timbo_heff

I had a great teacher show that by reducing the amount of friction between your fingers and the clay by throwing with just the very tip of one finger on the inside and one on the outside you can move a lot more clay with a lot less water. My pots got a lot lighter, bigger, better, easier and a heck of a lot less messy after absorbing that technique

They often make a noise that is easy to fix: take off the head: if you see a round metal cover that the shaft goes through: slip take that off, put a little grease on it, or if you don't have any: use your finger to pick up a little grease from the bearings there and rub it on the underside of that disc. It doesn't take much. When that disc gets a little dry, it spins with the head rotation and rubs there: common shimpo squeak even on new ones,

Shelf paper is for glass firing: Best practice for kiln wash is 3 fired on coats per below; The prob with the stuff is that you can't flip your shelves which will extend their life. I think better to dry foot, use stilts, and or when you throw the foot area of your pots : leave a little glaze catching edge (but not always practical or aesthetically correct) Here is best practice though: DIRECTIONS FOR USE Kiln wash is applied to kiln shelves to protect them from glaze drips. On a washed shelf, drips can be easily removed without gouging or marring the kiln shelf. Mix the kiln wash wit

An easy trick is a plastic grocery bag: : works nice for signing leather clay with a dull pencil too!

...or work for them. Nope, I don't work for them. I see lots of brands in the work I do, and to me these stand out in the top loader format.

The cone arts are excellent: the board is a better insulator than soft brick so it's quite a bit more efficient than 3 " brick: it's more like 4". They do not make solid jacket kilns. they are all sectional except for the test kiln. Use a full shelf on the bottom so stuff doesn't fall into the element. They have 3 zones standard which is great. They have a great lid new hinge design that is not only safer but it disperses the weight of the lid when lifting it so it does not stress the bricks where the hinge attaches. The lid goes behind the kiln a bit when opening it so it is much easier