Benzine

Pres  its like this every other week on Glaze day and sometimes every week if I took a few weeks and just threw without firing.
Its my last fire of this year, only thing left is sell the pots myself and take them to my outlets every week. It go time in my business until the 25th then its as Mea says time to put my feet up -right now I'm waiting for a cortisone shot in my thumb.Seems all this clay work can mess with your body -who knew as one person said recently?

Whew! I'm just exhausted looking at it!
 

 
best,
Pres

So today started like many glaze days except this was the last one this year. The day ended looking like these last two photos.Which is all that bisque ware you see in above post which got glazed and loaded today.
The big car kiln was not quite full (last fire of year is a cleanup of whats left) and the little 12 cubic updraft was bait loose as well.
This year in firing making terns is ending earlier than it ever has for me. Due to my two month broken arm setback-I ended up with a whole shows extra inventory-Hence no need to make that much more for xmas.I;ll post a year end comparison as usual for my business later in month after things slow down. I closed my retail pottery sale booth for two days (mon_tues) to concentrate on the glazing and firing as well as the usually 18 days this season is just a bit to long for me-I like 15 days selling maximum . So is will reopen on Wednesday and sell everyday thru xmas eve.
My workbench will be empty of  greenware and bisque ware  its only for fired pots that need pricing or sorting or shipping now as the selling season is on and the makings season is over.
 

Welllllllllp, I ended up having time to go get clay over the weekend.  Picked up 500lbs, as well as some glaze chemicals I wanted.  I threw a big 15lb moon jar out of recycled clay last night, wow what an experience!  It was probably a little softer than I should have thrown with but it was a lot of fun and great practice for throwing bigger.  My new goal is to center and throw a 25 pounds vessel which is I think the max my rk2 is rated for.  I probably won't be able to fire a piece that big without modifying my kiln, but I guess it's a personal challenge.  Anyhow, with all of this brand new clay in my hands I need to get busy throwing some real stuff too.  Bowls, bowls, bowls.

Prototype dinner plate for a disabled family member, she has partial use of one hand, paralyzed on the other side. Theory is she will be able to push her fork to the curved in back edge of the plate to keep the food on the fork. Front edge of plate is smooth and rounded over so she can rest her wrist either on that or the table.

It sounds like the time I was starting to pack  a dozen gourd shape vases with long thin necks to take to a gallery.  I had just started wrapping one when a big gust of wind and pressure pushed through my studio.   It sent my vases crashing into each other and on to the concrete floor.    I wasn't aware that my husband was replacing the seals on the back door,  he gave the door one big slam to see how the seals were working.  I only had one vase that remained intact.  I decide that this particular shape of vase wasn't good for gallery sales.   Denice

A few months ago I posted some WIP photos of clock designs that I was experimenting with. Here’s how they are turning out:

 

So that's different than firing in reduction. More like what we call reduction cooling. Firing like the Fallon would not reduce the clay body. No reason you couldn't use his system to reduce going up, though.
In grad school I studied under John Neely, who is known for his exploration of reduction cooling techniques, both in gas and wood firings. In those firings the kiln would be fired up in reduction like a typical firing, then also cooled in reduction. In a typical firing, the surface of the clay reoxidizes during cooling, giving the toasty brown colors to stoneware bodies. In reduction cooling, the body can't re-oxidize, so the iron stays black. In bodies with around 4.5% iron, you can get a totally black surface. With short periods of air introduced during cooling it will flash bright orange, red, and yellows.
Susan Harris does a lot of really nice reduction cooled work. https://www.artworkscedarcity.com/susan-harris-1

Great question. I was fortunate enough to take my work bench on the road to build a bench for a friend which went to sofa and sold  successfully for at least four figures. Loved her art and glad it sold! Feel good about the bench as it had to support at least three hundred pounds without deflection to crack any of her tiles. Fun project and success always makes the labor part forgettable. Picture of it going to its new owner attached.
December project (s)
Complete a couple glaze formulations to work well over heavy underglaze on  low expansion porcelain.  Test are going well and should be able to publish after the first of the year.
Additional December project was to get at least four basic throwing videos done for newbies in the studio. Three done so far so we will just keep plugging along.
last project was to begin creating a glaze workshop for the resident artist at the studio. Just beginning this one and have outlined it. Thus far I like the direction and content.
 

Love the variety @liambesaw

Here's the reclaim jars, had to torch them a little because the reclaim was pretttttttty soft, but they came out pretty good.  They'll all get lids and handles in the coming days

Well worked my way through all of my bags of iron-rich stoneware.... Or so I thought.  100 lbs of reclaim looks just about ready to throw with, so I'll be wedging up some of that tonight to see if it's still got legs.  While burning through my bags I used this stuff called Goldbar Brown and it was pretty stiff, but it made throwing large pretty easy, might have to pick some more of it up if I like the fired appearance.  I made a pretty good sized lidded jar with it and I know with my standard clay I would have had the torch out a few times at least.

Lee:
it has been a joy watching you develop your own "voice" over the last two years. Glad to see you reimagining the platter. Actually find the expression intriguing. Well done!!
Nerd

Ran out of my normal clay so I've been going through some other dark clays I bought to try out.  Been working on a new form I like so I've got a handful of these drying up right now, all different weights.  The one in the picture here is 7 lbs, have a few 5 lbs ones and a few 2 lbs ones as well.  
Ended up recycling 50 lbs last week, I have wedged most of it, still have about 15 lbs to wedge and bag.  Not sure how long I should let it sit before trying to throw with it.
I have 50 lbs of porcelain and another 100 lbs of white stoneware I want to get through before I make another clay order, so I'll be cleaning my wheel and tools at some point this week.  Hey I might even get some free time over the 4 day weekend hah.

I am currently just making some personal holiday giftees. Pics are my view out the studio windows after it snows! (Landlord's construction yard, sitting below a ridge-lovely.)
 

I'll have, what we call, "Service Learners" help me with loading and unloading.  They are students, who get a grade, for helping teachers.  I only accept students, who I've had in class, and who I trust to do a wide variety of tasks, load/ unload the kiln, make test tiles, cut photo paper and mix darkroom chemicals.  Oh, and and one of my, and probably their least favorite, redo the wash on the kiln shelves!

That is why kiln loading was done either with student help during a class period so that they could see the amount of work that went into it, or after school when it would take a couple of hours to get everything in.
 
best,
Pres

Art teachers are really good at three-dimensional Tetris!
The worst however, is when you get so far in loading, and find something that  either; A. Would fit better on a different spot, or B. You forgot about all together, because you had it sitting aside (Sometimes sitting aside, so you didn't forget about it...)
I have had to unload, just to reload before.  A lot of heavy sighing is involved...

Art teachers are really good at three-dimensional Tetris!
The worst however, is when you get so far in loading, and find something that  either; A. Would fit better on a different spot, or B. You forgot about all together, because you had it sitting aside (Sometimes sitting aside, so you didn't forget about it...)
I have had to unload, just to reload before.  A lot of heavy sighing is involved...

Art teachers are really good at three-dimensional Tetris!
The worst however, is when you get so far in loading, and find something that  either; A. Would fit better on a different spot, or B. You forgot about all together, because you had it sitting aside (Sometimes sitting aside, so you didn't forget about it...)
I have had to unload, just to reload before.  A lot of heavy sighing is involved...

Art teachers are really good at three-dimensional Tetris!
The worst however, is when you get so far in loading, and find something that  either; A. Would fit better on a different spot, or B. You forgot about all together, because you had it sitting aside (Sometimes sitting aside, so you didn't forget about it...)
I have had to unload, just to reload before.  A lot of heavy sighing is involved...

Art teachers are really good at three-dimensional Tetris!
The worst however, is when you get so far in loading, and find something that  either; A. Would fit better on a different spot, or B. You forgot about all together, because you had it sitting aside (Sometimes sitting aside, so you didn't forget about it...)
I have had to unload, just to reload before.  A lot of heavy sighing is involved...

Art teachers are really good at three-dimensional Tetris!
The worst however, is when you get so far in loading, and find something that  either; A. Would fit better on a different spot, or B. You forgot about all together, because you had it sitting aside (Sometimes sitting aside, so you didn't forget about it...)
I have had to unload, just to reload before.  A lot of heavy sighing is involved...

Min asked recently in the QotW pool:  Kiln stuffers, what does everybody make to fill those little empty spaces in the kiln? 
Hmm, Min I should have open spaces in my kiln? Naw, just joshing! For over 35 years of loading my HS classroom kiln I had to use every spot of space in the kiln whether loading bisque or glaze. Most of the time we had a pile of sculptural handbuilt projects, and one would set on the shelf, one would be on a brick right next to the first with the overlaps saving space. Thrown bowls were put in right side up, upside down, with things underneath or inside. Mugs were crammed in wherever, pinch pots the same. Some bisques used no shelving at all, just everything carefully stacked in to the walls on top of each other. . .  very carefully. Same for glaze loads, I would sometimes have shelves 12" apart with 1/4 shelves and broken shelves in between creating overlapping layers. Yeah, I really didn't have to fill space, but even I had to fire test tiles, and they went in along with the rest. . . filling spaces.
 
 
best,
Pres

Mine are mini vases and mini bowls-sponge holders and spoon rests -small cat bowls-extruded soap dishes. Smalls are where I make the most money selling as they sell to everyone.