Marcia Selsor

Holy cow mark, you never stop do you?
 
I spent this weekend building a work table / fume hood for my work with soluble salts and lustres.  Sulphur, and mercaptans (thiols) are part of synthesizing a lustre overglaze and these are some of the smelliest compounds on earth.  I did an open air run of some palladium mercaptan a few weeks ago and you could smell it from blocks away.  I decided instead of subjecting my neighborhood to a somewhat regular barrage of rotting smells that I'd go ahead and do it proper.  A 350 cu ft per minute fan pulled through an activated carbon filter rated to match.  It won't get rid of the smell entirely but will trap a lot of it.
At least that's the hope.  This combined with an acid gas face mask will hopefully keep me better protected from hydrogen sulfide and other byproducts that are unhealthy to breathe as well.
I know it's pretty janky as far as lab equipment is concerned but it actually works so I consider it a win!
 

Much like @Callie Beller Diesel, I have a full plate tonight.  In celebration of my youtube channel reaching 100 subscribers I decided it was a good idea to throw 100 bowls.  Now that they're all drying at a rapid rate, I'm having second thoughts on how great of an idea it was! Haha
 

I have been working with Coleman Porcelain to use in Obvara as well as sagger and soluble salts. This is not fired to maturity. Porousity is needed for the absorption in the lower temperature.I have been testing numerous ^6 porcelains to use in this process also. I have Linsay Porcelain ^6 from Archie Bray  Photo#1  and a ^6 Plainsman Translucent porcelain for actually firing to ^6. #2 was fired yesterday using soluble salts.I fire soluble salts from 1250F to 1700 depending on the colors I am trying to get.
 

My Botanist friend took a group on a nature hike  along Fox Creek and up a mountain. Most of the group had a good background in Botany. I was along for the wildlife observance and new material for patterns of leaves and plants. My old Faux celadon is at a good stage. I had made my friend a watercolor brush holder and glazed it with my old bucket of glaze which seemed to be at a perfect consistency. I carved that vase before my Obvara class in July. I am going to carve some mugs for NCECA and elsewhere.
Thanks for the compliment. I'm enjoying my time back in Montana. 
Best wishes to you Pres.
Marcia

I used to dig clay and add things to it to make it work-what a hassel for crappy clay. I also used to reclaim all my trimmings-what a hassel-I started in clay in last year of high school(1971) I was full time in 1976- after graduation -drying my scrap in large plaster forms and wedging it all then pugging it at facilities at collage for trade like class tours of studio .
I gave that all up in tyhe 80s and trew dred trimmings away-still do. I bought a second hand peter pugger in 2013 if I recall after hand/wrist surgery(PRC -3 bones removed)
I wish I had done that 35 year earlier-and I could have If i chose to.
I will add that making your own clay gives you insight to clays and the same is true making your own glazes. I like having atht background as a full timer when issues pop up yuou have the skills to guide you. Clay is cheap and making  it costs more time than its worth  money wise at least for me. Its a young mans fancy as its also a  back killer-I reall that part well.
With ceramics knowing as much as you can gives you a edge as the rest of your life you will add to it and never get it all-its about 3 lifetimes worth of stuff to learn 
 

Terrim8,
Gary Holt's work is awesome. Are you using a gas kiln? Skiing open around end of Nov. 
I am doing low temperatures on porous porcelain in a Raku kiln. Photos are from pots I was packing up for galleries and customers.
 
 

Liam
Getting behind on documentation is one of my worst bads! Seems like there is never enough time.
 
best,
Pres

Indeed!! Even at the most modest venture, those prices are nuts! Not to get too philosphical, but such under-valuation may call into question the integrity of clay art everywhere! Raise 'em up, Liam, raise 'em up! 

I brought in my herbs two days ago before the frost hit. My plants sit in my window. I can also see the ski runs on Red Lodge Mountain.
My cats and dogs come in and visit regularly. My studio is in a overside 2 car garage of the laundry room. It is very quiet here and I work in peace. I am posting a photo of a hanging pot drying to stein up and continue to form. It is a funny technique but I have saved some larger porcelain pots this way. It takes a few hours. I continue working on other pots while a clapping one regains it's strength!
marcia
 

Hi all, 
We received a suggestion that all Communiity Marketplace posts should include the location in the title of the post in addition to the item for sale.
Example:
Potters Wheel, Columbus, Ohio
I will add this to the guidelines and pin this reminder here.
Thanks
Jennifer

That strange as I was just going thru my 2011 tax papers to shred (8 years back) to make room for the new 2018 papers I'm working on now.
One was a letter from Warren about the bowl he sent me as a trade (I paid shipping cost)I put it with bowl today-same day I read this thread.I had not heard the news-small world.

Taxile Doat is one of my favorites too. He came from the Sevres Porcelain factory in Paris at the invitation of Adelaide Robineau who's the Editor of Keramos and founder of the Syracuse National which established the collection at the Everson Museum. Robineau and Doat worked together in St. Louis at the University in the teens (1900 teens).
 

I brought in my herbs two days ago before the frost hit. My plants sit in my window. I can also see the ski runs on Red Lodge Mountain.
My cats and dogs come in and visit regularly. My studio is in a overside 2 car garage of the laundry room. It is very quiet here and I work in peace. I am posting a photo of a hanging pot drying to stein up and continue to form. It is a funny technique but I have saved some larger porcelain pots this way. It takes a few hours. I continue working on other pots while a clapping one regains it's strength!
marcia
 

… reflections on 61+ years in this life, local Public Radio, KPIG (also radio), mp3 library - all through 6.1 surround sound, the local birds (when door is open), passing neighbors, an' good ol' Jack the Nanday conure.
 

I follow the rabbit holes as I go.  If something interests me further I pursue it until it doesn't interest me anymore.  So recently my pursuit of DIY lustres came with a lot of research.  I figured there had to be a cheaper option out there that I could make myself.  There is and there isn't, but I'm still on it and still making them, mainly because I like the way the bright oil-like sheen looks on my pots.  It's subtle so I doubt anyone would really notice until I pointed it out, but they're cool!
Anyway, I don't mix my own clay for several reasons, the main one being there's very little cost savings and I have local access to beautiful pugged clays for dirt cheap.  I do mix my own glazes and make my own tools, but that's out of cost savings and control and not about returning to the roots or honoring my ancestors or whatnot.  
I like this hobby because you CAN go down these rabbit holes and come out understanding just a weeeee bit more about the different processes and how they interact.  But it's also awesome because everything is now set up to where you don't even NEED to know anything so just about anyone can hop on into the hobby with just a few hours of reading.
 

Denice, I also recycle my clay. First because I live in the city, and would not know or want to dump clay anywhere. Second because I believe it is a resource, and try to use it.  Happy to know someone out there has the patience for coil pottery, and uses colored clays to enhance it.
 
best,
Pres

working on a new batch of pots for soluble salts. will be writing 2 articles about discoveries in PMI and Revisita Ceramica International. Workshop schedule filling up for 2020. 
 
Marcia

working on a new batch of pots for soluble salts. will be writing 2 articles about discoveries in PMI and Revisita Ceramica International. Workshop schedule filling up for 2020. 
 
Marcia

working on a new batch of pots for soluble salts. will be writing 2 articles about discoveries in PMI and Revisita Ceramica International. Workshop schedule filling up for 2020. 
 
Marcia

working on a new batch of pots for soluble salts. will be writing 2 articles about discoveries in PMI and Revisita Ceramica International. Workshop schedule filling up for 2020. 
 
Marcia

working on a new batch of pots for soluble salts. will be writing 2 articles about discoveries in PMI and Revisita Ceramica International. Workshop schedule filling up for 2020. 
 
Marcia

working on a new batch of pots for soluble salts. will be writing 2 articles about discoveries in PMI and Revisita Ceramica International. Workshop schedule filling up for 2020. 
 
Marcia

working on a new batch of pots for soluble salts. will be writing 2 articles about discoveries in PMI and Revisita Ceramica International. Workshop schedule filling up for 2020. 
 
Marcia

working on a new batch of pots for soluble salts. will be writing 2 articles about discoveries in PMI and Revisita Ceramica International. Workshop schedule filling up for 2020. 
 
Marcia

Nice piece