123pop

What went wrong?? I tried single firing on a few platters I wanted to get out by Christmas. What a mess. Poured glaze on one side(undersides were left unglazed). Used 20/20 clear and commercial matte clear. Both crawled considerably. One little area had some cracking but it blended easily. There was no chipping off of glaze. It seemed very stable. I candled the load overnight and did my 2hr each setting in my kiln sitter kiln. I also had 3 raw mugs with different glazes I just dipped and they turned out fine. I don't think I will try it again.

She used a fettling knife and was very efficient. Since we were struggling with it she suggested to use a eye shadow brush, the little hard ones. If the design wasn't to detailed even a finger could soften the edges. The real trick was how to glaze. How did you get the inside black and the outside white? I used one overall glaze and then turned the outer layer in glaze from the side.

Took a double wall throwing class from a Korean potter EunSookKim. We threw an inner wall and saved enough clay to pull up an outer wall. A term she used that I never heard of was beveling the cuts. So after you cut out you soften the edges by trimming off the 90degree cut inside and outside.. The beauty of this type of pot is you can carve out just about anything since the inner wall supports the piece. My mountains, lizard and clouds. Ain't clay fun!!!!

My friend and I have Pacifica's. The 1/4 HP is fine for the 7-8# we throw. They make a 1/2HP also. They are fairly quiet. Hers is 35 years old and runs fine. Mine is 5 yrs old and I like it very much. Pedal is good and splash pan is a good size but not too big. The table top is adequate to hold tools etc. And the price is a bit more reasonable. But we are not production potters.

Your experiences do create who you are. I was a math student but had to take the required Art Appreciation class in college. Well when everyone else was studying the art masters, my professors idea was students had to try different art mediums and produce a project in each one. I would not have ever even known what a wheel was if not for that class. I threw a very thick 6" bottle with a thin neck and never forgot the experience. (Still have it somewhere). After 40 yrs I had an opportunity to try clay again and it is everything I remembered. It is dang....FUN. I now have a wheel and kiln in my garage, access to a great art center and enjoy the potters social life. Never underestimate what we give and take from life experiences.

I think I got this one. 8000gms x .15% = 12gms chrome oxide (recipe) You put in 8000 x .75% = 60 gms You have 4x too much chrome oxide So you need to make up 32000gms (4X8000gms) of the original glaze minus the chrome oxide. Which with your original 8000gms = 40000 or 4 buckets of 10000gms . You need to buy 3 since you already have one Check answer. You will have 40000gms x .15% chrome = 60 gms chrome oxide. And you will have a lot of glaze. Why can I do this so much easier than throwing a pot???

Nerd...you hit the nail on the head. " A professional will make a hard job appear easy" I mean really how hard can it be ... you threw it in "like" 5 minutes. Other arts and things do seem to take longer. Painting or wood making even sewing, quilting, climbing mountains but pottery ...it was a lump of clay now it is a mug. It has to be easy.

Thanks all. I always do a slow glaze with a kiln sitter. I'm in Knoxville... very humid in the garage. So do I glaze at leather hard or dry green ware???

Cone 6 glazes on bmix clay or I could do 266clay with just a liner glaze. To hold all these ready to fire glaze pieces until I throw and do a bisque is almost impossible in my small studio.

I have a small studio. I had almost enough bisque to do 2 glaze loads in a row. To fill the 2nd glaze load I need a few more pieces. Any negatives to throw them and glaze the green ware and mix in with my standard load? I know some potters do one firing and no bisque. The only negative that I am aware of is that the pieces will be very fragile. I think I can be very careful for 3-4 pieces. Any other considerations. Thanks for any info.

Our center charges $40 for 25# of clay which includes bisque , glazes, glaze firing and use of the studio. We do have some equation and charts based on size of piece you want to fire but fortunately no one does this very often. Take home clay costs $15 and those potters all have kilns at home. Only clay bought at the studio is allowed to be fired. Google search reveals various ways studios handled this matter. One charges $4.50/ lb.

Our studio bought a brand new L&L kiln in Oct 2014. We have 78 firings on it and just got a E1error indicating the elements are shot. Any comments?

I had this happen on a glaze firing,,,, the kiln sitter cone broke. I called Orton and they said to check each cone by holding with fingers and pull... not twist. The cone should not break. I had about 15 in a 50 piece box break. Not sure why... defect in cones or rough handling in shipping??? But with the test pull I feel more confident it won't happen again. I had some interesting glaze melts which didn't quite correct in the refiring and never to be replicated.

"Don't be afraid to be afraid". Not sure who said it but words to push you to new heights. About liking pots later....some pots came out of the kiln not what I expected so I immediately gave them to a friend (she liked them). A year later or so I was at her house. I saw these lovely pots and asked where she got them. She said from you. I loved them...the glaze was quite nice and colorful. You just never know.

My fourth grade nun squashed any artistic ability I may have had. She returned a landscape drawing with my clouds circled asking "What are these?" . If she could not tell they were clouds then I obviously could not draw. My entire life I said I had no artistic ability but flourished in math(she made us do long division problems on turned paper with the red line). I have been potting about 3 yrs now and am enjoying every minute. Pottery has allowed me to explore my creative side. Looking back I think I was drawing on white paper and made the clouds blue so you could see them. Amazing how our interactions with others paints who we are.