Benzine

Put handles on it! Three of em
 

I like the "Print" dishes.  I had some mugs like that, with some cat paw prints in them, only I didn't put said prints there...  My workshop, is also, where the cat likes to hang out, and she thought she had to check out the new "things" that  were sitting on the workbench.

I like the "Print" dishes.  I had some mugs like that, with some cat paw prints in them, only I didn't put said prints there...  My workshop, is also, where the cat likes to hang out, and she thought she had to check out the new "things" that  were sitting on the workbench.

I added some smaller prints too, don't know what a giant wood paw print stamp would cost me, I'll have to look into it.  I have a larger dog bone cookie cutter I can use on a slab and attach too.
Last night I decided to try to throw a vase, was recording it too, and when I finished I went to hit stop and my phone was dead.  Darn! It was a good one too!
 

I like the "Print" dishes.  I had some mugs like that, with some cat paw prints in them, only I didn't put said prints there...  My workshop, is also, where the cat likes to hang out, and she thought she had to check out the new "things" that  were sitting on the workbench.

How could you ever stop looking for new glazes!?!  One of the main things I love about pottery in general is that there is always something to do.  It's throwing, it's trimming, it's decorating and glazing and firing and maintenance and the list goes on forever!  What a joy it all is, and testing new glazes is a huge addition to that joy!  I wish I could do it more often, I have so many great ideas and they only rarely get a chance to be tested!  
I feel like when I test out new glazes everything looks great and I wasted time doing a small batch on tiles.  So the next time I test a new glaze I skip it and just make a few gallons, only to have it look like dookie and ruin 10 mugs.  Oh well, some lessons are never learned, just oscillate back and forth from failure to success.

You will stop looking for new glazes when you "kick the bucket". If you believe in an afterlife, then never.  Firing results may vary in heaven vs hell

I'm not sure thats a ever for me. That said I seem to get about 12-15 glazes going at any one time.-over time I experiment anbd bring is a new one to the fold and usuallt take one out.
Thats happend a few years ago with an iron saturated glaze I now make with synthectic iron and am phasing out the old iron glaze. The new one is much brighter and almost red in certain situations.
I have a few glazes that I have used my whole career  and my costomers still crave them.
Test for me works in cycles of how bored I get with my glazes and how much spare time I have to adress the testing period.
I know for example I have big (last remodel of house) on our bedroom this late spring/summer and thats will take up all testing time so its now or fall for me for new colors.
as to the remodel its a full gut interior-raising the floor 11 inches to match rest of house as one level. Raising the ceiling at least 1 foot-That means collar ties and adding 2x6 to ceiling,making walls 2x6 over 2x4 as is currently by adding furring strips to studs.
Adding a very small 1/2 bath with wall monted Toto Toilet and a small corner sink. maple hardwood floor-moving closet into two closets. Moveing entry door 6 inchs over to fit closets .New  windows(3 -3x6s) perment color outside wood interior. Maple trim throughout. New wiring (last room to get this).
Puting in a small mini split AC /heat pump unit for this room .(its about 16x 15 if I recall.)taking out the exterior door and  filling in the 5/8 x 10  old growth redwood siding with cider siding(already have it)
Adding new insulation and 5/8 sheet rock as well.
I'm doing all the mechanical/electrical and helping with some wood work and doing the trim
This room was a add on in 1962 about 10 years before I boughtb the property and its all made from old growth redwood-and is currenty covered with mahogany paneling-the real stuff. Its that only room left thats not 5/8 sheet rock.
And as you may have guessed I'm not going to be making many pots during May 20th and the later part of June-But they are getting made NOW.
Sorry I got a wee bit sidetracked on the glaze question

dhPotter recently posted in the QotW pool: 
At what point in a potter's career does he/she stop searching for and testing new glazes?
When does the potter become satisfied with his/her stable of glazes and says "This is enough"?
I really don't know how to answer that, as I am still keeping notes on new glazes, watching for ingredients and percentages, constantly interested in new glazes and trying out quite a few in 100 g test batches. Over the years, my own work has changed quite a bit as I learned more about glaze. ... I had never had a glaze theory/making/testing class. However, as I had been a math/science major in the early days of my college education and worked as a lab assistant nights glaze chemistry is not too distant a reach for me. I have learned to be more intuitive of late as I understand much more about how things react in a glaze than I have before. I was a teacher in a HS, and as my budget was a small for the size of my classes, I turned to mixing my own glazes as a way to get the most bang for my buck. I had around 20 glazes I mixed for classes, and then a few that I used in large powdered lots of commercial glaze. 
In my own work, I started out by saving money with just one white glaze that I sprayed underglazes and stains over top of for color and decoration using dipping and atomizer spraying. Over the years I have changed from that to airbrushing using a series of blue, brown and green glazes over a creamy tan white that reacts well over texture as now my decoration comes in stamped and carved decoration put in before shaping.
I really don't think potters say. . . enough, especially with the way the technology and understanding increases as we keep exploring the medium. Maybe I'm wrong, and after all it is only my personal opinion.  Thanks for the question dhPotter.
 
best,
Pres

More dog bowls this week and mugs of course.
Changed my design a bit, will probably change it again before I'm done.  Anyway, here's last night's Roundup, along with handling 20 mugs.
 

Well the retrofit kit from euclids was 750+shipping.  I got the parts for:
V6cf controller - 280
Relays - 2x 22
Transformer - 22
Housing - 55
Wires and connectors maybe 20 bucks
So saved around 300-350, took me about 3 hours to remove kiln sitter, rewire and put back together.  I was genuinely surprised when I flipped the cutoff switch and the dang thing beeped and turned on.  Was expecting fireworks at the very least!
Was a fun project and highly recommend to anyone with a manual kiln.
 

Well my project yesterday was converting my manual kiln with kilnsitter into a digital kiln.
Mission complete.
 

Currently, too much "crap" is on my workbench. 
I need to start getting things cleaned up, and organized, so I can start on Graduation mugs, for my Seniors. 
I was going to get started on all this weeks ago, but this second half of the Winter has been brutal, so I've spent waaaaay too much time moving snow!

Currently, too much "crap" is on my workbench. 
I need to start getting things cleaned up, and organized, so I can start on Graduation mugs, for my Seniors. 
I was going to get started on all this weeks ago, but this second half of the Winter has been brutal, so I've spent waaaaay too much time moving snow!

Dang Educators, always bringing "Thinking" into things!

Over the years, I have found that I often have to have a "Gestation state", a period of time where I don't do something, but think about it. Then when I return to the activity or problem, I have solved it without even really knowing it. This has happened to me often when dealing with throwing over the years. . . throwing off the hump and having "S" cracks, throwing large and not getting enough out of the base, Wonky rims, that were weak and poorly finished, trimming through too many large plates, cracks in large plates, cracks in large bowls, and the list could last for much longer. Point is, problems do not just disappear when you push more time into it, often you have to figure out why. Research helps, thinking about what you research helps, also thinking about what you know about clay and how it is structurally made up and how to use that instead of fight it. All in a lifetime of working with any material, especially one so simply complex.
 
best,
Pres 

Let's race! I'll give you a 2 hour head start! 

My hammer was often the cutting wire, as I would often cut the piece in half just to see. I still do it, and find it is a great tool for teaching. However, there have been times that pots went through bisque before I realized I didn't like it. . . . . Floor drops are so satisfying when all of those shards are scattered, and nothing left to do but sweep it up. The sound of a pot breaking on a concrete floor is enough to get everyone's attention either in fear of an accident or a crazy teacher getting release on one of his pots. They never worried about me wrecking theirs.
 
best,
Pres

The way I look at this QOTW is more about my competency in being able to produce objects on the wheel, and not about when I made "good" objects, whether those be for sale, or in comparison to my other works.
I also agree that it is more a measure of intensive, focused hours of practice than it is years of dabbling/making/etc.
What I tell students is that in the beginning while learning to throw they are going to be "taking" what the wheel and the process gives them; yes they have input, but once things begin to go awry, they do their best to keep it from flopping, and call it good enough. The point at which they are able to sit down, and produce any object they want, in just about any (realistic) size they want, is the point where I consider them to have mastered the throwing process. For me, this took me about my first 8-10 years, and its been another 8-10 years since that point. There are definitely objects or sizes that challenge my skills, but it has become a process like breathing in  which I dont have to think about it much, if any, and I just do. While I feel that I have "mastered" the wheel, I definitely do not believe that I have nothing left to learn from the wheel; it is a process in which I will continue to grow in my technical abilities for the rest of my life......i.e for now throwing 15#, 1/4" thick bowls takes relatively little effort, and one day I will be throwing 30# bowls with the same ease.
However, many have noted the other exhausting lists of skills that need to be honed to make "generally admirable" work, let alone work that is designed well for its utilitarian purposes; form, surface, glaze chemistry, eutectics, equipment handling, studio management....all these "broad" categories take years/lifetimes to hone.....it took me about 4 years, maybe 200 firings of my gas kiln to truly understand and with relative precision how to predict how each zone of the kiln will react....the next new kiln, will take me likely as long to learn its nuances too. It is these challenges which keep me excited about ceramics.
In my area there were a couple of potters who would at shows share a double booth, and would hang these 10' tall banners of themselves with the words "Master Potter__________", yet they both made pots which were adolescent in their maturity at best; while yes, they may have put in the 10,000 hours, a master potter it does not make. I know Ive spent well over 10,000 hours practicing the art of walking, yet I aint bringing home the bacon with my vertical posture!

This requires some brutal honesty and a merciless hammer. A person once told me there was enough crap pottery in the world she didn't want to add to it. She was a forthright person and I liked her.
I sometimes garage sale or cruise thrift stores with potters who find their own work. They smile and handover a few dollars and if necessary say something like "ya' - it's ok" all the while thinking how quickly the hammer will fall. I like these people too.
I hope to find something of my own one day and it would be nice to feel as though it deserved a good home away from hammers and rocks and piles of shards.

I was taking recreational pottery classes while working full-time as a designer. During those years I was also building up a freelance design practice on the side, so for several years I was working 1.5 full-time jobs. Pottery was my much needed stress relief on weekends. It took me eight years before I was making pots that I would consider “sellable.”  Sure I sold some pots before that, mostly at my studio’s holiday sale, and at some small local fairs, but I would call those pots “student pots” not “professional pots.” The people who bought them had the same expectation.
So for me, it was eight years of serious weekend practice. At that point I bought my own equipment and started working out of my own studio. This was a huge turning point, because it’s when I could finally make all of my own decisions, and especially to develop my own glazes. Before then, I really didn’t have control over how/when my pots got fired, and I was using the same clay/glazes that everyone else at my studio was using. Which means those pots were not MINE to the extent that professional pottery needs to be.
I would add that to the factors that make someone work professional-grade. Skill, aesthetics, sound science, and ORIGINALITY. If you can only make pots that look like somebody else’s, that’s not professional. 

Well thrown pots are not necessarily well designed either functionally or aesthetically.
 
best,
Pres

I'll let you know when I get there.  Like pres, I think hours is probably a better measure than years.
I can throw a nice even mug the same way pretty much every time, and I've got 10 months of "recent" wheel throwing under my belt now.  But I have a wheel at home and I am throwing for about 3 hours a night, 5 days a week.  Weekends are mostly glazing and firing so I'm only at the wheel maybe 4 hours.  So that's around 19 hours a week, for 44 weeks, 836 hours total so far and I'm just now feeling confident I can sell my mugs and bowls.

Mark C. asked a poignant question of late that figures in to a lot of discussion that has reappeared concerning quality of work, pricing, and sales. Mark's question posted in the QotW pool is:QotW: What is a realistic amount of time to spend before being able to produce quality thrown forms on the wheel.Meaning ones that others will want (not family members)  1 year   2 years  3 years   4 years   5 years   longer?
I find this to be quite appropriate, but maybe not inclusive enough. When I first learned to throw, I was in the studio for a 10 week course in the Summer. I had a night job that left my days open, as it also had flexible hours, posting liability ledgers in a bank. During the 10 week course, I had a 2 hour class 3 times a week. I spent 5 hours in the studio minimum every class day. I also mapped out the class schedule of final due dates, firing due dates and such so that once I started making pots, I kept nothing. Then the week before final bisque deadline I kept everything I made. 9 pieces to show for the class. Got an A for the course, worst yet was hooked on the wheel and clay. 
The point of this is that intensive training will definitely move one along faster, and non distracted intensity over a few years would do much more than hobby potting a few nights week. Maybe you get my point now about years vs. intensity. I believe it is a good discussion, that will lead into venues such as apprenticeships, MFA degrees with required residency, work study programs or even jumping in with both feet into a startup. Hmmm lots to think about. So please horn in on Mark C's excellent but thought provoking question.
 
best,
Pres

That strange as I was just going thru my 2011 tax papers to shred (8 years back) to make room for the new 2018 papers I'm working on now.
One was a letter from Warren about the bowl he sent me as a trade (I paid shipping cost)I put it with bowl today-same day I read this thread.I had not heard the news-small world.