GEP

I like to say “even potters need a hobby,” and mine is bookbinding! I make hand-bound notebooks, sketchbooks, and journals. I love paper, cloth, adhesives, and sewing. My graphic design training taught me about pages/sheets/signatures, so I get to use my previous career’s knowledge. 

I like to say “even potters need a hobby,” and mine is bookbinding! I make hand-bound notebooks, sketchbooks, and journals. I love paper, cloth, adhesives, and sewing. My graphic design training taught me about pages/sheets/signatures, so I get to use my previous career’s knowledge. 

What a delight to hear more about the lives of people I interact with regularly but don’t really know at all.
I’m an art teacher at a public school (22+ years). It’s unusual in that it’s a k-12 school. I have to explore all sorts of creative endeavors just to be good at my job. A few of them drew me in far beyond what I needed to teach the subject.
Clay is where my heart is, I got a BFA and MFA in ceramics before my teacher life. A significant part of “extracurricular” creative activity still revolves around it. I like to make the tools I use and I want them to be as beautiful as my pots. The wood for handles and ribs comes from what I collect and I will use a branch or plank or block I harvested over lumber from the store at every turn.
The students got me into paper making, poor things didn’t know I was going to make them chop apart plants, boil them in alkali, then spend hours beating them to a literal pulp. I’ve made a lot of paper of my own since then. Coptic stitched a few journals too, @GEP. 
A serious creative anomaly happened when I decided it shouldn’t be so hard to distill essential oils from plants. I was wrong, but the process relies on third world technology and I’m pretty fluent in that. A couple years later I had an efficiently working still and system and obtained essential oils from the most interesting plants growing locally.
When I learn about something I get more interested in it. It’s a blessing, and a curse. I’m always up to something.

I like to say “even potters need a hobby,” and mine is bookbinding! I make hand-bound notebooks, sketchbooks, and journals. I love paper, cloth, adhesives, and sewing. My graphic design training taught me about pages/sheets/signatures, so I get to use my previous career’s knowledge. 

I like to say “even potters need a hobby,” and mine is bookbinding! I make hand-bound notebooks, sketchbooks, and journals. I love paper, cloth, adhesives, and sewing. My graphic design training taught me about pages/sheets/signatures, so I get to use my previous career’s knowledge. 

SO I just fired my Geil 18 cubic foot kiln  and the 12 cubic uodraft yesterday with this year's 1st fires (2024) and looked up my slow down years total for 2023
I'm loving the new to me Geil-I replaced the honeywell conroller with a longer (gas 90 second pilot hold feature ) hold down feature which makes it easier to light
With the 20 new Bailey 14x28 monster  huge advancer like kiln shelves this kiln really holds more like 20 cubic feet now-I did sink about 15 k into the kiln and shelves and concrete slab job  and  and the 20 foot LVL beams that made the whole space open up,but I'm so happy with the new work flow space for two kilns and two Peter puggers. Its a joy to have them all centrally locted in kiln area.
This post is  really is for Mea as she keeps track of so many details and I tend to log them and let them go and now I compare the totals every year.
Here  are the 2023 totals compared to 2022
I also should mention I bisque fire in the car kiln and the Geil not in my electric much
My total cubic feet fired wares for 2021 was 1,305 cubic feet of pots
My total cubic feet fired wares for 2022 was 1,147 cubic feet of pots
My total cubic feet fired wares for 2023 was 941 cubic feet of pots
2023- 35 cubic Car kiln downdraft -19
2022 -35 cubic Car kiln-21
2023-12 cubic feet updraft-14
2022-12 cubic feet updraft-26
2023-NEW to me  this year Geil 18 cubic foot downdraft -6
2023 -10 cubic foot Skutt electric bisques-1
2022 -10 cubic foot Skutt electric bisques-2 
So it really is slowing down and this year is more of that same track as I have cut down my forms list for 2024
It may be not be as much  slowing as one might think in semi retirement mode but I still like clay making its who I am.

I've been working on this simple cone 6 glossy base using the cheapest materials at my supplier. also developed during matt katz's course.
https://glazy.org/recipes/420048

@ChristopherW
Ok I’ll take a shot. This was a favorite in 2018 and has been tested and used for a studio clear for several years I know of. Samples in dishwasher forever. Actually moved to new dishwasher as old one wore out. Test piece going on approx 800 wash cycles. It’s Gerstley so not so much a favorite anymore. Glazes often don’t travel well but you are welcome to it. Hope it works for you. This is one of those glazes developed taking the Katz course. The spreadsheet is his, but we have written permission by him to automate the sheet and redistribute. I think he has a new free excel sheet as well. Don’t forget use the 100% batch column.

For 33 year I had used my 3,00 lbs of Kingman feldspar that ran out in 2023 just when The Custar shortage (mine is in bankruptcy and will reopen in future) hit.
I had 4 bags stashed so it was not an issue yet but in last two months I picked up this stash and now will last my lifetime (1,000lbs  in total)
I traded a some moblilezer wax to an old potter friend for a new old stock bag real spodume  from 20 years ago (white bag  in photo)
I'm back to being ok with a potash feldspar and its one less thing to consider.

Once long ago Etsy was a good place for people to find your work. Now there's so much stuff on there and so much of it isn't really handmade that it's nearly impossible for your work to be found unless you have a very specific niche that people can search for. If you simply make good work that doesn't have unusual search criteria, it'll just get lost in the mix. A search for 'blue mug' will result in thousands of options. But if you have a blue mug with a mouse on it, then people can find you. Etsy works well as a shopping page that you can direct people to, though. Their interface is pretty easy to use, and everything is secure, but you may need to use social media and other means to direct people there. You'll have to math out what their fees  will cost you vs setting up your own shopping site.

Online stores aren’t less work than doing festivals or fairs, they’re just a different kind of work. Certainly less physical labour in terms of not having a booth to set up or tear down. But you have to be good at figuring out software, taking images and promoting yourself online somehow. Some people are really good at making social media connections, some people would rather have a root canal than play games with the algorithms.
As far as my personal opinion on Shopify vs Etsy goes, they’re comparing apples to oranges. Etsy is an online marketplace, and Shopify is a website building platform like Squarespace or weebly. You don’t go to Squarespace expecting them to drive traffic to you. But I’m not of the opinion that Etsy does a stellar ob of driving traffic to a given seller, and they change their SEO requirements frequently enough that no one can really make a consistent living off of it. 
Shopify is just focused primarily on e-commerce, and has a bunch of features that let it handle shopping traffic and security built in. If you build your own website on Shopify, you pay them flat fees and you own it as long as you don’t do anything illegal and keep paying them. You’re in control of your own audience, for good or ill. You’re in charge of driving your own traffic, whether through social meda, ads, your email list, SEO or other methods.
If you open an Etsy shop, they also focus on e-commerce and transactions are secure. But ultimately, they own the platform and you are subject to how they want you to run your business. You don’t have to go too far to find the cons of using Etsy. Some of the complaints are from people who aren’t approaching selling there like running a business, but some are quite valid. The way they run their external ads is borderline usury, the requirements for things like top seller badges are unsustainable and the fee structure is unnecessarily complicated. My accountant *hated* their obtuse reporting. But the reason I left was because the traffic they drove to my site didn’t result in any conversions in a 1 year period. The customers who bought were all from my own efforts (social media and newsletter).
 

Agree that everyday functional pottery sells much better than sculptural or decorative ceramics. But “functional” alone will not automatically sell, there are plenty of functional wares out there that don’t sell well. It also needs to be pleasing to touch and hold it. And it needs to be correctly priced. Not too high OR too low. And it helps a great deal if it is stylistically original, i.e. customer does not look at it and think “I see a lot of pottery that looks just like this.” 

Ramblings follow.
The pots I value most sell the best. Price, style, glaze, size, and type, seem less relevant. Bowls, mugs, and cups may seem to break this pattern because they’re a “type,” something easily adopted into any household, and fall into a narrow price range. They sell most.  But, no, my assertion holds. The bowls mugs and cups I value most sell first, even priced the same as other like items.
The only magic formula I’ve found is to make pots I think are interesting and beautiful based on what holds meaning for me, and share them best by making work that’s a pleasure to hold and use and look at. Never boring and always a challenge. 
People are buying more than a ceramic object. They are buying an object from you. If, somehow, you are a part of that object it changes the equation. For me, if a person picks up a piece and asks one question, it’s as good as sold. Not because I’m a salesman, I’m awful at it, I just answer, we talk,  and it confirms they’re looking at something from the heart, made by a human, and it’s a good thing. Rare. 
I tried chasing million dollar glazes and decorating fads a while and found it soul deadening. I’m not above making an object that sells like hotcakes, it’s just not my driving force. 
Everyone always says blue sells well. Hope that helps Betty. 

Agree that everyday functional pottery sells much better than sculptural or decorative ceramics. But “functional” alone will not automatically sell, there are plenty of functional wares out there that don’t sell well. It also needs to be pleasing to touch and hold it. And it needs to be correctly priced. Not too high OR too low. And it helps a great deal if it is stylistically original, i.e. customer does not look at it and think “I see a lot of pottery that looks just like this.” 

Good question.
A few patterns stand out:
  Where the largest mug in the display sells. I've bumped up my mug sizes several times now; what is now "medium" used to be rather large, heh.
  Some, no, many folks cruising the wares will go straight to seconds (minor cosmetic defects) and/or marked-downs, looking for a bargain.
  Much less often, a looker will beeline to the best piece in the display, and grasp it, then buy it.
  More mugs and bowls go than vases, teapots, and jars.
  What's happening seems to make a difference. When there are people picking up ware and not putting them down (! a buyer!!), others seem to follow along. Same for interested, happy, engaged, interested (yah, twice), inquisitive people. Somewhat same in reverse though.
 
What people see, lots of variation there. Some see the prices. Some see the shape, others the color, or decoration, others watch the other shoppers most closely! Some are really looking closely at the potter.
I like to see interested shoppers picking up and handling wares that interest them, for I (like to think I) make pots to be used.

For me its functional cone 10 porcelain (durable) and the forms are the ones one would use the most. Mugs ,Bowls ,sponge holders ,glasses things one uses everyday.

I’m currently in an interesting position of having to revise most of the 10 shop  glazes at a new teaching studio that weren’t properly tested before large batches were made. The person who chose them quit, or he’d have been fired. The glazes were all chosen entirely by the numbers: they all fall within the Stull recommendations, and don’t have weird variances in UMF. Most of them have easily traced provenance and have good reputations.  But one failed an overnight vinegar test, and three more require weird bucket flocculation acrobatics that are deeply impractical to maintain in a teaching studio. One is pretty pricey because it’s half frit. 3 of them contain gerstley borate, with no attempt to reformulate. They were all mixed to the exact same specific gravity. 4 of them ran like a track star because of that. Only 2 out of the 10 need no immediate work. The person who put this glaze stable together read alllllll the technical manuals, but had zero practical experience. 
But I was also taught glaze chemistry (*points flashlight under chin*)  in the Before Times when there was No Digitalfire! (Woooooo!)  Kidding aside. We were subjected to line blending every material in a chosen base glaze just to see what happened.  My left eye still twitches thinking about that level of abject boredom, and I think the prof may have secretly hated us all. I remember thinking at the time that we were all probably reinventing the proverbial wheel, and that a reference text of some kind HAD to be out there somewhere to narrow things down. I am deeply, deeply grateful that glaze calc software exists to eliminates a lot of that kind of needless pedantry, and material waste. 
Ideally glaze calc and empirical testing should be used together. 

Based on simply looking at your photo (which is not very scientific), the glaze appears to have been applied too thickly to me. Over thick application is a common cause of pinholes. Perhaps the thing that has changed recently is the amount of water you are using? Do you measure for specific gravity? 
Another common cause of pinholes is underfiring. Sometimes a 5 degree higher firing can solve a pinholing problem. Perhaps the real issue is that your elements or thermocouples need to be replaced, and therefore your kiln is slightly underfiring? A firing with witness cones can answer this question. 

My “for what it’s worth” contribution to this discussion: 
The glaze I use the most is based on a MC6G semi-matte base, which I altered with talc and calcium carb to make it more matte. At one point, I calculated out the unity formula, and it was well outside of the range that MC6G recommends. But I’ve been using it for going on 20 years, and it has been rock solid. Even in cases where a customer brought back some 10+ year old bowls, where the glossy liner glaze was visibly losing its shine. These customers are heavy dishwasher users, and again these pots had been in almost daily use for 10+ years, but the matte glaze on the outside was exactly like day 1. 
Unity formulas, flux ratios, boron charts are all useful guidelines, but glaze chemistry has far more variables than us mere humans can test. No substitute for first hand experience. “Melt and see” is still an indispensable mindset. 

Based on simply looking at your photo (which is not very scientific), the glaze appears to have been applied too thickly to me. Over thick application is a common cause of pinholes. Perhaps the thing that has changed recently is the amount of water you are using? Do you measure for specific gravity? 
Another common cause of pinholes is underfiring. Sometimes a 5 degree higher firing can solve a pinholing problem. Perhaps the real issue is that your elements or thermocouples need to be replaced, and therefore your kiln is slightly underfiring? A firing with witness cones can answer this question. 

My “for what it’s worth” contribution to this discussion: 
The glaze I use the most is based on a MC6G semi-matte base, which I altered with talc and calcium carb to make it more matte. At one point, I calculated out the unity formula, and it was well outside of the range that MC6G recommends. But I’ve been using it for going on 20 years, and it has been rock solid. Even in cases where a customer brought back some 10+ year old bowls, where the glossy liner glaze was visibly losing its shine. These customers are heavy dishwasher users, and again these pots had been in almost daily use for 10+ years, but the matte glaze on the outside was exactly like day 1. 
Unity formulas, flux ratios, boron charts are all useful guidelines, but glaze chemistry has far more variables than us mere humans can test. No substitute for first hand experience. “Melt and see” is still an indispensable mindset. 

Yes.
 
And if possible, let someone put them through a dishwasher 5x/week for 10 years! No formula can give you more information than that.

My “for what it’s worth” contribution to this discussion: 
The glaze I use the most is based on a MC6G semi-matte base, which I altered with talc and calcium carb to make it more matte. At one point, I calculated out the unity formula, and it was well outside of the range that MC6G recommends. But I’ve been using it for going on 20 years, and it has been rock solid. Even in cases where a customer brought back some 10+ year old bowls, where the glossy liner glaze was visibly losing its shine. These customers are heavy dishwasher users, and again these pots had been in almost daily use for 10+ years, but the matte glaze on the outside was exactly like day 1. 
Unity formulas, flux ratios, boron charts are all useful guidelines, but glaze chemistry has far more variables than us mere humans can test. No substitute for first hand experience. “Melt and see” is still an indispensable mindset. 

Yes.
 
And if possible, let someone put them through a dishwasher 5x/week for 10 years! No formula can give you more information than that.

As I see it, there is a lot of good work establishing ground zero for the perfect glossy durable midfire glaze - flux ratio of 30:70, Si and Al molar within limits, Si:Al ratio around 7-8, boron molar within limits, etc. Yes, perfect, but boring glazes. Mayco Stroke and Coat, a solid performer from 06 to 6.
In my glaze chem classes, I tell them to consider theoretical perfection, but also realize there is are a lot of more interesting effects to be found outside of ground zero. Some of it may not be durable, though some may be just fine, do your tests. I have to this point stayed away from subjective experience with this particular recipe, but one of the reasons it is so popular in my community studio is because of the interest it creates. When layered with certain others of the studio glazes, we put the Amaco drizzles to shame. It is a solid glaze by itself, or Amaco/Mayco Flux in the same bucket.
Why? In my studies of glazes, it is the high boron in this one when layered with other lower boron (conventional theoretic levels) glazes. Higher boron levels create a borosilicate glass. Lower boron levels create an alumino-silica glass (not quite soda-lime bottle glass, but the chemistry is moving in that direction). Layered borosilicate glass and alumino-silica glass do not mix to a homogeneous blend, but rather they are immiscible and flow through each other in rivulets or create a faux-oilspot effect. Now I have the student's attention (and if they are not careful, a kiln shelf to clean). As DuPont said 90 years ago, better living through modern chemistry.