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oldlady

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Everything posted by oldlady

  1. i have not read this entire post but would like the original poster to consider spraying glaze to avoid disturbing the underglaze. a very simple siphon sprayer costs about $30 and is branded EZsprayer. it is very fast and a kiln load, big kiln, can be done in an hour or so depending on how many colors you use. just a thought.
  2. nice, lee. i agree with bam. the softer edges of your work seem to make them more accessable to the general public. smooth a few more of those sharp corners so they do not look as though they broke by accident. denice is right, it is still too cold. my studio is heated by an oil boiler and 2 radiators, 1 is five feet long. i turned the heat up from the usual 40 today and plan to do so tomorrow as well. i have a choice of heating the house to 68 and turning it down at night to 61. tomorrow the studio will go to 68 and the house can stay at 61. with oil over $5 a gallon, i am frugal. today i made another pattern block using flowers from a succulent that grows inside the very front of the house with eastern sun. it is just starting the blooming season with coral colored bell shapes dangling above a huge plant. the final result will be a piece pressed into the pattern block so the flowers are in relief when a new piece of clay is formed into a butter dish, a small bowl or plate, soap dish, candy dish or whatever size tray i want. look at christie knox's fabulous work. last year the favorite pattern was actually 3 or 4 different flowers, snowdrops, hellebore at 3 different stages, dogwood and honeysuckle, my personal favorite. these pieces sell very easily and are not so expensive that everybody can afford something nice to look at and use every day. pretty is important enough to let their wallets hang open matching the smile as they buy. good luck with this change! the one partially shown on the left center looks like you could use it as a great pattern block just as it is. fire to bisque, roll clay into it but put some foam rubber under the whole thing before you roll it!
  3. during the 1990s, i made some bluebird hanging ornaments for a fair. they were cut with a cookie cutter and the bottom half was done with only red Velvet underglaze. the top half was dipped into a blue glaze. i still have one or two of them and there has been no change in them. they do get dirty and i can wash them but still no color change.
  4. i try to save money on simple things so i can buy something else. i use hot wax that i get free from thrift shops who get bent, partly burned, or dirty candles that they would normally throw away. i supply a box about 12x12 inches and ask them to drop those off into the box. i check back and find when the box is filled and pick it up, dropping a dollar or two into their cash drawer. all candles work well, my favorites are red or any other dark color so when they melt, i can see them on the clay more easily than the clear i get with purchased wax. the last box i got about 2 years ago is still half full. there is one kind of candle to avoid totally! anything with "snow" or sparkles of any kind should not be melted, there is something in them that is bad. i do not know why, i only know the results were so bad the work met mr hammer.
  5. if you are thinking of firing that paint, it won't work. if you finish firing to the final temp and have left some areas free of glaze so you can add some zing that would work. a potter who did that was featured on the cover of ceramics monthly years ago and caused quite a stir. i may remember his name later.
  6. matthew, wherever you live there is a health department concerned with well water. check both the town/city and county to ask for help in figuring this out. you can be just a dumb as possible and they will help you through whatever they offer. if they recommend testing, they know who does it. if you bought a house you should know all about everything and they are there to help. go see them.
  7. thanks for the actual number, madeleine. i watch my firings so i can close the lid totally after quartz inversion. the lid is left resting on top of a 1/2 inch block of firebrick until it reaches 1200 degrees or stops steaming. now i can remove that block at 1100 degrees. (still checking the steam!)
  8. what if you simply remove the broken piece with the proper tool to round it off. dremel comes to mind. glue will not last through a firing.
  9. beautiful, sorry hyn, some people without a sense of humor have to be humored by editing my comment.
  10. thanks, all of you. i have known about her work for many years and look forward to watching this movie when i get the sound fixed on my computer.
  11. you might want to contact Marcia Selsor about the way she handles the large slabs she uses in raku. not that you want to do raku, but the way she prepares the slab when she does the horses that are a part of her work. look at her website and here in albums to see the results.
  12. thanks, clayshaper! it is easier to teach new people that they are learning a skill and are not going to make a perfect product for many months. instead, they are practicing just the way ice skaters do. nobody puts on a pair of skates and begins throwing someone smaller around assuming will land on their feet and not break any bones. looks easy on tv but would they want to be the thrown person? no.
  13. thank you, madeleine, your picture of the printer's blanket is just what i have wanted to do for years. posting pictures is so complicated now, that i have not even tried. windows 7 was easy. i am now up to windows 11 and i do not even want to try. rae, if you just call any large printer and ask them if they use printer's blankets they will tell you. some smaller blankets are used by smaller companies so ask if they do city size newspapers. all the blankets i have used came from big city newspaper printers and were the size of an open newspaper. i am sure that los angeles has at least one big newspaper. ask them the name of their printer. i cut them so they will fit on my 24 inch bailey slab roller so i usually get a top and a bottom out of one 48inch wide blanket. the printer uses the blue side and sometimes it is not totally clean. ask what they use to remove the ink. i think i remember fingernail polish remover working. hulk, can you identify the shelf "paper" you use? around here people call the brand called "Conctact" which is actually plastic, not paper, "shelf paper". i am sure mentioning a brand name here is not forbidden.
  14. it is true, henry, that the appeal can wear off once a person starts actually working on something that has so many steps that cause serious frustration when something fails. your oven, even on 'self clean' is nowhere near the amount of heat needed to go from clay to ceramic. i have introduced 2 people to making items to be used. one decided she was not in love with making and should be spending money on acquiring beautiful pieces made by others. the second realized that she hated handling wet clay and washed her hands several times before she left. " looks like fun, but i hate the ooze." trying out something before commitment is a sensible way to go. find someone whose work you admire and ask for a private session to see if it is worth pursuing. you do not "do pottery" you become a potter. air dry clay is not clay and will never become ceramic or useful except to look at.
  15. is it time to ask for a welfare check to see if he is really OK? with no contact in such a long time it seems worth it to know he is in good health.
  16. the outside of a mug is not a food contact area but the lip is. the lip needs glaze. once that is taken care of, wiping off the disc so it has glaze only in the texture should do it.
  17. my personal choice is a Pacifica, bought in late 1970s with only the belts replaced from wear. i do not count the damage from lightning that required something done with the foot pedal. i do not use a splash pan and built the table workspace around the wheel. see my album. i dislike brent wheels because of their noise. really awful in a setting where several are being used at once. did use bailey during an NCECA event in Tampa and liked it's solid construction. the bailey wins in that two wheel race.
  18. dick, reading all this tells me that pacer is probably in financial trouble. maybe a bankruptcy is in the offing. the signature on that letter min shared is a lawyer. not good.
  19. Chris Campbell, one of our members has been inactive here for some time. she makes all kinds of colors from pale yellow and pink to darker colors. check her albums for some examples of her fabulous work with shading and blending. computer illiterate here, maybe you can see her previous posts. look under chris campbell pottery for several articles and photos of her work.
  20. Highwater makes a wonderful white clay that is very easy to throw and trim and makes great slabwork that does not tear. it is a cone 6 white stoneware with no grog called Little Loafers. their cone 10 white stoneware is Loafer's Glory. have been using it for at least 10-12 years with no problems. check out my albums. disclaimer i throw very dry, smash my slabs on the floor at least 4 times, stretching the about one inch thick slices to about 3/8 inch thick before rolling with a 24 inch wide bailey slab roller. i roll it out to less than 1/4 inches, it is very strong and quick to dry i use a glaze recipe from Min that is transparent and easily stained to the color i want. thank you Min! that glaze is perfect for the newer work i am doing.
  21. after more than 20 years i have finally tossed a very few of the duron bats made in the 1990s. never wired off a piece on duron bats. using a 4x8 sheet gave me tons of 5x5 bats to fit inside one that is about a 12 inch circle.
  22. martinja, do you have only a few members or are there people tracking floor dust all over all day? keeping good cleaning working habits are the safest way to avoid dust. add some containers to all areas and tables so small bits can be tossed into them instead of being brushed onto the floor by sleeves or other items. put up signs and teach any new person exactly what you expect from users. clay is easer to clean if it isn't there.
  23. pye, min gave me a perfect glaze recipe for the one clay i use. as a clear it is totally clear, no bubbles. thank you min!!! because i am making work that relies on color on heavy relief, i use that clear recipe and add various mason stain colorants to the glaze recipe. i want to see transparant color in the deeper areas of the relief and on the parts above. i will have some photos soon that i think i can post here so you can see what i mean. the percent of color is usually under 4. cobalt is so strong it is 1%. i have a perfect very white liner glaze that i have used for many years. i can send you one bowl that has been in daily use since 2000 . the recipe was from a book written by a ceramic engineer in 1972 and there has not been an update with warnings since. so i think it is safe to continue using it. i trust the experts but keep my eye open when i use a piece to see if it holds up under normal use. there is no excuse for selling something dangerous but the likelyhood of that happening is so remote when the source recipe and the stains in use are well researched by the developer of the glaze. i have never seen a headline about DANGEROUS POTTERY! AVOID BUYING ! since the announcements about lead in glaze 40 or 50 years ago. (i bet you can't find lead to use in glaze unless you leave the usa.) i think you are going just a little overboard in worrying about this. no, i do not have a list of dangerous (???) additions to a base recipe. i don't think many potters do.
  24. i have given this recipe to members of this forum. there is a very easy to use red clay made of only 2 ingredients so everyone was positive it was not good. someone did the chemistry and discovered it has all it needs. it is really very plastic, no grog, strong stoneware, pretty red. try it 50 pounds redart, 50 pounds XX saggar. water. makes a lot of great clay. i no longer use colored clay, just white.
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