Chris Throws Pots

I use high alumina shelves in a community studio with lots of beginners learning how to glaze so kiln wash is a must for us. 

Respectfully, it's not a nightmare and you are not out of luck. It's an inconvenience, pretty typical of doing business in any sector. Bel was selling sheets at roughly $1 per page. Fired On sells at roughly $3 per page. If you consider how many decals you can fit onto a single sheet (unless you are printing very large/full sheet decals), the cost increase to produce each piece is negligible. The potential savings using another manufacturer's paper is simply not worth the risk of legal trouble. Production costs increase in all types of businesses all the time.

@merryrogue To second what Hulk said, equally important to my pottery and display, whether for a 6' table show or a full 10'10 canopy show, is my hand truck. I cannot emphasize enough how valuable a good hand truck is. Pottery is heavy. Tables are heavy. Displays are heavy. Moving in to your new place at your masters program will be heavy. My advice: invest in a well constructed hand-truck. Mine converts from an upright to a flat/four-wheeled dolly and it is well worth it's pricetag: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-800-lb-Capacity-2-in-1-Convertible-Hand-Truck-CHT800P/100071520. 
Also, if there is a newspaper in your area you can usually get endrolls of blank newsprint for free that are great for wrapping pots. Past issues of newspapers work well too, but I often cringe at wrapping my work in the current events.
Have great shows!

@merryrogue To second what Hulk said, equally important to my pottery and display, whether for a 6' table show or a full 10'10 canopy show, is my hand truck. I cannot emphasize enough how valuable a good hand truck is. Pottery is heavy. Tables are heavy. Displays are heavy. Moving in to your new place at your masters program will be heavy. My advice: invest in a well constructed hand-truck. Mine converts from an upright to a flat/four-wheeled dolly and it is well worth it's pricetag: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-800-lb-Capacity-2-in-1-Convertible-Hand-Truck-CHT800P/100071520. 
Also, if there is a newspaper in your area you can usually get endrolls of blank newsprint for free that are great for wrapping pots. Past issues of newspapers work well too, but I often cringe at wrapping my work in the current events.
Have great shows!

@merryrogue To second what Hulk said, equally important to my pottery and display, whether for a 6' table show or a full 10'10 canopy show, is my hand truck. I cannot emphasize enough how valuable a good hand truck is. Pottery is heavy. Tables are heavy. Displays are heavy. Moving in to your new place at your masters program will be heavy. My advice: invest in a well constructed hand-truck. Mine converts from an upright to a flat/four-wheeled dolly and it is well worth it's pricetag: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-800-lb-Capacity-2-in-1-Convertible-Hand-Truck-CHT800P/100071520. 
Also, if there is a newspaper in your area you can usually get endrolls of blank newsprint for free that are great for wrapping pots. Past issues of newspapers work well too, but I often cringe at wrapping my work in the current events.
Have great shows!

(in thcase of just making a shelf not teeter and cock from slight uneveness)
if you stack with only 3 posts you can avoid all of this. The 3 point system is the best for stacking.

Start with a solid block of clay and carve away.  

Wedge while the  clay is room temp and store the prepped balls in an insulated cooler?

Soda ash and Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda from the laundry aisle in the grocery store are approximately the same. Both are sodium carbonate, though the washing soda has some of the hydrous form while pure soda ash should be the anhydrous form. Another source of soda ash is a pool supply store - pH Up is a typical brand of pool soda ash. Since the specter of vinegar now has crept into the picture, there is a chemical difference between the two approaches. Magic water is an alkaline (sodium) based deflocculant which opens the pores of the clay to make the joined pieces squish together more thoroughly. Vinegar is an acidic flocculant which makes the surfaces of the joined pieces glue together better. Mixing these methods will cause them to neutralize each other.

Attach a small bobber to the end of your chamois or plastic and you'll never find yourself fishing (grooooaaannnnn) for it again.
 

Monthly studio membership in my studio has a prerequisite of prior experience in a clay studio. Total beginners are required to take an 8-week class so they are taught both the ceramic process and the studio's rules, regs, systems and safety stuff. Students who sign up as monthly members after their class ends do not need a studio orientation, as their class serves this process, but they do need to fill out membership paperwork. People who have previous experience and sign up as members without taking a class, regardless of how much experience they say they have, are required to go through a studio orientation process and sign a liability waiver/acknowledgement of studio policies. Within the studio there are no different spaces or rules for members and students.... everyone has the same access and expectations. And all hours of studio access are hosted by a volunteer who helps with kiln loading, glaze mixing, etc, but also can step in to make sure things don't go awry... like wax getting dumped down the sink... woof.
 

Anyone who is worried about offending someone, or hurting someone’s feelings, should not be making these decisions. An orientation can be done without any meanness or condescension. Just a straightforward tour and explanation of the rules. An experienced potter will understand why it’s necessary, and will probably appreciate it. 

Monthly studio membership in my studio has a prerequisite of prior experience in a clay studio. Total beginners are required to take an 8-week class so they are taught both the ceramic process and the studio's rules, regs, systems and safety stuff. Students who sign up as monthly members after their class ends do not need a studio orientation, as their class serves this process, but they do need to fill out membership paperwork. People who have previous experience and sign up as members without taking a class, regardless of how much experience they say they have, are required to go through a studio orientation process and sign a liability waiver/acknowledgement of studio policies. Within the studio there are no different spaces or rules for members and students.... everyone has the same access and expectations. And all hours of studio access are hosted by a volunteer who helps with kiln loading, glaze mixing, etc, but also can step in to make sure things don't go awry... like wax getting dumped down the sink... woof.
 

Our supplier (Vermont Ceramic Supply) doesn't stock the dry clay mix either, but they order it from Laguna for us whenever we need it. I'd ask your supplier... my guess is that it'll be an easy request to fulfill.

To help prevent our reclaim from throwing short, we buy 50lb bags of dry mix of one of our clays and add a big scoop of the powder directly into the pugmill with each batch we mix/pug. Each bag lasts a long time and it has really helped the quality of our reclaim.

Our supplier (Vermont Ceramic Supply) doesn't stock the dry clay mix either, but they order it from Laguna for us whenever we need it. I'd ask your supplier... my guess is that it'll be an easy request to fulfill.

To help prevent our reclaim from throwing short, we buy 50lb bags of dry mix of one of our clays and add a big scoop of the powder directly into the pugmill with each batch we mix/pug. Each bag lasts a long time and it has really helped the quality of our reclaim.

To help prevent our reclaim from throwing short, we buy 50lb bags of dry mix of one of our clays and add a big scoop of the powder directly into the pugmill with each batch we mix/pug. Each bag lasts a long time and it has really helped the quality of our reclaim.

@Frankiegirl  Will you be moving the wheels around your classroom much? Or will you set them up and leave them for the most part? I ask because the connection between  pedal and controller of the VL Whisper is more or less a coaxial cable and is pretty delicate. In my classroom we often pull the wheels away from where they're set up for throwing in order to clean beneath/behind. This cable on our VL Whisper has broken a couple times when moving the wheel and after a handful or repairs I ended up just hard-wiring the pedal to the controller.  Also, even though the splash pan design has been improved in the last few years, it's still not great. It is one of the messier wheels when beginners are working in the studio. More experienced students and many of our studio members love the VL but I have opted not to purchase  ore of them as our studio serves many beginners.
Have you considered the Pacifica GT-400? They cost $700-$800 (right in the middle of the Clay Boss and VL) and are no-frills work horses, more than adequate for students and hobbyist potters. When I give studio orientations and get asked about our different wheels I describe them as the Honda Civic of pottery wheels: function over fashion but not without attention to design or aesthetic, easy to operate, low cost of ownership, easy to repair when needed, attractive price-point.  Plus they have a great splash pan design, especially for students who tend to use a lot of water.

@Frankiegirl  Will you be moving the wheels around your classroom much? Or will you set them up and leave them for the most part? I ask because the connection between  pedal and controller of the VL Whisper is more or less a coaxial cable and is pretty delicate. In my classroom we often pull the wheels away from where they're set up for throwing in order to clean beneath/behind. This cable on our VL Whisper has broken a couple times when moving the wheel and after a handful or repairs I ended up just hard-wiring the pedal to the controller.  Also, even though the splash pan design has been improved in the last few years, it's still not great. It is one of the messier wheels when beginners are working in the studio. More experienced students and many of our studio members love the VL but I have opted not to purchase  ore of them as our studio serves many beginners.
Have you considered the Pacifica GT-400? They cost $700-$800 (right in the middle of the Clay Boss and VL) and are no-frills work horses, more than adequate for students and hobbyist potters. When I give studio orientations and get asked about our different wheels I describe them as the Honda Civic of pottery wheels: function over fashion but not without attention to design or aesthetic, easy to operate, low cost of ownership, easy to repair when needed, attractive price-point.  Plus they have a great splash pan design, especially for students who tend to use a lot of water.

In my college Intro to Wheel Throwing course my professor had us all do this as a project over the course of a few weeks. We found pieces in Lark 500 and other ceramic books or from websites like Schaller or Musing then did our best to deconstruct and reconstruct the forms. As very green clay students we were completely unaware of the challenges that lay ahead of us when trying to recreate salt/soda/wood effects with only cone 6 ox, but it was a pretty great exercise for getting a crash course in materials we likely wouldn't have otherwise touched: latex, oxide washes, oxide resists, colored slips, underglazes, vinyl. Very few of the pieces looked much like the originals they aspired to, but the project was graded on progression through a few rounds of tests, and it planted lots of seeds for how to use the other materials in projects for the rest of the course. So in that case emulating was extremely valuable not for the products of emulation, but the lessons learned about the medium. 

In my college Intro to Wheel Throwing course my professor had us all do this as a project over the course of a few weeks. We found pieces in Lark 500 and other ceramic books or from websites like Schaller or Musing then did our best to deconstruct and reconstruct the forms. As very green clay students we were completely unaware of the challenges that lay ahead of us when trying to recreate salt/soda/wood effects with only cone 6 ox, but it was a pretty great exercise for getting a crash course in materials we likely wouldn't have otherwise touched: latex, oxide washes, oxide resists, colored slips, underglazes, vinyl. Very few of the pieces looked much like the originals they aspired to, but the project was graded on progression through a few rounds of tests, and it planted lots of seeds for how to use the other materials in projects for the rest of the course. So in that case emulating was extremely valuable not for the products of emulation, but the lessons learned about the medium. 

@PSC Me too. I stop the entire class every 45 minutes or so to have students stand, stretch and look at their pots from different angles. Most students are good about getting up form the wheel when they feel their body needs it, but some students need reminders that pottery isn't the most ergonomic activity and that frequent stretching is important. 
The goal of my question was to get ideas about improving the studio layout by increasing walkway space between the wheels and the shelving racks lining the walls. Our current system works well: Students place their freshly thrown pieces on wareboards and place the wareboards on the table between the wheels. When they fill a wareboard (or sooner) they get up and move the wareboard to their personal shelf space. I am not seeking to retool the system, just the tables.
Once our summer camp program ends, the studio has a couple weeks of downtime before our fall programming gets in full swing. If I decide it's ultimately worth the time/energy/material cost to overhaul the tables I'll be doing it during this quiet time and will post pictures of what I come up with. 

@PSC Me too. I stop the entire class every 45 minutes or so to have students stand, stretch and look at their pots from different angles. Most students are good about getting up form the wheel when they feel their body needs it, but some students need reminders that pottery isn't the most ergonomic activity and that frequent stretching is important. 
The goal of my question was to get ideas about improving the studio layout by increasing walkway space between the wheels and the shelving racks lining the walls. Our current system works well: Students place their freshly thrown pieces on wareboards and place the wareboards on the table between the wheels. When they fill a wareboard (or sooner) they get up and move the wareboard to their personal shelf space. I am not seeking to retool the system, just the tables.
Once our summer camp program ends, the studio has a couple weeks of downtime before our fall programming gets in full swing. If I decide it's ultimately worth the time/energy/material cost to overhaul the tables I'll be doing it during this quiet time and will post pictures of what I come up with. 

I think you can have both. A narrower, two-tier central table seems desirable. Perhaps the demonstration wheel could have the Brent leg extensions so you demonstrate standing up or on a higher stool with a box holding up your pedal (I prefer the second and have boxes for both feet).