Roberta12

My husband has always been supportive of my clay life.  I started my small business after I had retired and he retired a year later.  He takes the clay downstairs for me, helps haul greenware out of the house to the shop where I fire,  has worked some of the larger out of town shows with me (he is a good wrapper of pots).  I have made pots working around a shoulder repair, a hip replacement with a fractured femur, and a knee replacement.  So my husband has been a great help with loading and unloading the kiln.  I had an unexpected kiln repair one November and had the kiln torn apart replacing elements etc,  it was -30 degrees and 10:30 p.m with a show looming.    I was at the end of my last nerve, he came out to check on me and lend a hand.  I said, "don't you wish I had became a knitter and sold hats?"   He said, "no, that wouldn't have been nearly as interesting!"  
r

My husband has always been supportive of my clay life.  I started my small business after I had retired and he retired a year later.  He takes the clay downstairs for me, helps haul greenware out of the house to the shop where I fire,  has worked some of the larger out of town shows with me (he is a good wrapper of pots).  I have made pots working around a shoulder repair, a hip replacement with a fractured femur, and a knee replacement.  So my husband has been a great help with loading and unloading the kiln.  I had an unexpected kiln repair one November and had the kiln torn apart replacing elements etc,  it was -30 degrees and 10:30 p.m with a show looming.    I was at the end of my last nerve, he came out to check on me and lend a hand.  I said, "don't you wish I had became a knitter and sold hats?"   He said, "no, that wouldn't have been nearly as interesting!"  
r

My husband knew I was serious about clay when we met,  I was 17 he was 19.  When we married I was 21,  we bought our first house a couple of years  later and that is when I got my first kiln.  It was our first major purchase for the house,  other couples buy a refrigerator or a sofa we bought a kiln.  A year later I got a scholarship in art to Wichita State and quit working to go back to school.   He has always supported me but never liked my work,  he worked in engineering  department and my work wasn't precise and perfect enough for him.  I tried not to  let is bother me,  I had the best support otherwise.   He was always encouraging me to buy new kilns,  but I wasn't  ready to jump into the world of controllers.  Last fall  I finally jumped and bought a Paragon Caldera with a Genisis Controller,  easy to use so I ordered a LL kiln with a Genisis Controller this year.   Since my husband has retired he likes to go to the ceramic supplier with me,  he  moves my clay  and loves to unload the kiln.   Right now I am glazing a 3-D landscape mural,  some of the tiles warped or twisted,  he is at the tile saw cutting and checking them with me to see if they will work or need remade.   I only had to remake one tile among the 200 tiles of the mural.   I likewise support his passion of restoring cars,  my passion is less expensive than his but he can always sell a car if he needs the money.     Denice

Hi folks, running a little behind here with the QotW. However, I have been thinking a lot lately of my wife, and her participation and support over the years when dealing with clay. She puts up with a lot, from the tracking in of clay dust from the garage to the time spent alone because I am busy playing with the clay. She has even put in time during the show years helping me pack, price, set up, and take down. She has sat booths with me, and without me when I was busy getting more pots out of the kiln for the days show. She did most of the base glazing in the early years, sometimes with help form a girlfriend. Then I would put on the decoration and finishing touches. When my kiln burned out a few years ago, she was the one that told me to buy a new one and don't take too long. . . saying she would find the money. She knows that I have an itch called ceramics and that it makes me a better person when I can do it. Makes me wonder. . . . how does it work for others out there?
QotW: How does your wife, husband (or significant other) and other family deal with your need to create ceramics?
best,
Pres

That depends...This time of the year, getting into the studio is difficult. Since Spring has sprung and everything is growing on our1.5 acre property with multiple lawns and a lot of trees, landscape maintenance is a given and I am the one who does most of that. Then there is also the farm. While the fruit trees and vegetable patch occupy about 1/4 acre, the rest of the 3/4 acre is open field, and with the abundance of rain we've had this winter and spring, it seems like keeping the wild grasses down is a forever task. So, with all that going on, if I say I'm going into the studio, I get a look that says "Seriously...with all the yardwork that has to be done?" However, regardless of "the look", I go anyway just to get the feel of the clay in my hands instead of the dirt from pulling weeds. Then there are the times when, going through a magazine, she comes across something that she likes made by another artist and excitedly suggests that I might make something similar. So, I would say she runs hot or cold...

I have tried to keep my wife out of my line of work but that said she still has done my local shows with me. I have another assistant that helps set up and down but she has helped sell. Also we have set up my Christmas s booth and knocked it down on xmas eve for many many decades (now retired for that) I only have one local show now and she will help sell-the two days . She can play in studio all she wants but I do all the studio work myself or with my assistant-priceing packing. She will ocassionall drop an order off locally. Right now she has a herniated disk so all thats ioff the table and I am doing all the heavy lifting. The garden I rototill and plant and until she heals I'm doing the whole bit. She had her own carreer (now retired ) so I have done my best to keep clay my own career . She used to do a few traveling shows but its been a decade or more on those as well now that she had done. She did do 2 my last NV show two years ago ona road trip that we saw my Nephews one year old twins. But it was the twins not the show that she came.

I have no family anywhere near me & no "significant other". My daughter is on the opposite coast and is actively helpful with kicking ideas around and provides useful feedback re marketing/photography/types of items. She suggested I do the plant stakes--I hated making them but they sold like hot cakes when I needed some quick income.  My sister has worked in clay herself (totally different style/technique) and understands the craft,  which is much appreciated. I have one friend who has really gotten me through the highs & lows, from 2014 when I decided to make myself a studio, to the present when I am struggling with some limitations and trying to decide what  to do.  He has helped with logistics and sales, managed my inventory, done my spread sheets, taken reference pics, proof-read text, provided assistance with my web page, and given lots of "common man" perspective on items that I put out for public consumption. I have another friend who has sat with me at the few craft fairs/shows I've done, including all that packing/hauling/unpacking/rehauling.  He also did a lot of the chatting with people coming to see what's what and managed to sell more of my stuff than I did! As a group, they have become essential to supporting my "need to create", through thick & thin. 

@cbjensen Sorry it took me so long to reply with more explanation of what I said. (I had two shows in the past two weekends, one of which was a travel show.)
I used to do a show that charged a percentage of my sales. This was great when I was starting out, because of the low risk. But after several years, my sales grew to the point where the show became far more expensive than comparable shows. I stopped doing it, and others like me also moved on. I would recommend the show to other newbies, due to the low risk. Eventually, the show figured out that their talent pool was restricted to those who wanted low-risk, thus the quality of their show, and their revenue, was suffering. This has a real impact on attendance and reputation. Their intention was not to be a lower-end, newbie friendly show. But that’s what it turned into. 
Shows like these DO serve a purpose in the art world, by giving a safe space for new sellers. If you decide you want this to be the intention of your event, that’s not a bad thing! Just understand that there will be a ceiling on your quality, revenue, and reputation.
You said “we are a community” but this presumes that every one of the potters has the same goals for their own work, which is probably not true. The longer you do this event, over time it’s natural that some of your members are going to pull ahead of others. I hope you can be supportive of that, rather than trying to define everyone as being the same. 
The show that I mentioned above tried changing their fee structure to “percentage with a cap at the high end.” For some reason, that did not work out for them. I suspect it didn’t work because they had been making all of their revenue from the high sellers, so the cap cut their revenue by too much. So they eventually switched to a “flat fee for everyone” format, but had to deal with much complaining from those who felt entitled to the low-risk format. It was a real hassle for them to change formats. And by then, it was difficult for them to get the high-sellers to come back. (I had already found plenty of better shows to do.)
So my advice is to start thinking ahead about the future intentions of your event. Do you want it to be a safe space for newcomers? Do you want to foster professional quality work? It’s difficult to combine both types of sellers in one event. So maybe the answer is, down the road, you will establish a separate event that is defined as professional-grade. Where the participants are not self-selecting, but rather they need to pass through an arbiter of quality (similar to a juried art fair), and with a fee structure that is more friendly to them, and probably more profitable for your studio as well.  

I would strongly recommend first sorting out which clay has an absorption of under 1.5% (one point five %) at your chosen temp and / or exploring the possibility of running a manually set program with your kiln. It's important to match the clays firing qualities with the kiln not the other way around. If you start a thread in the Equipment section here giving the name of the kiln and what your preset firing options are someone might be able to help with this.
In regards to your glaze recipem have a look at the recipes on Glazy and see how yours compares to ones there.  Put in your search parameters and then compare your recipe to some there while looking at the chemistry, not just the recipe itself. If you aren't sure what a material is or what it contributes to the glaze then click on it in the Glazy recipe and it will take you to a materials page that gives chemical info plus lists similar materials. There also was a recent post in  this thread for a Linda Bloomfield gloss glaze (she is an American who lives in the UK).  

I agree. The kaolin, silica, and bentonite make up almost 50% of this glaze. There's just not enough fluxing going on there. I'm wondering if there was a problem with converting the recipe at some point since the numbers add up in a strange way. Maybe someone messed up the math?

I've always felt that charging a percentage of sales is good for a lot of the artists, but bad for the promoter. As an artist, it limits your costs if the show is a dud, and the percentage isn't necessarily penalizing unless you sell a lot of work. If you're someone who typically sells $5000 at a show, I can see how it's not a great deal compared to paying a flat $400 booth fee. But for someone who typically sells half that much it can be a good thing. I think you just need to do the math before applying and decide if it's a good show  for you or not. As a promoter, only charging a percentage of sales makes no sense because your costs for running the show are the same whether the artists sell a lot or a little, and it adds a lot of paperwork to the process. Flat booth fees are easy to deal with and easy to budget.

Underglaze colours can be influenced by the clay as well.

Underglazes traditionally need to be color tested with their proposed overglaze. If you read the underglaze literature, many will speak about color change at temperature and a common issue: overglazes that contain zinc can affect certain underglazes dramatically. Hence for clears, you will often see “zinc free” clear. 
The suggestion is always read the literature, which includes the bottle label, sometimes easier to find on the label than the marketing materials, and always test. Many artists prepare a color palette of all their underglazes with one and two coats of overglaze fired to their typical cone to know the color shift in advance.

Re form 1099: they may not be necessary unless there was anyone that sold more than  $600, even at a stretch. I suppose it would qualify as “other income payments?” 
I suppose the question is, would you taking this money on behalf of others and then remitting it directly to them count as taxable income, or would the government consider it to be a deductible business expense, and thereby be revenue neutral? I want everyone who reads this  to understand that they should definitely take their accountant’s advice over mine, and this is just a question I’m asking. 
 From the IRS website:
File Form 1099-MISC for each person to whom you have paid during the year:
At least $10 in royalties or broker payments in lieu of dividends or tax-exempt interest. At least $600 in: Rents. Prizes and awards. Other income payments. Medical and health care payments. Crop insurance proceeds. etc

Definitely not a good glaze for pieces that could be used for food, due to the crazing and poor durability. Raku glazes are generally formulated for a certain look, not for functionality. With low fire work you really want a glaze that fits really well if you're making functional work, or anything that is used around liquids, since the clay body doesn't vitrify.

Add up the total expenses from this sale, then divide by the number of potters. Then charge that as a flat fee. 
If you want to generate income for the studio more than just breaking even on expenses, add in a reasonable profit for your studio too. Then divide by the number of potters. 
I think flat fees are a little more fair than a percentage. With a percentage, you are penalizing people who sell better. 

I’m not an accountant, but I’m pretty sure my cpa would say that giving them 1099s is overkill. 
You DO need to remit sales tax for all the sales, but it doesn’t have to be out of your pocket. Just subtract out the sales tax from the funds you collected, then pay out the remainder to the individual potters. You should also subtract out the fees that you paid to Square. 
When I taught pottery classes, I did one sale per year with my advanced students. This is how I handled it, except we added sales tax on top of each purchase, so nobody had to eat that cost. I gave them what they sold minus the Square fees. 
Whether the individual potters report their income properly is up to them. 
This was your first time so don’t sweat the mistakes. Be proud of the great sales! 

Olsen’s kiln book, Rhodes’ kiln book, 21st century kilns, all valuable. You’ll find slight variations in principles of design from each source, that’s why I think you should check them all out. Unfortunately I’ve never been able to get my hands on a copy of Nils Lou’s book, but it’s been highly recommended over the years.
I’ve got one of those neighborhood kilns, a cross draft flat top, propane and wood soda fire. Cone 6. I would suggest that while it is possible to build a wood burning kiln where smoke is not an issue, such a thing is unlikely to happen without a great deal of planning and experience.
I’ve seen several wood kilns in action and built a few myself. To get the combination of reduction and temperature rise some black smoke is going to happen. I’ve never put a blower anywhere on the kiln, maybe that’s the trick.
I ended up going from mostly wood and a little propane to mostly propane and a little wood, because I didn’t like worrying that someone was going to call the fire department every time I did a firing.
Getting to temperature in a day with wood wasn’t ever a problem. So I strongly agree, firing with wood does not have to be a drawn out affair. Big firebox, a grate, big chimney, proper design of entrance and exit flues. Ash buildup can be increased by stirring around the ash pit often (it starts sticking to pots earlier than people imagine, around bisque temperatures), if you like. Soda and controlling the reduction gives me the flashing and textural variations I’m after though. 

All this talk about wood firings being a long drawn out affair isnt necessarily so. IF you like the effects of a true natural heavy buildup of ash then a lengthy firing is what youll need. If youre like me and you like the warm toasty clay body reduction without the muddiness of ashes on your glazes then some type of "fastfire" setup is required. My kiln is a fastfire type but with major modifications from Olsens original. The 2 fireboxes and chimney are all on the same side making it easy on the stokers and stokemaster to see whats happening in each fire box. I would call it a crossdraft / downdraft hybrid.  The interior stacking space on mine is 80 cubic ft.... huge compared to most gas and electric kilns. This being said our last firing from dark to cone10 took 4 hours 50 minutes. the hottest parts gets well over over cone12.  Smoke is only a small issue early in the firing when temps are low and fuel to burn is more than the temp can handle.. thus the smoke that exits the chimney.  the total wood burned is around 1/2 cord ..all of it pine softwood. (Softwoods have a very long flame compared to the much shorter hardwoods) something to think about when selecting a fuel.

I trim like Min but I have never tried Griffin Grip or neoprene,  the neoprene sounds interesting.  I think I will give it a try next time I go on a throwing jag.  Right now I hold my pots down with clay.  When I had my kick wheel I liked to kick backwards when I was trimming,  I always felt like I had more control.   Denice

What is the glaze recipe? I'm wondering about how balanced it is and also the cooling cycle and the possibility of devitrification.

scumming for me needs more explanation ? its not a word I use in relation to glazes. Bubbles ,pitting.crawling. overfired ,underfired,cracked. shivering,dunted,rough surface smooth surface . shinny surface matt surface??Dull.bright??
scumming is what happens on a bucket of funky water or a pond surface 
what is scumming?? and what are we looking for in the photos- as both are very close looking as as Babs said one looks to be cooler fired

I just had the same problem, but there were unglazed portions that had the same blistering/pimples, Pieces were bisqued to Δ04. I run a manual updraft gas kiln and did a fairly fast fire, ~5 hours to 1000°C which required ~1 hour @ 1200°C for Δ6 to mature. I figure I need to run a much slower ramp and then hold at a lower temperature for this clay.

@Fromphyl I had picture #2 experience the first time I fired bmix with speckles.  I fired to cone 6.  Which turns out was probably hotter.  Closer to 7.  But...I called Laguna and they said that clay is definitely a cone 5 clay.  I told him it looked like chicken pox or pimples.  And he said it was overfired.  My bumps/blisters were with 2 different glazes.  I now fire to cone 5 with that clay, and so far have only used clear glaze on it and no blisters.  I even did a refire and it was fine.  Were all the cups in the same place in the kiln?  I ask because I now know that my top shelf is a lot cooler than the rest of the kiln.  
Roberta

Yes, I was thinking about corrosion as well.  You have lovely windows right there and the fumes could cause discoloration and corrosion.  I remember a post a few years ago about someone whose kiln was in the garage and there was a corrosion problem.  But I also know how desperate we can get trying to set up our own studio workspace.  And yes, I carry all my pots from the basement up the stairs, out through the garage, across the driveway to the workshop.  We simply do what we have to, to make things work! 
Roberta