GEP

Well, not exactly on the workbench but I thought I'd share a peek at how my test herb markers did and a new shallow dish treatment that I like (PC Ancient Copper).

Working on coffee pour overs, needs some cleaning up when it's a bit firmer. Not sure about making more of these, super time consuming. I've made a donut for it to sit on while firing for support.

 

It’s a simple 1:1 ratio.
25g beeswax + 25g coconut oil = 10 tubes of lip balm. I borrowed my digital scale from the pottery studio.  I melted the ingredients in the microwave in 30 second increments. I used a glass measuring cup, it got warm in the microwave and kept the wax mixture melted longer.
Nah, I’d be worried about them melting while in transit. 

It’s not food, but I did make them in my kitchen. I have trouble buying lip balm in stores, because these days they all contain ingredients that make me itchy (shea butter, aloe vera, menthol). Why can’t I buy a basic mixture of beeswax and coconut oil? Now I know why, because it is way too easy and cheap to make it yourself. The store brands need to add fancy ingredients so they can charge $3.99. These tubes cost me about 25 cents each.

My second attempt at a self-draining soap dish works! Big thanks to Pres for supplying this suggestion:
Having a wall and a lip as two sort-of separate elements allowed me to cut a channel through the wall, but still have enough clay on the lip to pull and shape a spout. Now it allows the water to slide off, but not the soap!



 
 

Yee haw---ain't nuthin' on my workbench cuz it's all on it's way to the kiln. Finally! 

My second attempt at a self-draining soap dish works! Big thanks to Pres for supplying this suggestion:
Having a wall and a lip as two sort-of separate elements allowed me to cut a channel through the wall, but still have enough clay on the lip to pull and shape a spout. Now it allows the water to slide off, but not the soap!



 
 

My second attempt at a self-draining soap dish works! Big thanks to Pres for supplying this suggestion:
Having a wall and a lip as two sort-of separate elements allowed me to cut a channel through the wall, but still have enough clay on the lip to pull and shape a spout. Now it allows the water to slide off, but not the soap!



 
 

My second attempt at a self-draining soap dish works! Big thanks to Pres for supplying this suggestion:
Having a wall and a lip as two sort-of separate elements allowed me to cut a channel through the wall, but still have enough clay on the lip to pull and shape a spout. Now it allows the water to slide off, but not the soap!



 
 

My second attempt at a self-draining soap dish works! Big thanks to Pres for supplying this suggestion:
Having a wall and a lip as two sort-of separate elements allowed me to cut a channel through the wall, but still have enough clay on the lip to pull and shape a spout. Now it allows the water to slide off, but not the soap!



 
 

My second attempt at a self-draining soap dish works! Big thanks to Pres for supplying this suggestion:
Having a wall and a lip as two sort-of separate elements allowed me to cut a channel through the wall, but still have enough clay on the lip to pull and shape a spout. Now it allows the water to slide off, but not the soap!



 
 

My second attempt at a self-draining soap dish works! Big thanks to Pres for supplying this suggestion:
Having a wall and a lip as two sort-of separate elements allowed me to cut a channel through the wall, but still have enough clay on the lip to pull and shape a spout. Now it allows the water to slide off, but not the soap!



 
 

Here are the three pots I made, glazed using every glaze (^04 commercial) that I could find in my house/studio.  They are in alphabetic order until I ran out, then went searching for more.  
They are slab-built, around 200 mm/8 inches tall.  Biggest things I've made, and all three in one week.  All fired separately, couldn't get more than one in the kiln at a time.
Had some cookie catchers/saucers hanging around so glazed them and put them on the bottom shelf.
 

We're in stage 2 relaunch here in Alberta after some pretty harsh nationwide shutdowns. We're down to 220 active cases in the Calgary area, and we were a hotspot for a while there.  Things like restaurants, retail, aesthetic services, libraries and some museums and other things are open, but with capacity restrictions and rules about mask wearing, distancing and cleaning. Kids aren't going back to school until the fall, and daycares are only for essential service workers right now. There are supposed to be some summer camps and childcare available, but they'll probably fill up very quickly. We're still not supposed to engage in non-essential interprovincial travel like holidays, although we can travel for things like funerals.  The maximum gathering size does vary by province, but here they're 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors. Mask wear indoors is strongly recommended, and the government has been handing out free ones (the disposable surgical kind) at Tim Horton's drive through's because we're predictable that way. Compliance on the mask wearing thing seems to be 50-60% at a rough eyeball at the grocery store. Phase 2 just started last week, and they're watching for any increases before deciding when they're going to go to phase 3, which is all systems go. School systems are still trying to form official plans for the fall, but they won't be able to declare anything concrete until late August. The kids usually go back the first week after Labour Day.
My weekly farmers market starts up this weekend, and my first round is the weekend after. Even though the whole thing is outdoors in a very large area, they're still doing headcounts, and only letting a certain number of shoppers through at a time. All foot traffic is one way, and we all have to provide hand sanitizer or hand wash stations, even if we're not food vendors. Food vendors need to prepare samples in a commercial kitchen in advance, and have them in sealed cups. We have to restrict the number of people allowed in a booth and set up 6' markers so people can maintain distances.  All tables need plastic coverings so that they can be sanitized regularly, as well as any payment keypads. I plan on having bleach solution on hand to clean each piece in between people touching them, in addition to having sanitizer available for people to use before and after picking things up if they wish to do so.  My display will just be across the front of the tent to discourage people from crowding. I'll be wearing a fabric mask, as per provincial recommendations. We have to go through a check in every week to declare we haven't traveled or been sick, and are currently not experiencing any symptoms before we're allowed to set up. There's other rules for people from different households working together, but I'm usually by myself so I haven't checked those.

This is a personal project for my house. I recently switched to using bar soap and bar shampoo, in an effort to reduce my plastic bottle consumption. I was using a soap dish I had made years ago, but soon discovered that it was not well-suited for an environment as wet as a shower. I made myself a new soap dish that is designed to shed excess water onto the shower floor. This concept is not original to me, I've seen photos of other handmade pottery self-draining soap dishes. But mine is the first wheel-thrown version that I've seen.

I make a few hundred of these every year.They can be cut to any length . I made the die from aluminum-I shoot out a foot and a half  at a  time-about-6-8 of them let dry a tad cut them with my favorite two mud cutter tools -the large bow and then the smaller bow(mud tools). I fix some (banana shape a little) that way they drain and soap sludge either drain out hols or on hole less ones it stays in center. I designed the ridges to sit the soap high and dry just like your thrown rings.
I think an extruder is a great production tool if not overused-which many times it is. That being forms that are not very functional enough.
We hot dip the feet in a hot wax pan so these wax right up easy.
The black holes are hard to see in the bottom black soap shot.
A side view would show a slightly curved form in the narrow view.
We use the hole less ones ourselves as they keep the sink counter cleaner. 
I make them up to 5 inch and down to 3 inch in length I cit the feet at a angle -then they all need a super sponging job while in teen state. I use a 3/8 brass and wood handle hole cutter. These forms are super strong if dropped.The extruder compresses the clay .They fit under bowls or in small spots all over the kiln as stuffers.I can whip them out . I sell them for 10-12$ right now
I stack them in piles and customers paw through them (in normal times) now they are piled in the natural foods markets and are selling well now.
If you box them up in a box of say 50 they weigh a ton.-not as heavy as a banana box full of French butterdishes.I just moved a bunch of heavy pottery boxes so thats my crabby.
 
 

Mea, throw your old form with and inner wall up. Cut out the center of the inner wall to drain to the bottom lip, but still holding the soap.
 
 
best,
Pres

Welp, it turns out my self-draining soap dish doesn’t work. The bars of soap also slide off onto the floor! Back to the drawing board. 

Or even throwing it with a rim similar to the dish on the right, but maybe a bit higher? Closer to your own aesthetic.

Mea, have you tried increasing the height of the sides next to the spout? The hand-built ones I've seen have a much higher rim at the front that stops the soap from sliding out.
 
 
 
 

I have been working on a regular slab made butter dish. I made the mistake of making one as a request from a niece for Christmas last year. Others in the family saw it, and decided they needed one. So I instead of doing a one off, several times I came up with this set up.

I am using a thin piece of plastic between the form and the slab of clay, as it makes removal a breeze, and the plastic stretches into the corners of the form. I use rollers and stamps to decorate the slab pieces. The 2X4 is covered on one side with an extra layer of rubber backed felt to bring the form up to the correct width.
I recently had a custom stamp made of a design I created in Corel Draw that is uses my symbol/signature as a basis.
 I have still not fired any of these, but don't foresee any issues.
best,
Pres

This is a personal project for my house. I recently switched to using bar soap and bar shampoo, in an effort to reduce my plastic bottle consumption. I was using a soap dish I had made years ago, but soon discovered that it was not well-suited for an environment as wet as a shower. I made myself a new soap dish that is designed to shed excess water onto the shower floor. This concept is not original to me, I've seen photos of other handmade pottery self-draining soap dishes. But mine is the first wheel-thrown version that I've seen.

This is a personal project for my house. I recently switched to using bar soap and bar shampoo, in an effort to reduce my plastic bottle consumption. I was using a soap dish I had made years ago, but soon discovered that it was not well-suited for an environment as wet as a shower. I made myself a new soap dish that is designed to shed excess water onto the shower floor. This concept is not original to me, I've seen photos of other handmade pottery self-draining soap dishes. But mine is the first wheel-thrown version that I've seen.

This is a personal project for my house. I recently switched to using bar soap and bar shampoo, in an effort to reduce my plastic bottle consumption. I was using a soap dish I had made years ago, but soon discovered that it was not well-suited for an environment as wet as a shower. I made myself a new soap dish that is designed to shed excess water onto the shower floor. This concept is not original to me, I've seen photos of other handmade pottery self-draining soap dishes. But mine is the first wheel-thrown version that I've seen.

This is a personal project for my house. I recently switched to using bar soap and bar shampoo, in an effort to reduce my plastic bottle consumption. I was using a soap dish I had made years ago, but soon discovered that it was not well-suited for an environment as wet as a shower. I made myself a new soap dish that is designed to shed excess water onto the shower floor. This concept is not original to me, I've seen photos of other handmade pottery self-draining soap dishes. But mine is the first wheel-thrown version that I've seen.