Denice

Glazing a large jar or vase I spray, if I am making a set of dishes I dip. The last few years I was making coiled, smoothed pots with Mimbres designs on them with a lot of naked clay on the pots. I brushed the designs on with very small brushes. I am starting on a sculptural mural, I am planning on using under glaze, clear glaze, mat glaze and naked areas. I haven't got that part totally put together, the glaze will be brushed on. Denice

Make sure you have enough lighting, everything looks good in the dark. Denice

I would have to say no, I have seen to many disasters where a low fire piece was stuck in a high fire. The person swore it was high fire clay, I have fired a few pots made with my clay by friends and neighbors, but I am usually unhappy with glaze applications and do some clean up before I fire them. Denice

We take a show car to car shows all summer unless it is miserably hot. A few years ago the temps really went up and it was 105 in no time, people were lined up at the food truck. We thought it was to hot to eat and had a couple of bottles of water for lunch. The next day we heard that everyone who ate at the food truck got food poisoning. Denice

I have never done a art festival but I did Home Shows for 15 years when I owned a wallpaper store. We couldn't have coolers at the show so I would stick a couple of bottles of water, banana, granola bar and a yogurt in a big purse. We weren't suppose to bring food into the booths, they wanted you to buy everything from the snack bar. I would buy a bottle of water and eat my lunch at one of the snack tables. No one ever said anything to me, you can't eat snack bar food for three days. Denice

Great product, it has inspired me to try a idea that has been rattling around in my head. I have a electric rotating disc from a window display when I owned a store. It will spin at the pace you set it at for years. I have a old banding wheel that doesn't spin anymore, I am going to try taping them together and see how it works. If it works I will anchor them together permanently. I love putting together old junky items and making them use able again. The older I get the less I want to buy and the madder I get about companies making junk products that have to go directly in the landfill. Old hippie venting! Denice

I was looking at purchasing a good banding wheel this year, but I am starting on another mural. It will probably be next year on the banding wheel, looks like I will only be purchasing clay. Denice

Very funny but sounds messy.

I never considered welding my own slab roller. My husband likes welding but isn't that good at it, he decided he needed a better welder. He bought new one a couple of years ago and hasn't used it yet. I took welding in college, my teacher said I was good at it but I didn't like it. Maybe I should start using that new welder. Denice

My big Skutt was my most expensive purchase, it was used but needed elements and a new cord. My Bailey slab roller with the added cost of building a table for it was second. My new AIM test kiln and Brent wheel were about the same price as the slab roller. Best buy for the money was the slab roller, I have used it more than any of the other equipment. I have never had to fix it and it works like a new one, I could sell it easily for the money I have in it. I will probably keep it until I kick the bucket, people will be walking past it at my estate sale wondering what in the heck it was used for. Denice

Sit for throwing, mostly standing for hand building, usually up and down like a yo yo. Use to sit a lot because of my bad feet, now that I am older everything hurts so I just keep moving. Denice

I also love buying historical books about art. When I find them at a estate sale it is like finding a treasure trove, they are coming down in price now because younger people just want to look it up on the internet. I have quit buying so many books recently , having two estate sales after my mother in-laws death I realized I need to downsize my stuff. Denice

If I have a interest in a technique that I haven't tried yet I will check it out video's on-line first and make sure it is something I want to delve deeper into. My next step is to start investigating books on-line on the subject. I will start out with one or two books and may order more later. Our local library stopped expanding it's art book collection, they said not that many people checked them out. I don,t mind buying books, no one would write them if people didn't purchase them. Denice

I have a glass of water and a small chocolate bar in my studio, I probably should switch to filling a bottle with water. Denice

I have a shelf that is broken in half on one inch stilts above the holes in my kiln. The outlet vent is about 50 feet away from one of my neighbors. No complaints but they have a house full of kids so they probably don't even hear it. I live at the edge of my town, fields every where, at night I can here the the semi's on the highway that is a half of mile away. Tanker airplanes warming up from the airbase that is five miles from where I live. Try wearing some earplugs when you work in the studio while firing. I have had my envirovent for twelve years and barely notice it anymore, it has turned into white noise. Denice

I rarely wedge anymore, I work out of a fresh bag of clay. Cone 6 clay needs some slamming around before you start working with it. I drop my on the studio's concrete floor and that usually loosens it up. Denice

I made a slab out of POP and one out of #1 pottery plaster. Someone gave me the POP, I have always used #1, it was one of those I need to use up this POP moments. I decided to make a slab also the same size out of #1 plaster. Clay on the POP took forever to absorb into the plaster and after several uses it started to crumble. I also took longer to dry out. If someone offered me a bag of POP I would kindly refuse it. Denice

I have Multiple Sclerosis and have problems with some type of molds. I nearly passed out in a hotel lobby because they had soaked a couch with cleaning solution and it was developing mold on the inside. They told me I was the second person that morning that was having trouble breathing in that area, they had the couch removed. I have never had any problems with the little bits of mold in my clay. I pour bleach in my settling water if it starts to stink, it will only start to smell if something like paint gets into the water. I have a very dry studio so there is no musty smell in it. Denice

I have taken clay classes at two schools that had electric and gas firings, one was a college the other was a arts school. Both suffered from complaints from the city, fire department and neighborhoods that were several blocks away. The city and the fire department was always coming up with new rules and regulations for the kilns and firings. They were trying to make it so difficult to fire gas kilns that the schools would eliminate them. I knew that I would always live in the city limits and would be better off going electric, Richard Zakins book had just been publish on oxidation firing and I was inspired and felt like I was at the beginning of a new evolution of ceramics. Gas firing was the only way to go when I graduated, I have never regretted my decision. The research and development of C5/6 oxidation glazes took off and exciting colorful glazes were created and the new evolution in clay continues. Denice

Both of those items are very hard to find used. I built my extruder from a magazine article from Ceramics Monthly, you can find a lot of info online about building one. I built mine because I wanted to find out if I would use one enough to put out a lot of money for a new one. I use it but not a lot, after several years it needed some repair, by then I had some ideas on how to improve it. I have used it for 15 years. The only way I could save money on a slab roller was to buy the roller unit from Bailey and build the table myself. My husband built it out of 2x4's from the instructions that came with it. That was twenty years ago and it still works like it is new, I use it a lot. I produce thousands of tiles and do a lot of hand building. You don't need to start out with a extruder or slab roller, you can buy a pastry roller from a restaurant supply co. I used it for years before I decided it was time to invest in a slab roller. If you wait awhile many of the people who decided to open a pottery studio during covid will move on to something else. There will be a lot of equipment for sale. My first studio had a tiny table, three tools, bucket, glaze brush and a used kiln. Denice

I use 1 inch stilts under a shelf that has split in half, I want to make sure I have enough circulation for my Enviorvent to function well. The bottom is always a little colder so I don't mind starting the load a little higher in the kiln. Denice

Oh hip surgery! Let me know how it goes, I will need to have it done sometime in the future. My hand doctor is finding out how slow of a healer I am, he wants to do surgery on my other hand that I had worked on over 2 years ago. I want this surgery to heal up before I agree to more surgery. I had a friend that had both hips replaced at the same time, he had polio as a child. I think hip replacements were new at the time, I don't think they would do both hips together now, to hard to do PT. Denice

I clean up and reorganize between projects, I started cleaning my studio before I hand my hand surgery. I go out their and move a few things around but my hand doctor wants me to take it easy. He even cut back on my physical therapy to once a day. I will see him again in a couple of weeks I hope I am ready to get back to work. Denice

It's a bummer when pots get stolen as they unload the kiln, this was a problem when I was in college. They would unload the big gas kiln at night and place everything on a big cement table. In the morning half of the work would be gone. The teachers started grading the work before it was glazed. I always like to spend a little time checking out what went right and wrong on a pot before I set it free. Denice

I made a big batch of meatloaf last night, served it green beans and homemade macaroni and cheese. The rest of went into the freezer for future meals. Love cooking big batches of food. Denice