JohnnyK

In the summer I don't spend as much time in the studio as I would like, so I put a very damp tea towel or other towel-rag in my clay bags to keep the clay from drying out. Here's where the mold forms. This time around some of the blue dye in the towel leach out to combine with the mold and left some interesting striations in my extrusions...

Surprisingly, no mold. Even after all these years...

How about a large plastic storage tub with lid made into a Damp Box? Mix enough potters plaster to make about a 2" layer in the bottom and after it sets hard, add a cup of water to the tub. (I add about a cup of water every 4 to 6 months and as long as I keep the lid closed, that's all it seems to need to keep things moist.) I checked mine today and I have a pair of bowls that I threw in 2013 and they are on the damp side of leather hard...too soft to trim. I want to see how long I can keep them there before they start to fall apart. Place the box on a dolly from Harbor Freight and it can be rolled anywhere!

I tend to agree with LT in this case that the effect is more due to washing the lines, probably after they are somewhat dry to get the watercolor effect of the underglaze bleeding...

Judging by everything else you'll be getting as part of the deal, and the fact that you plan on firing regularly to ^6, You'd be better off selling the kiln as a low-fire unit and buying a higher rated kiln. I did just that...selling my B-23-H as a low-fire/bisque kiln and getting a used ^10 kiln for my ^6 firings...

There are so many things I could answer with here but, like Denice, I'm focusing on glazing. While I've taken college level Cer 1& 2, I learned more about glazing in the Raku class, having to mix my own glazes as part of the syllabus. In the other classes we were directed towards the 20 gallon buckets of glaze and their samples and were told to knock ourselves out…

All of the above!

I learned the basics of throwing in a 6 week Learning Exchange class almost 10 years ago. Then I took a couple of junior college classes, Ceramics 1 where I learned more of the overall basics as well as the art aspect of plying the clay. In Ceramics 2, the prof told us to develop the ideas for 3 projects that we would like to complete, make a poster board for each which was put on display during the semester. Then he faded into the background and told us he would be there if we needed any help with our projects, which he was. I didn't have much interaction with him during the semester since I had a pretty good handle on what I was doing. As time went on, I collected a small library of tomes on the myriad aspects of clay and glazing and have also spent time watching youtube videos as well as the Clayflicks option of my ICAN membership. The last college class was a Raku class which was a more involved and refined during which I learned a lot and which prompted me to build and use my own Raku kiln. At this point I would say that about half of my clay input has been with people while the other half and much of the future would fall in the "other" category. However I really enjoyed the interaction with the other students in the college classes because, while not being the class instructor but also having about 50 more years in the School of Hard Knocks, I was able to impart a lot of my life experiences and skills to both the class professor as well as the students. Most of my life I have made an effort to either learn something new or teach someone else each day.

Thanks for the update, Liam. I didn't realize that Pres moved it or to where...

When I took a JC Raku class, I was required to sculpt a modernized version of a Xian Warrior. The requirement was that we use an existing warrior and modify it to reflect how we see ourselves and our current life situation in clay. I chose to show myself as a farmer since I do have a "hobby" farm. (No, I don't grow hobbies...). My question is: How do you see yourself in clay? Here's what I came up with:

I got tired of fishing around in a plastic bag full of holders, so I made a simple Holder holder to hold my holders.