recipe mixed and ready to freeze test,  I need to replace shattered tiles on a fountain.  Feels good.        Denice

Denise;

Could you replace those frozen tiles with stoneware? Where I am, nobody uses terracotta for outside work.It absorbs water, freezes, and falls off.

Tom.

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I am started and well into my work. Got a new gallery in the trendy touristy area, right after Christmas. I made 72 mugs for them. Got an order for 60 mugs for a conference. Luckily I had the 72 mugs already made .Unfortunately my firing partner is still on holiday mode. I hope he gets started this week so we can fire.

TJR.

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I know lots of people in cold climates that use terra cotta. In some places it has stay fine for hundreds of years.

http://www.chipclawson.com

Chip was the head of the clay business at Archie Bray for 30 years. He is a good friend and amazing artist.

 

I have posted his recipe for freeze proof terra cotta several times here. He is in Montana where it gets very cold. Terra cotta , if it is the right recipe will do just fine in cold climates. excuse the format below for batch and percentage on the numbers. Fire to ^01

"Chip Clauson's Freeze Proof Terra Cotta

Batch_____ %

Hawthorne Fire Clay 20_____ 9

C and C Ball 50______ 21

Red Art 100_____ 43

Talc 15____ 6

Muddox Grog 50_____ 21

.5 Barium Carbonate "

 

Marcia

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Tom  This is a red terracotta vitrified at C1 it is a talavera style tile with majolica glaze and overglaze.  A photo of the fountain is in the gallery,  I have made 5 other exterior murals with this same tile that are 7 years old no problems.  None of the field tile are shattering they have 2 coats of underglaze on them the decorative tiles have three coats.  For now I am replacing all of the border tile with new field tile and making a cover for the top of the fountain to cover and protect the elaborate design.   I did extensive freeze test before I started using this tile, I even made a 3' mural and left it on the ground to get snowed on and ice covered for a winter.  I knew I was pushing the bar when I started working with the terracotta but I wanted that true talavera look.   Denice

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Tom  This is a red terracotta vitrified at C1 it is a talavera style tile with majolica glaze and overglaze.  A photo of the fountain is in the gallery,  I have made 5 other exterior murals with this same tile that are 7 years old no problems.  None of the field tile are shattering they have 2 coats of underglaze on them the decorative tiles have three coats.  For now I am replacing all of the border tile with new field tile and making a cover for the top of the fountain to cover and protect the elaborate design.   I did extensive freeze test before I started using this tile, I even made a 3' mural and left it on the ground to get snowed on and ice covered for a winter.  I knew I was pushing the bar when I started working with the terracotta but I wanted that true talavera look.   Denice

You know, when you make a gross generalization, you are going to pay. I know Chip Clauson, and know that he would come up with a workable clay body. Maybe I'll make some terra cotta tiles myself.

Tom.

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so much for gross generalizations. There is ALWAYS some exception to the rule. I love Chip's outdoor work. He got a commission to do some work and workshops at the women's prison in Billings when I lived there (in Billings, not the prison). He used my kiln when he was in town rather than drive all the way back to Helena 530 miles RT.So the picture of Chip at the women's prison is after a successful workshop with inmates participating in the design and making of some parts of his outdoor installation there.

Marcia

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Hi, I have been doing commercial pots for the past 2 years after spending 21 years at a farmers' market. I decided that was enough. Since then I've been piling up stock of pots other than ordered ones for that time & decided in Nov. to find an outlet & I did. My pots are doing well. So now I have another venue which has encouraged me to spend more hours in the studio. Yeah!

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so much for gross generalizations. There is ALWAYS some exception to the rule. I love Chip's outdoor work. He got a commission to do some work and workshops at the women's prison in Billings when I lived there (in Billings, not the prison). He used my kiln when he was in town rather than drive all the way back to Helena 530 miles RT.So the picture of Chip at the women's prison is after a successful workshop with inmates participating in the design and making of some parts of his outdoor installation there.

Marcia

Made me laugh! -the part about the women's prison. I missed it the first time I read it. Very witty.

TJR.

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  • 4 months later...

Am I on track for this years plans?  Not exactly, but only because I procrastinate.

I did change my mind about the location of the pottery workshop and decided to move the site across the

driveway.  Its lower so I need to do some filling in with dirt,(which I've started).  I have also started cutting

saplings and trees to make room for the building 20 x 25.  The construction method will be a some what

type of timber framing, so I've taken a job at a automotive parts store to have a way to cash flow the

building.  I plan to make the walls out of stones, so I found a granite quarry owner who might consider

trading pottery for granite remnant rocks.  I still plan to trade pottery for those thousands of bricks under and around

the tenant house out in the woods, and fashion something out of those, since common construction bricks

won't work in the stoneware reduction kiln I want to build.  The owner of the bricks is eager to get the

pottery for bricks already.  I plan to take TJR's advice and find insulated bricks for the kiln, so I'll make

a jar for the manager of the local brick company and see if its possible to get the old insulated bricks

they discard when the brick company systematically rebuilds their kilns.(two yrs ago, they couldn't, but

it worth checking into again). I owe him a jar anyway!  So once I draw the plans for the building and get

Lowes to deliver the timbers and a concrete company to pour the footings, I can start on the roof, kiln,

and sides of the building.  It won't happen overnight, but I can dream!!  I'm thinking of a high barn type roof

for a storage loft.  Since I have to do this myself, I plan to do it in increments, a part at a time. ;>)

or as they say "baby steps". (from the movie "What about Bob?)

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