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The Dirtiest Job In Ceramics


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After a 10-hour glaze day yesterday I reminded me of what makes me want a shower the most.

 

Throwing pots

Making clay

Making glaze

Cleaning the studio

Or glazing wares

For me its glaze day-that’s when I get the most love for a shower.

 

Ps wood firing is another level for sure

 

Mark

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In my current situation, glazing is definitely tops on the shower list. In the past it was clay mixing, especially when I was working for a clay supplier and would have to jump on the line when one of my guys was out sick. Nothing like mixing 12,000 pounds by yourself in one day to get good and grimy.

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Post raku clean up is the worst. Bits of ash everywhere no matter how careful i am and emptying out well used trash cans covered with creosote. Once I did raku using old credit card statements that needed to be destroyed.  boy did that paper stink.  once we used dried alfalfa as a combustable and got accused of dope smoking. 

 

rakuku

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Glazing is at the top of the list of least enjoyable part of the process.  It takes a lot of skill to get your pots glazed with no runs, globs, finger marks, dripped wax, .... Oh lets not forget the splashing when the whole pot is dropped in the glaze bucket.  I have figured out to always use the heavy Iron receipes last.  Iron oxide apparently stains everything.

 

I would be happy if I could just sit and throw and trim. 

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Glazing for me, wear the old ragged jeans and long sleeved shirt in Winter, short sleeve in Summer. Sink traps I never had to clean out, the janitors did it. They even put the residue in a bucket for me so that I could use in some "mystery glaze" tests. We usually had to clean once a month, but they insisted on doing it so I let them.

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Glazing for me, wear the old ragged jeans and long sleeved shirt in Winter, short sleeve in Summer. Sink traps I never had to clean out, the janitors did it. They even put the residue in a bucket for me so that I could use in some "mystery glaze" tests. We usually had to clean once a month, but they insisted on doing it so I let them.

I often wondered if you could use that "sink trap" product for a glaze.It's just so darn smelly though. Mostly clay, I would think. I was looking at my mop pail water and thinking that it would make a glaze. I don't need any more slop/scrap glazes.

TJR.

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I live in a rental. No sink trap. I use a multi bucket system. I don't think I would ever put one in knowing I would have to clean. I have my son clean the tub drain, yucky. To keep the smell down I pour a few drops of bleach once a week.

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Cleaning sink trap has got to be #1 only based on the smell.

 

A very close contender is making a batch of clay with a super-smelly reclaim barrel which smells as bad as a sink trap, because it's full of dead skin cells, newspaper bits, etc and has been sitting in the sun for a few weeks....and you're putting your bare hands in it...and your head goes into or very close to the trash can because you're reaching to the bottom...at least with the sink trap you can use a wet-vac and cover your nose with the free-hand.

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