Denice

Nothing is more irritating than someone asking me if they spent several hours in my studio would I teach them how to make tile. I have made thousands of tiles over the last 20 years and feel like I will never know everything about tiles. I have been a potter since I was 11 years old and fell in love with clay. I just turned 71 in October getting ready to head out to my studio, still a potter. Denice

To get started I would enroll in a studio ceramic's class, this will give you the basic knowledge and you can decide if this is a area you want to pursue. I decided to take a stone carving class, after a solid day of chipping I decided I had enough of stone carving. I managed to finish my piece, it made a nice door stop. Denice

I had never used a electric wheel until I bought one. None of the classes or programs I took had one, the closest thing was a motorized kick wheel and only a few of them. The motorized kick wheel was too jerky the kick wheel was much smoother. A few years ago I had my knee pop out of place, a emergency doctor took a x ray. He came back and told me about my knee but also mentioned that I had a real strong leg and bones. He asked me how that happened? I was in to much pain to think about my leg being my kicking leg so I told him I had no idea. Denice

If these new potters had to help make the clay they are using they would learn to be conservative. I made my own clay, they came out with bagged clay but it was too expensive. When I finally got to college everyone had to help make clay, build kilns, unload kilns and clean the studio. My first throwing class the professor told us we were there to learn how to throw. We could only fire three small pieces and they were for grading purposes. He also to us not to sign our pots, you want to save that for when you make good work. He told us to think about some of your first pots being found in archaelogical dig with your name on it. Fired clay last forever. is your pot is worthy of firing. You had to be in advance throwing classes before you could accumulate much work. I decided to focus on hand building. When I was a senior the college was looking into bagged clay, they gave a bag to each student and told them to give it a try. I was given a bag of b-mix, I told them it wouldn't work for hand building, it didn't. To me the bagged clay was a sign of the ceramic program sliding downhill, it wouldn't be the great program it once was. This was in the hippie days and natural hippies were into reuse, no waste, recycle, make everything yourself and work hard. I was glad I managed to graduate before it got worse. Denice

Do you have any kick wheels in your class room, I have always thought you could develop good throwing skills on a kick wheel. I had one until I was 68, I was old and have MS and my legs weren't as strong. Marc found a Brent for me on ebay that was local, it works but I still miss the magic of the kick wheel. Denice

I was searching through my supplies yesterday checking out my Kaolin clays for mixing my white slip tests. My largest supply is EPK, does anyone have a different Kaolin that they think I should test. The only thing I was totally out of was Lithium, then I remembered the last time I got supplies it was so expensive I decided to wait until I really needed it. Denice

I tend to hold on to materials also, The soda feldspar was buried under other bags of clay, I think I am going to keep it. Who knows when I might go on a glazing binge, right now I am experimenting with slips. I do a lot of testing before I make anything, I guess I work in reverse to most potter. I have the glaze and clay tested and selected before I make the pot it goes on. Denice

I was also pretty lucky with my high school's art program. My clay work was all slab and coil, we only had one wheel and the teacher would pick one boy to use it in each class. The other art classes worked with acrylic for jewelry, yarn for large hanging rugs, weaving and metal enameling. We also made large wood sculptures. The school also had a drawing and painting classes. When I was 18, I worked as a dental lab technician, everyone who made teeth were artistic. If you looked in the lab during the lunch hour you would find half of the lab workers making rings and pendants. Had all of the waxing, casting and grinding equipment all you had to supply was the silver or gold. College had larger equipment and space, you could create larger sculptural work. I learned to weld in sculpture class, my teacher said I laid a good weld line but I never really liked welding. I would peel off to different arts for a while but always came back to clay, it made me feel good. Denice

I was checking my glaze supplies today and found two bags of feldspar. One in Kona F-4 Soda the other is Potash Custer that I bought right after the mine fire. I don't mix a lot of glazes, so I need 50 lbs of custar. Should I use the Kona and find a home for the Potash Custer or visa versus. I could also keep them stuck in a corner. Denice

Now you tell me about the jewelry, I always wondered how my class ring ended us melted down the side of my pot. My second grade teacher warned us about those curbs, she said we would get killed if we didn't look again and again. I also have a winter project that involves a wall, our puppy pulled off the wallpaper in his area, fortunately I have enough extra paper to fix it. Cleaning the studio today, I'd better get to work. Denice

I have a GFCI outlet in my studio and a fire extinguisher next door in my husbands garage. He restores cars and always has one handy, we have a CO detector in the basement and a smoke and fire system wired into the house. The smoke alarm is so loud it can be heard a block away. Denice

My first day of throwing the professor came in and explained what the class would cover. At the end of his speech he said that if anyone had taken the class to make a set of dishes they might as well leave now. He told us that it would take years of throwing before we could make a set. After he finished three women stood up and left the room. his way of pulling out the weeds. I made a set of dishes about 15 years ago just to see if I could. We are still using them but the glaze is getting a little hazy. Denice

Purging is also a yearly event in my studio. I did a purging recently, my husband was installing new led tube lights on my ceiling. I had to unload some of the shelves so they could be moved. I didn't think I threw away that much such but I I seem to have several empty shelves now. Denice

I think double sided carpet tape would work. I had put a sculpture in a exhibition, it was a bust of a woman on a base. They told me I had to have the pieces glued to each other and to the pedestal. My husband brought the tape and help me tape it together. It worked great, after a couple of weeks we went to pick it up. Not so easy, the sculpture could be removed from the pedestal but the sculpture wouldn't come apart from the base. We took the sculpture home with the base stuck to it, twenty years later they are still stuck together. The area on both pieces were bisque, no glaze, paint or wax finishes. Denice

I have two metal shelving units that hold my glaze chemical containers. Next to my wheel I have two plastic shelving units that are 10 ft tall, 3ft wide and 12 inches deep. They sit sideways to the wall, The open side of the shelves are within easy reach and I can place freshly thrown pots on them. When I am ready for a break I move them over to the drying cabinet, my drying cabinet is just a vented plastic utility cabinet. I use old wire racks on the adjustable plastic shelves to set the pots on. I have one more plastic shelf unit by the extruder, it has mostly tools and some finished pots on it. My kiln room had one wall that was missing a 4x8 area of sheetrock, I cut up a bunch of scrap 2x4's and wedged them between the studs, creating a lot of shelves for stilts, cones and other misc kiln parts. Denice

I would search Facebook Marketplace several times a week. Wannabe potters that bought them during the pandemic are starting to sell them. I sold my kickwheel and old Skutt in a couple of days in a ad on Facebook. Denice

I have used a Majolica Satin Matt C1 for tiles but have never used it for functional work. If you need the formula, I will dig it up for you. Denice

I forgot to mention that I keep some Flinthills black and some dried paper clay around for special projects. Denice

I use Laguna's buff for throwing and Laguna's Speckled Buff, Red Standard , Red Calico and Death Valley for hand building. The handbuilding clay's I use fire to different colors, I like to work with different colored clays in one piece. I use to make my own clay before premixed clay was readily available and affordable, life gets busy and you get older something has to be sacrificed. Denice

I had a basement studio for 13 years, I used wet mopping to clean it. This basement didn't have any windows, have you considered that you might be allergic to the liter or the cats. I am allergic to cats now, I use to sleep with a cat when I was younger. If I am in the same area I cough, if the dander gets is in the air I quit breathing. Denice

I bought a used wheel and it has predrilled holes in it for bat pins. I am not fond of bat pins. I also tend to press a knuckle or two against the wheel head, the plastic bat is a lot easier on my skin. Denice

Me too. I often will leave a large plastic bat glued down with clay for days. I cut off the pot I threw and clean the top of the bat, it is ready for another ball of clay. I am not a production potter, I just do throwing sessions on a whim. Denice

That is the method I was taught to wedge clay. Denice