oldlady

babs, the channels are lined with a very hard brick and pins will not go into them.

two things. contact bailey and talk to their expert on the actual machine you are thinking about buying. it is in their interest to fully inform you so you can make a correct decision. talk on the phone. they welcome that interaction second, do you have a Harbor Freight store near you? they sell presses that have been adapted by handy persons to do tile pressing. costs under $200.

lee, maybe the people who send you emails want to know that you are working now. they could have run into what i have, a website that has no current dates so you do not know if it is current or if the owner has died or moved or whatever. i don't have a website and with my lack of computer skills i do not know how hard it is to put a current date online. i really hate the websites that do not stay current. i run into things like "visit our show on saturday for new spring items. we will be at the park from 10 til 5, see you there". and it is halloween week, no city is visible, no park name, a complete mystery to the potential customer.

remembering all the ads on the back cover of ceramics monthly magazine, i recall Skutt kilns talking about a tile company that turned around new tiles in a day. why not contact skutt? or if your kiln is not home made, its manufacturer?

if your glaze contains zinc, it will affect the color.

is this something new? have you changed brands of underglaze? are you using underglaze to get a special color or could you use slip made from the claybody and some coloring stain or carbonate?

drywall is my favorite drying base. and yes, compression - whatever you think it does. throwing without lots of water. evenness of throwing. when making a plate, have you ever sliced upwards from the wheelhead with a wire to see what is happening to the clay?

hulk, may i suggest a simple replacement for the cutting wire?? i have always hated the ones with wooden toggle handles because they are too long and i have never gotten one out of its package without crimping it. years ago i got some leader wires from walmart's fishing gear section. i think at that time there were 6 of various sizes for about $1. they have ends that fit on a key ring. one without keys, of course. the round rings are sold lots of places, walmart wants too much for the ones in the automotive section. hardware stores are better value. i can use the longer ones but find i really like the 9 inch size and the 12 inch one is perfect for slicing slabs from a new bag of clay. AND THEY DO NOT TANGLE UP!

lottie, you have given the hottest temperature these clays can be fired to. what do you plan for the bisque firing?

do you use a lot of water when you make the teapots? do you dry it out of the bottom before it dries? just wondering if that might cause a problem later.

both big "tools" in my studio are actually work stations. the slab roller is mounted on a heavy solid cord wooden door on top of a table built for the purpose. i hang many tools off the front of it in a line. i have marked the location of those tools with a sharpie dot so i can reach down without looking and get the tool i want. i return it immediately to the same place so i am free to use the slab roller as an assembly table. the wheel is surrounded by a table and has tools hanging from nails on left and right. these also are returned to their proper location after use so i can get that tool again without searching through a pile of discarded, dirty tools all over the table top. the rest of my studio might have piles of assorted things all over but those work areas are kept very clean. those piles contain very important items i might use. (in other words, my hoard.) two small boxes screwed to the slab roller are for the tiny crumbs that would otherwise stick to the bottom of the fabulously beautiful, extremely expensive things i make. (HAH!) those crumbs are otherwise a darn nuisance. i have an album that shows all this.

liam, i use a bowl much like yours but with a handle much like callie's. it is my second favorite bowl and is chosen often. maybe a handle would help bowl sales?

if you do not have much clay to work with, you may have bought only one or two boxes, it is important to keep track of the clay you want to reuse and do what hulk suggests. if you have a little more, 3 or 4 boxes, you might decide to let the scraps dry out totally and when you have enough, just wet them all at once in a bucket. if you leave that overnight, you might be able to wedge up the entire bucketful the next day and start over again. slaking dry clay is the easiest way i have found to reclaim clay. dry clay does not smell or get green fuzzy stuff growing in it. the easiest way to get scraps dry is to flatten them. smashing the big scraps is very tension relieving.

when you slice a piece of clay off a new block, slap it soundly on the floor and stretch it out . flip it and do it again from the opposite end, stretching it even more. the slapping motion also compresses the clay and makes it more thixotropic. your rolling pin will like working on stretched, compressed clay. when rolling, always start from the center of the piece of clay. roll away for the first time and then from the center toward your tummy. twirl the flat slab around a quarter turn and do it again. as you work, try to continue that pattern every time you use a fresh piece of clay. it is much easier to control the clay this way than shoving the rolling pin into a mass of clay that wants to fight back.

thank you, neil, when i panicked years ago, i talked to the L&L tech who lives in Bend, Oregon. he talked me through several situations and i think he might have done that setting so i did not see an error code again. so, all is well until something actually fails and there is no warning except firings slowing down excessively.