Benzine

Oh come on you are clean from a shower (one of my favorites) and you are in very loose comfortable back open gown and get wheeled into a room with a light above  you the size of of the starship enterprize and you get to count backwards from 10 -usually make it to 8 and you wake up in a strange place drifting in and out of  heavy dream states..  You wife asks you if you are ok and you tell her aboiut some reindeer in Australial and later remember nothing of that talk. .Your surgeon checks on you and gren lights your departure into a wheel chait to the door. Then like a magic carpet you are driven home a long long windy road with lots of curves and huge green trees (about 5 plus hours ) 
its later that day when vacation is over-its a brief vacation at best

Needed a change of pace and had lots of pieces ready for my wife to paint so I made this, to bad the board cracked but it adds character.

This thread hasn't gotten much love recently.
Right now on my workbench is a small load of "sailing mugs", old school travelers. 

Also been doing some water etching on porcelain with shellac.

  Just finished some Christmas orders, still have more to do unfortunately, and I need to replace my elements of course, something always happens when it's crunch time.
 
 

I'm with you on that.  Read through detailed instructions, watched multiple videos, and my spiral is more of a cone.  I'll eventually get there...
 
In regards to the question, I throw relatively small 1-3 lbs.  Five pounds doesn't give me too much trouble, 10 lbs. takes a bit of work, and I've never done over 15 at one time. 
A few weeks ago, I pulled most of the clay out of my classroom's reclaim bin.  It was packed full, as last Spring's in progress work got recycled.  So there was quite a bit of leatherhard slabs mixed in with the slip bucket and throwing slop.  So I was wedging twenty five pound chunks with a mixture of cut and slam and ram's head.  I'll tell you what though, that clay now has a great consistency!...  It also made me think really hard about purchasing a pug mill.

I try not to get comfortable with a weight, so while I can throw 8lb cylinders fairly thin, I always try to get bigger, 10lb, 15lb, 20lb, etc.  I feel like if I stay at 8lbs which is plenty for most everything functional, I'll never get better.  My problem once I hit 15lbs or so is that no matter how much I pull it seems like the cylinder walls thicken up again as soon as I start shaping.  It's difficult to use a lot of muscle while at the same time tryin to maintain even distance between my hands.  Working on it though!
I usually will only wedge 10lbs in a lump, anything more I cant get my hands around and I still haven't even come close with spiral wedging, that's some voodoo magic I think I need someone to teach me in real life.

Hi folks, 
Once again there are not new questions in the QotW pool, so I will pose one I was thinking about when wedging clay. Everyone has a "go to" point or comfort zone, for wedging, throwing, rolling out slabs, and other things. Myself I figure over 15# is work when wedging. When it comes to throwing, 25# is my limit, but then I don't often do that,  only for large jars and vases. I usually limit my throwing off the hump to 15# as that will easily get me a good hour or two of throwing for stems or chalice bowls. Most recently I have been running some experimental ideas on chalices, so use about 8# of clay.  When rolling out slabs I limit my clay to about 8# as I don't have a slab roller, but use a 25 inch maple  one.  Some people run their limits because of their kiln sizes, or their own physical limits. While others will find work arounds for their dreams, as in an extra kiln section, combination throwing and handbuilding, or making modular pieces to assemble later.
Putting this together in a QotW:  What is your go to" point or "comfort zone" when dealing with clay weights or sizes for your work?
 
best,
Pres

Ditto!
 
In regards to weather, we had a couple inches of snow Sunday early morning, which is not normal for us.  So then of course the next day we got several inches of snow to really accentuate that point...  Funny thing is, it happened while we were at School, so all we could do was watch.  Luckily, it didn't impact the roads at all. 

@Callie Beller DieselI really like the box form with the resist design. . . .works really well on the dark clay with the snowy glaze. I love making the boxes, and when I was doing them I could sell as many boxes as I could mugs. Time involved is about the same, but the finished effect looks more valuable for lots of people. I would display them with bath beads or salts, paper clips or other things. They work really well in bathrooms when you have toothbrush holders, soap dishes and other things for the bathroom. Some people even talked about using them for salt as salt pigs were not lidded.
As far as cold, snow, ice, and all that comes with it. . .these aged bones are not up to it . keep it!
 
best.
pres

Sun loosing heat, heh. It's snowing here now.

I had a great time last weekend glazing a full 8 piece dinnerware set.  Opened the kiln a few days later to crawling on 75% of it.  I had a feeling something awful would happen when I saw a few cracks in the glaze; smoothed the cracks in and fired anyway.  
So this weekend I'm throwing another 8 piece dinnerware set and defloccing the glaze this time.
 
 

@Callie Beller Diesel(last Dresden. . . still finishing, sad about Murphy, scary)
Working with boxes can be really addictive, I did a run of potpourri burners in the 80's, tower with a ball shaped box on top, lid was carved with pierced decoration to allow the potpourri fumes to escape from the votive candle burning in the chimney base. So many variations of the same form can create some really neat pots.
 
best,
Pres

Yeah, they come in the clamshells here too. The berry bowls do seem to help with the mold situation, but they can dry out a bit if you leave them more than about 3 days. When you use them for grapes and things that tend to be more robust, it keeps the ick factor down better. 
Honestly, when I first started making them, I thought they were a bit gimicky, but I made them because people asked. I find ours is in almost constant use.

More photo play.

I think it's awesome!
I've actually thought about doing that in my classroom with students.  I'd probably start by making one myself, and then have a volunteer make one for each subsequent firing.

@JohnnyKThat is not a little pat on your back, take a bow! Major applause!
 
best,
Pres

The recent PBS Juror's Award for my Horsehair Raku submission and the follow up interview with a local news source has been my recent pat on the back!

I think it's awesome!
I've actually thought about doing that in my classroom with students.  I'd probably start by making one myself, and then have a volunteer make one for each subsequent firing.

My wife tied the scissors to our drawer handle because I kept losing them in my studio...  My ingenious solution was to go to Costco and buy a 3 pack of scissors...  I still have one pair and the only reason I still have it is that it's tied to my decal book.  :/

I don't even like lending tools to my husband,  the only way I get them back is to hunt for them in his garage.   Now he has a new woodworking shop in the basement so I it will take longer to find them.   He will go in my studio and get a tool without asking,   what really bothers me is that he will take tools that he also has but can't find them.   He doesn't want to bother looking for them so he takes mine and promptly misplaces them.  I try not to complain,  I am lucky to have a husband that can fix anything.     Denice

It arrived today.  I think I'll be keeping this one close by.

6 and 7's. 7 and 8's. 9 and 10's.

Soldiers for a couple firings.
Sorce

They said they moved a number of times and the wheel 'sustained some damage' before its abandonment.  Like the wheel, I haven't seen that friend again. Not that I'm bitter.

@liambesaw  That looks quite realistic, nice work!

So I mentioned before that my buddy was hit by a car while riding his motorcycle and I was working on a new tibia for him.  Well it's done and I'm giving it to him tonight after work.
Thrown and altered, crackle slip, etched aluminum plate and bolts, oak stand. 

My silliest, though, not the silliest of anyone ever.   Certainly the most boring... I loaned my Brent C wheel  to a 'friend' before I went traveling. 
Never saw it again.
My new Thomas Stuart is  on its way though.