Ginny C

Thank you, Jeff!! Guess I look like an idiot. Now I won't ruin my beautiful chattering by adding slip over it, but I just might attempt that with a smaller plate, just to see what happens. With a very dry leather hard and a think slip, I'll see what happens.

OOOHHHH!! Are you all telling me that the design around the food is actually part of the food, not a slip decoration??? Some sauce with the sashimi? Or are you all still pulling my leg!? I now have a large plate, chattered and trimmed, waiting for bisque firing. Was about to try adding a slip decoration over it. Worried, of course, that it would mess up the nice chattering. I'm hoping for a few another reply to clear up my confusioin... thanks

Come on, you guys! How about a serious reply...??

In the March 2013 issue of Ceramics Monthly a plate by Euan Craig has caught my eye...and fancy! It is chattered, but I am trying to figure out how the overlain design is done. It looks like slip that has been shaped with a rib. I have done both techniques before but never thought of combining them. I cannot find any information on this combined technique by him or any other potters. What do you think? Chattered and then a small amount of slip on top, quickly shaped so it doesn't soften the chattering below?? Or maybe slip trailed, with a very thin layer of slip in the leaves? (The photo shows it with food in the middle.)

I used the term agate clay because I thought that referred to colored clays inlaid into a slab...Maybe that's not the right term. I colored some of my white B-Mix clay with iron oxide powder my son sent to me from France. Using different amounts in slip that I dried on plaster and wedged up I ended up with different shades. Layered slices of the colored clays with plain B-Mix, and then twisted a slice and rolled it out flat and thin. Rolled it into a slab of brown speckled Laguna clay. But the blisters on this piece are on both that strip plus even more on the other part of the dish. I think my idea of re-bisquing the other 2 pieces made the same way but not yet glaze fired is what I'm going to do.

Thanks, all! I do think the hammer is called for now, especially since I cut my finger on a big one on the inside as I was moving it for the photo. But it is the same Laguna B-Mix clay I've used for years, and other pieces from that batch of clay have been fine. I made several items from a different clay (a brown Laguna with speckles) which were bisqued in the same load as the green vase, in a shared studio in MI. These pieces I brought home to glaze and fire, and one of them blistered and two mugs I've fired so far did not blister at all. I have two more pieces, one quite large, from the same brown clay bisqued in MI and now waiting to be glaze fired in a friend's larger kiln, and I'm wondering whether I should re-bisque them first! ? If the problem is that that load was not bisqued long enough, would it be wise to re-bisque them? (These pieces are unique, with inlaid agate clay that I'd hate to mess up! It's a clear glaze. This doesn't show the blisters, but there are a few there.

Lovely vase came out with popped blisters all over it. (Electric kiln, B-Mix cone 5-6 clay, bisqued to 04. Then glaze fired to cone 6.) I ground them down some with a dremel, covered each with 2 dabs of clear glaze and re-fired. Now the blisters look like the wart I had as a child, made of lots of little columns crammed up together. Really ugly, although one visitor said it was interesting, and I should just title it "Vase—Warts and All" Maybe it needs to go to cone 7? Should I give it one more try, re-firing it again?? If so, should the whole pot get a new coat of glaze, rather than just over the warts? Other pieces from the same clay but different glazes came out fine. The glaze was somewhat thick on this vase. Might that have caused the blisters?

I should add that it works perfectly now that I understand it! And a shout out Tyler Allanson at T.A. Metal for his helpfulness! His was the only place I found that sells the hollow dies individually so you can order just the shapes you want. Much more cost efficient than the sets most ceramic places sell.

Problem solved. Just had to move up the bar rather than screwing it all the way down to the die! ginny

I'm not there right now. The dies are from TA Metal in Canada. I think, from reading earlier posts on extruders, that the bar across is too close to the die. At least the way we installed it. Will go back now and see if it can be moved up. Also might file the top edge of the opening to make it slightly beveled. More later!

I just purchased some hollow dies for a square wall-mounted extruder in a shared pottery space. (No one in charge of the room. It's a non-profit Artisan Learning Center, well equipped but no one using it now was there in the beginning.) The only dies they had previously were for solid items. I want to extrude hollow shapes, and I was excited to try the new dies this morning, but it was a failure! Instead of one hollow tube it produced two halves of a tube, completely separate from each other. The dies came with a cross-piece with three bolts to fit into the die and the center piece. I installed the die in what seemed the logical way, with the connecting bar above the die, and loaded nice soft B-Mix clay. The shape came out in 2 sections, all the time. The cross piece is flat (maybe 1/16th inch thick) and about 1 1/2 inches tall. Seems like a much smaller connection would be better at letting the clay get itself back together in time!! Any suggestions?? What did I do wrong? Thanks for any help.

I'm spending time this month at a community pottery room and the glazes are mostly a mess. No one is in charge of them. The good potters mostly bring their own, and the beginners just struggle to brush on from the buckets of various glazes. They have been mixed from dry but have sat for several years. I know to scrape up the settled part, sieve the whole thing, and add some epsom salt solution to cut down on the settling. However, most people want to brush the glazes, and they dry instantly on the pots, making a mess. I have read about using gum solution and will order some, I think, but in a pinch, can I just add some glycerin? And how about some vinegar, also?? Do I have to learn how to measure specific gravity?? There are lots of bags of dry glazes in the cupboard. All of them are Laguna MS for Cone 5-6. They would like me to mix them up. There is Bentonite, so I will use that (although the colors of these glazes are not what I would choose!!). But to make them suitable for brushing, should I add gum along with the bentonite? I've read that the gum in powder form must be mixed with water and used as all or part of the water when mixing the glaze. (There are lots of other glaze ingredients stored there, so in the past someone knew how to use them!) Ideally, I would think I should mix the glazes into two containers, one for brushing and one for dipping, with different additives. AND LABEL THEM AS SUCH! Can you wonderful people send me some suggestions and maybe some links to clearly explained instructions? Thanks!

Thanks, Matthew. But surely the unglazed porcelain would absorb stains during use? Of course, it's so beautiful that maybe his work mainly sits on shelves to be admired... Or maybe I just don't know enough about porcelain. Would love to try it when I get better as a potter! ginny

Lin, I think that's probably right. Maybe he dips the whole bisqued mug in a white glaze and then waxes the handle, rim and foot. Lots of work, but he is extremely careful in his making and attaching the handles, so that would not be surprising. ginny

How does Mike Jabbur glaze his beautiful mugs? I can't figure it out! The gorgeous handles are already attached, of course, but the glaze on the body of the mug is different from that on the handle and inside. Anyone know?? Will Mike Jabbur share his technique? Ginny Clark