JohnnyK

Hi Naomi and welcome to the forum!
There are quite a few variables that will come into play here. We don't know what is in the clear gloss glaze nor how fluid it is. Does the manganese wash just contain manganese or are there other materials in it? Which oxides would be applied under/over it? Just like with glaze testing it would be best to do some test tiles and see what interactions occur. 

I used Amaco Potter's Choice Indigo Float a few years back and found it very easy to use. It really works well with texture too.
 

I think it would depend on how much contamination there is. If you’re throwing a few hundred grams of contaminated clay in a 5 gallon bucket of reclaim, it’s probably fine. If you’ve been separating it all out, I’d use it for those jobs where you need a throwaway: cone packs, plaster moulds, maybe glaze cookies.

I've occasionally come across the suggestion to coat the inside of an extruder with WD-40 before filling with clay. I tried it once and, after squirting the hollow form, the clay that's left in the extruder is contaminated with the WD-40. Is this leftover clay salvageable? How do you eliminate the WD-40 that's left on the clay? 
Not knowing the answers, I've gone to putting the clay in thin plastic bags that I get from the produce dept of my local grocery store. At least with the bags, I can salvage most of the leftovers to reuse, and the extruder tube stays fairly clean with little residual clay left in it...

I'd say "Thanks" and suggest that you give it to someone who would really need it! I do, however, like the inspiring thought and it prompts me to build an expansion box for my homemade extruder...

Acrylic paint keeps its color well over time. India ink is “traditional”. Shoe polish is intended for very smooth surfaces and might not polish up to be “sealed” on ceramic, even porcelain. 

Thanks for the input, Neil...I'm guessing that you're talking about ^10 clay which I do have in stock. I'd just be firing them to ^6 to stiffen them up. The ones I made are setup for 4 wires, I just didn't want to overload them on this first go around. The first failure was due to their being just bisque fired before I ran the jewelry glaze firing...

After my first failed attempt at building my own stands for firing jewelry, I've succeeded in fabricating new stands which held up to ^6 firing! The first time around, I made the stands with ^5 B-Mix and bisque fired them to ^04. They seemed solid enough, but when I fired the assembled stands, the weight of the jewelry caused the stands to sag, which, in turn, caused most of the jewelry pieces to run together and touch its neighbor. The melting glaze joined the pieces permanently. In the cases where the pieces were not co-joined, they were stuck to the stainless steel wire I used to string them because I drilled the mounting holes just big enough for the wire to fit AND I didn't clean the holes of glaze, thus fusing the pieces to the wire.
This time around, I added a strut to the B-Mix w/grog ^5 stands and fired them to ^6. I drilled the jewelry holes bigger and cleaned the holes of glaze. The stands held up to the firing and I had only 2 pieces stick to the wire but was able to break them loose without breaking the pieces. The photos show the first failed attempt, the second successful attempt, the layout of the stands, the assembled stands, and a selection of copper-toned pieces that I thought came out looking pretty darned good! (The penny is to show proportion.) In a number of the pieces, I was going for a raw, organic look with the rough edges which I think will look great as part of a necklace.

While I have a sizeable collection of books and magazines, I prefer the visual impact of videos. I find it easier to absorb techniques that have an active visual presentation, rather than the static descriptions found in print media. Watching a video on how to make a pull is definitely more descriptive than a series of photos...

When I was taking my original Ceramics 1 college class, the students were always breaking bone dry pieces. One of the methods used for reattaching the broken pieces was to make a slip using the same clay and mixing it with white vinegar. Then we would score the attachment areas, paint them with straight vinegar, paint them with slip and stick 'em back together. It worked most of the time.     I hope that is a ^10 clay that you are using and not a red earthenware clay...

I had a box with about 25 mugs and bowls in it that was sticking out beyond the edge of the shelf it was stored on and while moving things around in the studio, I accidentally hit the box hard enough to knock it and its contents to the floor, destroying every piece...On the upside, my wife got o whole bunch of pottery pieces to put in the bottoms of her planting pots.

In my case, I invested in an external digital controller for my old Cress kiln and removed the kiln-sitter entirely, plugged its hole and fabricated and installed a cover plate to close off the opening.

I had a box with about 25 mugs and bowls in it that was sticking out beyond the edge of the shelf it was stored on and while moving things around in the studio, I accidentally hit the box hard enough to knock it and its contents to the floor, destroying every piece...On the upside, my wife got o whole bunch of pottery pieces to put in the bottoms of her planting pots.

I had a box with about 25 mugs and bowls in it that was sticking out beyond the edge of the shelf it was stored on and while moving things around in the studio, I accidentally hit the box hard enough to knock it and its contents to the floor, destroying every piece...On the upside, my wife got o whole bunch of pottery pieces to put in the bottoms of her planting pots.

I had a box with about 25 mugs and bowls in it that was sticking out beyond the edge of the shelf it was stored on and while moving things around in the studio, I accidentally hit the box hard enough to knock it and its contents to the floor, destroying every piece...On the upside, my wife got o whole bunch of pottery pieces to put in the bottoms of her planting pots.

I had a box with about 25 mugs and bowls in it that was sticking out beyond the edge of the shelf it was stored on and while moving things around in the studio, I accidentally hit the box hard enough to knock it and its contents to the floor, destroying every piece...On the upside, my wife got o whole bunch of pottery pieces to put in the bottoms of her planting pots.

IMO bone dry would be preferable. However, if you're looking to see what kind of effects you can get when your pieces explode due to the moisture content in you leather hard pots, go right ahead and load the leather hard stuff in the kiln. 

IMO bone dry would be preferable. However, if you're looking to see what kind of effects you can get when your pieces explode due to the moisture content in you leather hard pots, go right ahead and load the leather hard stuff in the kiln. 

Nice mugs...The "unexpected" luster looks like what I get with Potters Choice "Ancient Copper" glaze and is very reproducible...

For me it is the bottom of a plastic trash bucket that I cut and modified as a splash pan for my CI wheel, which was literally a "barn find" that I got from a friend. Another is the top of a plastic trash bucket that I use as a trimming shield for my Giffen Grip...another is an old ceiling fan that I turned into a banding wheel...

Nice mugs...The "unexpected" luster looks like what I get with Potters Choice "Ancient Copper" glaze and is very reproducible...

Nice mugs...The "unexpected" luster looks like what I get with Potters Choice "Ancient Copper" glaze and is very reproducible...

For me it is the bottom of a plastic trash bucket that I cut and modified as a splash pan for my CI wheel, which was literally a "barn find" that I got from a friend. Another is the top of a plastic trash bucket that I use as a trimming shield for my Giffen Grip...another is an old ceiling fan that I turned into a banding wheel...

One is a Brad Shweiger. got lucky at NCECA cup sale. The other is unexpected luster in my own  kiln.
 

That depends...This time of the year, getting into the studio is difficult. Since Spring has sprung and everything is growing on our1.5 acre property with multiple lawns and a lot of trees, landscape maintenance is a given and I am the one who does most of that. Then there is also the farm. While the fruit trees and vegetable patch occupy about 1/4 acre, the rest of the 3/4 acre is open field, and with the abundance of rain we've had this winter and spring, it seems like keeping the wild grasses down is a forever task. So, with all that going on, if I say I'm going into the studio, I get a look that says "Seriously...with all the yardwork that has to be done?" However, regardless of "the look", I go anyway just to get the feel of the clay in my hands instead of the dirt from pulling weeds. Then there are the times when, going through a magazine, she comes across something that she likes made by another artist and excitedly suggests that I might make something similar. So, I would say she runs hot or cold...