Roberta12

I keep my clay in the basement, next to where I work.  It's stacked up.  I am a distance from my clay supplier, so I do tend to stock up when I can.  I keep some boxes out in the shop.  It's cool out there in the winter but doesn't freeze. That clay is more accessible if I am taking the clay to a workshop or giving it to others who are throwing for Empty bowls or something like that.  I am with the non cat herding people.  I have tried in the past to organize a shipment to our part of the world.  Never again.
r.

About quarterly I get 10 boxes of clay (20 kg each) and stack them outside my basement studio door. Most places in Canada do heated basements, if they have basements. 
 I don’t have the space to keep larger amounts, and I seem to go through that amount in a reasonable time frame. I do try and call ahead to make sure they have it in stock if I’m shopping at the same time all the schools are restocking, but I haven’t had too many supply issues. Whenever possible, I try and use materials that are made or produced as close to home as I can.

I’ve seen pounces made for assorted paper or fibre art forms, but they’re usually spendy versions of the thing you cobble together out of materials on hand. 
I’ve also seen a lot of hand builders like Sarah Pike use pony rollers to join textured soft slabs. You can get them at most ceramic suppliers for about the $12-14 range.

I use a pounce bag. Plastic bag with sand in it, covered by t-shirt material. This thread has some other ideas that may be helpful.
 

Frankly I would not waste any money on a 3rd party for simply setting up an LLC, which is super simple (not sure why some above says its difficult, but maybe it is in some states?). Your county/state should have some form of a small business site/portal where you can do it online in a matter of minutes.

Where I learned a helpful lot of info for growing a small business  was from SCORE (Service Corp of Retired Executives). Every state has this via the SBA and the services directly from SCORE are free, including an experienced mentor if that is desired. Here's the link for SC  https://scbos.sc.gov/partners/score It's worth checking out & the webinars/workshops are terrific for today's marketing environments.

I would speak to businesses in your area about the process. From my understanding about the US, it can vary by region, so it’s best to get info from someone close to home. 
As far as taxes go, find a recommendation for an accountant who knows how to handle creative businesses, and have them set you up with a system. Make sure this accountant will be available to answer questions in a reasonable time frame when they com up, and make sure the system works with your brain and work habits. I prefer to do my own bookkeeping so I can keep an eye on my income and expenses, but farm out my filing. 

Like others have said, it's the firing of the clay temp.
Say you are baking chocolate chip cookies and the recipe says you can bake them to 300F or you can bake it to 400F, does that make sense? Can the cookies be baked through at both temperatures?
Back to your clay, if you are making items not meant to hold liquids and you don't mind them absorbing water then firing to the lower cone might make the clay mature enough for those purposes. But a clay can't be as vitrified as possible at two different ranges. If it is a midfire clay and you fire to highfire then chances are it will have bloating, slumping, brittleness, etc issues. If you on the otherhand fire a highfire clay to a lower range then chances are it won't be as mature as possible and will be immature and underfired. In other words it won't be as strong, will be under vitrified, likely leak and absorb water. This is a problem for functional wares that are meant to hold liquids or will be washed more than a few times. Pots will absorb water which will induce crazing, leak, get hot in the microwave, grow mildew / mold etc. 
Another thing I would look at is your glaze maturing temperature, is it under-fired too? What is the recommended cone for it? If your glaze is a cone 10 glaze then the mugs you currently have could be re-fired to just under that (given they already have had a lot of heatwork). Lustre will burn off and probably leave a purple mark but you might be able to save them. Leave the mugs that had liquid in them to dry in a 200F oven overnight to dry them out before firing them and I'ld suggest firing them on waster slabs in case the glaze runs. Nothing to loose. 
Going forward look for a body that matures at the same cone as what you are firing to. Testing your claybody can be done quickly or in a more detailed method, I'ld suggest the more detailed method whenever you test a new clay.  Link here if you need it on how to do so. 
 
 

I wouldn’t. No they won’t loose shape. It’s fired ceramic and isn’t subject to dissolving or anything like that. But if moisture can get into the pores of the clay, or even just get stuck between clay and glaze layer, bacteria can grow. Pieces can and do mildew stain like that. If they were mine, I’d toss them. 
We do tend to get a lot of questions about this kind of thing here when folks use a cone 6-10 clay body, and are only firing it to the lower end of that range. Many manufacturers all over the world will sell clays with firing ranges like this, assuming you have a certain amount of technical ability, and not assuming everyone’s making functional ware with it. What I wish they’d mention more is the need to fire to the top end if you are making functional ware. I’d suggest testing some older pieces for staining or delayed crazing if you can. My bet is that it’s been happening the whole time, but these are just the circumstances that brought it to light the fastest. 

This is in a 12X14 space. Buckets of clay and greenware shelving are the left of the windows; shelves glazes are to the right of the utility sink. Not shown is shelving for volitiles (glues, mineral spirits etc) , jewelry & wall hanging-making supplies (cords/fittings), markers,  Xactos, enhancements like glitter (yes, I do), a book shelf w/ceramics texts, whiteboard (& whatever that is that is shoved behind the door...oh, it's my invaluable UpCart). The kiln is on the back porch.

Yes, @oldlady, the phones show pictures the same way your laptop does, just on a tiny screen. But we can zoom in, so it’s not bad at all.
And @LeeU thank you for sharing your space. As soon as Pres posted the question I had that feeling of “Be careful with you wish for, now you have to share too!
Two shots of the same space from different corners. My partner and I have a studio together, which for normal people would be a garage. It does serve some extra functions as a workshop and storage area, but it’s 90% clay studio. The utility sink was a later addition, and what a wonderful day that was. The two kilns are outdoors. 

Throwing area and slab roller, shelving to the right of the wheel, large drying cupboard on the left beside the pugger. Glazing and kilns in another area.

 

Enjoying the studio pics, thanks for sharing!
Open Studios Art Tour just over, here the tables have been put away, some of remaining ware put away, the bikes, buckets, mop, vacuum, etc. that were cleared away brought back in.

Above, from the corner behind the kiln.
The wood shelving typically is encumbered with work in progress - raw clay and/or bisque awaiting next steps, glazed ware awaiting final inspection, polish, wash.
Putting that shelving up makes it easier to reach, and provides bucket, bag, etc. storage below.
Behind the person door is a large cabinet - glaze materials, tools, notebooks.
This space also serves as bike headquarters and general repair/puttering place, but it's mostly pottery.
The Cervelo is #1 bike.

Looking back from the person door.
The shelves behind the kiln are almost always for raw ware.
There's enough counterspace to deal with a full kiln load and still have room for glaze buckets, tools, and some other stuff.
The windows supply nice light. Even so, the two eight-foot bulbs and two four-foot bulbs aren't quite enough, hence the several spot type lights...
The Wilier is #2 bike.
In left corner there's more shelving, wedging area, and the sound equipment - amp, old laptop, subwoofer.
The surround speakers are up high.

Stickshift. Love it. Pugmill is my next dream equipment. 
“What? Put a car in the garage? Are you kidding???”
@Hulk, are those bike chains hanging from the rafters? 
Y’alls studios are so clean! ❤️ 

How about a video instead? I have an upcoming show where they filmed a Artist Talk with me via Zoom. The point was to give show attendees a look inside my studio:
https://www.pmacraftshow.org/artist-talk/2022/mea-rhee

Thanks for sharing the video Mea!
Kelly, yep, worn out chains - handy for making hanging trellises in the yard!
About three road chains per set of new gears, although I run four. 

Hi Roberta! Thanks for your input.   I'm trying to get up my nerve to try it.

I recommend Fast Bisque to all of my customers. It's not really very fast, plenty slow for good burnout.

I moved this strand here as I believe it will get more traffic, and searches for Fast Firing will be readily met.
As far as my own experience with fast firing during my HS days and personally there is one major factor of which the potter needs to be certain. Make certain the ware is completely dry before ramping up the firing.
 
best,
Pres

My hunch is that there is too much sand in the clay.  I would have suggested you test the clay first before adding that much sand. 
Has the sand been washed? I've never worked with sea sand but I wonder if it adds salt to the clay? Do you know the mesh size of the sand? A smaller mesh would have less impact on plasticity. 
 

Woohoo!!! Nice and roomy. I have one of those “neighborhood” kilns too. The first couple years I wondered if someone was going to call the fire department as soon as it went into reduction. 
John Chalke did a workshop at BYU (decades ago) and told us a story about a neighbor pounding on his door one day, saying  “Your temple is on fire! The temple is on fire!” I guess he had seen John loading it and figured it was some kind of religious altar.
Looks great, sounds like it’s working great. Congratulations! 

This is my finished kiln. The interior is 32 x 32 with a height of 34.  Nine inch wall of IFB . I am only part way through framing the shed around the kiln.  It is a down draft with two power burners.  The bisque firing took 8 hrs and my very first cone 6 firing took  10 hours.  I took it slow with two venturi burners for the first 3 hours before firing up the two power burners.  I was a bit hesitant to go fast from the onset, especially when I am so new to all of this.  The kiln is at about 250 degrees Celsius right now.
Things I've learned so far:
1.  A small adjustment in the damper make a huge difference.
2.  The kiln has it own rate of heating up. Resist the temptation to give it more gas. Instead, be patient.
3. I need better WiFi coverage out by the kiln.
I know this is not earth shattering, but I made it with my own 2 hands. So I am tooting my own  horn. I am excited
 
Jed
 
 
 
 
 

Congrats Jed! I'm more than a little jealous, wouldn't have a chance of building one in my neighbourhood.

Just because I’m going over this a bit with someone else, here’s some thoughts on this glaze. It’s got a lot of hallmarks of glazes that exhibit boron clouding. There’s an explainer here, from digitalfire. The numbers on the Staffel glazes see a bit high in the alumna department which usually will kill it, but the zinc may be extending the melt time, giving the calcium/boron crystals a chance to grow. 

@hlipper I have the same kiln.  I have more than 900 firings on that  beast.  The absolute first thing I do to check is the paper test.  I fold small strips of paper and insert in between the coils on the elements on each level.  Then turn it on a fast glaze and see what burns and what doesn't.  If it's just one section, it could be a relay. If it's all sections, could be old elements.   But I also check the elements closely to see if a smidgen of glaze got in there and caused things to burn out.  But we also get the multimeter out and do that testing.  How many firings on your elements?  I am also a BIG believer in a kiln log.  I write down every single firing and every single repair.  If you want a copy of mine, dm me and I will send it. 
Roberta