Denice
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Posts posted by Denice
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2 hours ago, Pres said:
Unfortunately, I did the same test, and found that 3 of the factors were upper left hand quad. .. .don't even remember what it meant, but the tester said it was significant to my choice of career. . . a career I never really chose, just fell into.
best,
Pres
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
- neilestrick, Pyewackette and Roberta12
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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.
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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
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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
- neilestrick and Rae Reich
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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
- Pres and Amanda Hummes
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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
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Twenty years ago I made a sculpture that was of a woman holding flowers, it twice as large as the sculpture in your photo. it also had a pedestal that it sat on. I took it to a show it was suppose to be exhibited in. They told me unless I glued it to the base I won't be able to show it, I was not sure about gluing it much easier to move in two pieces. My husband came up with the idea of double sided carpet tape. They agreed to the tape, when we removed the sculpture several weeks later the bust and base wouldn't separate. The tape area was bisque not glazed, it has been twenty years and they are still stuck together. Denice
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My first purchase was a kiln, I was doing some hand building work and had no place to fire it. A lady that worked in the same building decided to sell her Paragon, I was 20 years old. My husband and I had bought our first house and we were getting ready to install central air conditioning in the garage. It was easy to add the electrical needed for the kiln to the job. I didn't get a wheel until the college I was attending wanted to sell a old kick wheel. I was 40 when I went back to finish my degree, I will be 70 Saturday and still working in my studio everyday. Denice
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Thank you for the help, I think I have figured it out. This is my second test kiln, I had a AIM for twenty years. It had thinner firebricks and cooled way to fast for some of the test. When the AIM was needing rewired I decided to get the Caldera because of the new Genesis controller and the thick firebrick. I have a large Skutt and a medium size Duncan that I fire using a digital dual Skutt thermocouple. My husband has been bugging me for years to buy a new kiln with a controller, he said this is a good start but I should think about replacing the old Skutt.
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I just opened my Cone 5 test in the Caldera test kiln. The Genesis 2.0 Mini Controller was set to Cone 5, this is my first test in this cone range. The first one was empty kiln 01, large cone melted perfectly, the same with 04 bisque. This firing the 4 and 5 were over fired and the 6 had a perfect curve for a C6 firing. Unfortunately I was doing a Cone 5 test on some picky glazes, so I need to test again but I have to find out what went wrong. Any suggestion would be appreciated. Denice
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Min my work table looks exactly like yours, my drying/wet cabinet is filled with tile and two other work tables. This mural is only 3x5 feet but it seems to be covering my studio. I said this was my last mural but I am enjoying the dimensional aspect so much I can see myself making another. Denice
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I did a test firing today, love my new Caldera test kiln. I found the copper rod I was wanting to use in my latest mural. I spent the afternoon making yucca flowers with backs that can connect to the rod easily. I am just about to lay it out and make some of the background sections. The mural is very dimensional and has seven different clay's in it, several types of glaze and the copper stems. Looking forward firing it. Denice
- LeeU, Callie Beller Diesel, Hulk and 1 other
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I don't know is water counts as a tool but it is the only thing I can think of that I use for different material. I soften a bag of clay in a 5 gal bucket of water. revive dry clay with water, mix glaze, slip, oxides and plaster with water, throw on the wheel with water, wash my hands with water. I could list some more, I don't know what I would do if I didn't have it. Denice
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I visited a well know potter's home, she had made 12x12 C5 tiles for her home and had them professionally installed. Several months later about a fourth of them had cracked, they kept cracking and she had to have them removed. At the time I was thinking of making some floor tile, I decided to stick with wall tiles. Denice
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I forgot about it the pots being carefully stacked and pieces of metal were placed carefully to protect the pottery before the dung was used. In our Anazai research class they dug a long trench and filled the trench with broken pallets. They came out a nice black and white, 80 percent were broken into a million pieces, I had a dozen pots in the firing most of them very large and only had a break in one handle. The pieces were so underfired that I refired mine to cone 04, I under stood how you make strong coiled pots. Denice
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Before you go to the trouble of processing your own clay I would buy some low fire Raku clay and try pit firing it. Maria's black ware is a secret formula that is made from clay's dug and mixed from their property and fired with cow dung. The clay you use and how you fire it is very important. The Anazai made lots of pottery because it wasn't quite vitrified and food poisoning was a problem after the dishes were used. They would break or punch a hole in them to release the evil spirit, archaeologist are still debating this theory. Denice
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Great firing, I have never considered how hard it is to read the color at C11. I learned to read the color when firing 50 years ago, the manual that came with my paragon kiln suggested you learn that skill. Sometimes my husband will be hanging around when I am firing, he usually wants me to turn off the kiln, he thinks it is firing to long. I explain to him it is a packed kiln and the color isn't close. You would think after 50 years he would trust my firing skills. Denice
QotW: Do you think it takes a certain mentality or emotional state be engage with clay as a potter?
in Int'l Ceramic Artists Network (ICAN) Operations and Benefits
Posted
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