Denice

This was part of a demonstration on how broken bulbs fired in the clay create a clear glaze. He had us find old bulbs and break them over a trash can outdoors because the powder in side of them was dangerous to breathe. We washed them and brought them to class, this was part of our assignment. I handbuilt my pot, we had only one wheel in the class, my teacher would pick one boy to teach him how to throw. Girls weren't given this honor we were too weak, I was a head taller than my teacher. had broad shoulders and large hands. The glaze it made was a ugly dingy clear. In the late 60's many of the psychodelic albums were played during class and I am pretty sure my teacher was smoking marijuana in his pipe. After I left he somehow managed to burn down the classroom, they rewarded him by replacing the electric kilns with a big gas kiln. It was a interesting and fun time of my life and I didn't do drugs, smoke or drink. Denice

The sawdust will burn out, it depends on how coarse it is on the texture the clay is after firing. It depends on how sensitive your skin is when it comes to throwing it, I threw a large bowl with large grain sawdust in it, wasn't to bad. I had a teacher that demonstrated throwing clay with broken flourescent bulbs in it. He got the vase thrown and had tiny cuts all over his hand that were bleeding. He wiped off the blood and said no big deal. Denice

Saw dust gives clay a rough surface after it's fired, you can press chips of wood into it when you are finished throwing it for bigger gouges. I have a pot made by a man and wife team, they gave everyone a unsigned unglazed small bowl from the seminar. The top of the bowl has a beautiful tear. they were using a Cone 10 stoneware. I think you can mix sawdust in any clay you have. It has been 20 years ago so my memory may be a little off. Denice

I also have it my glaze book but I don't remember the 20 minute hold. What temperature do you hold it at? I bought myself a XL Caldera test kiln recently, I have already ran 20 test firings. Using it has inspired me to buy a new kiln. I bought a kiln several years ago for $300, it had only been fired once, there is a lot of things I don't like about it. I think I will start shopping after I get my new mural fired. Denice

Looking through your old pots can help sometimes. Like Old Lady I dislike or even hate them but occasionally I will run across a piece that I really liked and forgotten about. I wonder why I didn't go further with that design and decide now is the time. Denice

I like to read the Ceramic Monthly from the 50's and 60's and check out the techniques that was used before I started seriously working with clay in the late 60's. Once in a while I will try to make a piece that I have seen. I know I will never come close to copying it, by the time I keep cutting and changing it there isn't any resemblance. Denice

When I was a decorator I would have to turn down jobs because of the chemicals they used in nearby rooms. I never know when I am going to have a reaction and quit breathing. It would be nice to sneeze or cough. letting me know that there is something in the air. I usually can get outside before I collapse, one time I was in a hardware store and they started demonstrating a new product. My husband notice that I was acting odd and decided I needed fresh air, by the time we got to the door I slumped down to the floor. He managed to get me outside. Have been hospitalized for insect spray and another for mowing the grass. I have been around clay mold for 50 years and built up a tolerance to it. Yeah! Denice

This mold discussion brought up a memory of mixing beer in a batch of clay so it would get plastic faster and have better mold. I don't know if it really works, we were just following instructions of the MA students. Denice

When my day in the studio starts out bad, I just quit and find something else to do. I usually do some house cleaning, not a great housekeeper but I have a great husband who prefers me to work in the studio than clean the house. Bad studio turns into a good house cleaning day. Denice

I agree with Kelly, potters are people who are seduced by clay. I filled in one summer for a injured throwing teacher, at the end of the summer everyone had the basics down and fairly happy with their results. A third of the students thought it was too much work and frustrating to continue with. The rest of the class liked the throwing but weren't interested in glaze and clay formulations. I did have three students that followed me around asking questions, I think they may have been seduced by their clay. It makes me wonder why they were seduced and the rest of the class wasn't. Denice

I am much organized than my husband he works out of piles. I work on projects, I just finished some tiles for a kitchen and I have a long term mural that I am about ready to bisque. I will clean and organize my studio before I start working on the mural. I generally don't stop on a project and start on another but the kitchen tile needed to be done NOW! I will admit that my studio can get messy when I am heading towards the finish line but everything gets cleaned when I finish. Denice

I took a test in high school to help determine my direction in life. The test came back that I should be a architect. They told me I had the highest score on the section of three dimensional objects and blueprints they had ever come across. I didn't get into architecture until I was 55 decided to design my home. Taught myself how to use a computer by learning three architectural programs. Denice

I took the career test LeeU mentioned, I had potter show up as a suggested career among all of the other artistic careers. They listed a few that had very little to do with art and many of the jobs I have done in my life time. I became a potter when I was 12 years old and my art teacher gave me a ball of clay and told the class to make anything you want. All of the other kids started pounding our ash trays, so I checked with her that I really could make anything. She said yes. I had been reading a book about Egyptian cats and I made a cat pendant. When it was fired she hung it in the schools big display case for the rest of the year. I had decided that clay was magic and you could make anything with it. I have studied other arts and always come back to clay. It could be we all have it in our DNA and it gets switched on by some event, aren't we the lucky ones. Denice

I give away my flawed pieces, sometimes people will ask why I give them away. I tell them about the flaws and that some of the work didn't come together like I wanted it to. Most people love the flawed pieces, my shelf of flawed work empties quickly. Denice

Your skewer is going to cause your clay to crack, your clay continually shrinks as it dries your skewer doesn't unless is it is made of a flimsy material that is easy to crush. Denice

Congratulations on taking your first step to retirement you need to do it while you can still enjoy it! My daughter in-laws dad was at Christmas dinner, he didn't look very well and walked stooped. He is 67 and had to retire last year, the company he worked at 35 years closed. He is bitter and resentful, all he does is sit around complaining about bad management. I think he should have retired on a high note a few years earlier and have a enjoyable retirement. We know several people who had to take early retirements because of Covid pandemic shutting down business's. Some got part time jobs others got some more education or training to work in a field they always wanted to try. Everyone of them is happier and more relaxed, they found out they had plenty of money if they tightened their budget. Denice

If I can I buy a mug from artist I meet at workshops or at their shop. If they are coming to visit my studio I will tell them to bring a mug and we will trade if they want to. I visited Marcia Selsor studio a few years ago, I brought her one of the pots from the hand coiled tribal series I was making, I gave it to her as we departed. I didn't want her to feel obligated to give a piece of her work that she sells for hundreds of dollars. Denice

I thought my school had everything, it was a very large school so they had more than enough kids to fill each program. I was mostly in art and journalism but they had also so had cooking, sewing and secretarial program. The art students could get help in the shop classes with tools that weren't in the art class for their projects. They had all kind of programs for the boys drafting, mechanics and shop class, they also had buses that would take the boys to a technical school for half days. My mother in-law started telling me about her high school classes, she lived in western Kansas. They taught those children everything would would need to know to run a farm or ranch. They also had a tough math, English, and history curriculum and broad sports programs for the boy and girls. She died at the age of 98 two years ago she was a world traveler and worked at a bank with the first primitive computers. Denice

That is a great looking job on venting the basement window. I didn't have any windows when I had my basement studio (dungeon) but I did have a dryer vent that went outside. My husband reconfiqured the vent to where I could run a a vent to it when I fired. He installed a baffle that I could use to block the main vent off to the dryer while firing. When your house is 100 years old and it has a double brick twelve inch thick wall you have to be creative. Denice

All to familiar with being the harshest critic of my work, I usually give away the pots I am not completely happy with to visitors in my studio. They usually pick the one I really dislike. I wasn't unhappy with the work I was taking to the gallery, I was just surprised that anyone notice how hard I worked with glazes. Denice Good luck with the kiln purchase.

I keep my clay in 5 gal buckets, most of it is recycled clay in my studio. I try to check them often to make sure they have enough water. I was using some plant coasters under them to be able to move them around. I recently found some heavy duty ones in garage supplies, they are much easier to roll around. Denice

When I graduated from college with my ceramics degree my professor said I should buy a test kiln for my glazes. Cone 6 oxidation glazes were fairly new and would need testing on different clay's. My husband said to consider it a graduation present. I recently bought a new Paragon Caldera XL test kiln to replace my old AIM kiln. My old one doesn't have a computer and the walls are on the thin side. It cools really fast which can change the glaze. The need to test glazes is even greater with the substitution of different ingredients in a glaze formulas today. The best compliment on my glaze work was from another potter. I was dropping off a load of pots at a gallery, another potter was there watching me. She came up to me as I was about to leave and said to me that I really paid attention to my glaze. She said each pot had the right glaze for it, if it had two glazes they were applied at just the right level and the glazes were perfect. Her comments to me were so much more valuable than anything I sold. I didn't think anyone gave a second thought to the glaze, for me a glaze can make or break it. Denice

Big explosions, work wasn't entirely dry. I work with slabs and coils and will end up with some thick areas. If I only have one piece that I am concerned about I will stick in my kitchen oven and dry it for awhile at the ovens lowest temperature. Your a newbie and probably should use the preheat control, but you also need to learn when your piece is completely dry. Some potters put the pot against their cheek and if it feels cold then it is still wet. Denice

The double sided carpet tape is a foam tape that is sticky on both sides, it was a generic brand. I would stick to a epoxy glue because you have a glaze on one of the halves and I don't think the tape would stick that well to glaze. Denice