oldlady

franny, do you have any photos of what you are trying to achieve? sorry, i am one of the chemical idiots and do not plan to embrace it. if there is a potter out there whose work you admire, a photo or website would be helpful. yes, the chemists among the membership know a huge amount about combining things to get a particular result. someone will know what you need to do.

tina, do not buy the Keraplast. it is not a clay you can fire to make it into pottery. it is just for making pretty things to sit around and be looked at. it will never hold water so cannot be used that way. it is extremely expensive, too. you are correct, peter h and hulk are awesome. they are able to research on their computers to find just about anything. please check the white studio, hulk lists, i do not know where it is or if it is close to you. peter's map shows many town names, where is the nearest one to where you live? i congratulate you also on your skills with the english language. to search so hard for something you do not truly understand and have to do it in a second language is impressive.

oh! that is very bad stuff, i do not want to call it clay. seeing it makes me feel like i should send you some good clay but i cannot afford the shipping costs. is there any other country that you can buy clay from? there is no future in trying to work with whatever that stuff is. you just must find a clay source that has real clay. does your country have an art program in a university? if so, maybe you can find their supplier and buy from them. wish you good luck finding clay.

danielle, welcome to the forum. we have several kiln experts here but they will need a lot more info to help you. can you post photos of everything about your kiln to help identify it? if there is writing at all on the exterior case, take a photo. look in all the places the info may be, along the sides of the box on the front where the knobs are. is it an old square one or is it many sided? photos of the exterior and some of the interior, size of the interior, photos of the elements themselves. is it loaded from the top or from the side? where did you get it and are you a new owner? someone can help you if you give all this info.

thanks, min! as always, you are so helpful to everyone. will look it up. thanks, again. and you work on NEWSPAPER! i live so far out that the washington post has to be special ordered. that is OK, if i actually got it daily, i would read it all day long.

not a sculptor but i wonder if it is possible to suspend the piece upside down somehow? electramom, the stilts shown are usually used for low fire earthenware clay. stoneware or porcelain would likely melt over them at the high temps used to reach maturity of those clays.

pres, good question but there are a number of new potters here lately. it might be good to let them know that each member has a gallery where photos from that potter are stored as "albums". i have no cell phone but am aware that some members use them instead of laptops or other things. do cell phones show the entire page the way it is seen on my laptop?

tina, could you please identify your location for us? i do not think you are in the United States but in the country of Georgia. that makes a very important difference so we do not give you information you cannot use. from experience, i learned that trying to wet clay that is already partly wet does not work. drying out the clay in thin slices works very well. once the clay is totally dry, the water you add will immediately be sucked up and the clay will soften. if the clay is not totally dry it will not work. left overnight, the clay you have wet will be usable the next day. i do this in a bucket and collect dry bits as i work each day. when i want to use it, i add the water to just above the dry clay and let it soak in overnight. if you know of people who use this clay, talk directly to them to ask what they do.

WOW! using half blocks for your posts is a great idea, no possibility of catching fire. the roof looks very steep but i see that you are in utah so your climate is totally different from mine. where did you get the decorative wire arched vine supports? how do you plan to use them? excellent work!

kaitlyn, reread your original post. i remember searching all over the city to find a suitable apartment when i worked in manhattan. there were places offered that clearly were illegal. that was in 1985 and i know it only got worse with fewer rentals available. recently, there was a storm that sent floodwaters into some of those buildings killing people without egress from those apartments. i am hoping you are not living in such a dangerous situation.

min, that 3 point lift gadget looks perfect! do you have a brand name or source for purchase? and your squishy bucket idea is terrific, too.

hi, welcome to the forum. we have all kinds of members, hypochondriacs and others. if you are reasonable about using common sense and stop doing things you know are wrong, there is no reason you cannot share your living quarters with a studio. several questions, the dust you need to worry about is airborne silica and perhaps some glaze chemicals. do you make your own glazes inside your studio or do you use stuff in a bottle from the supplier? do you have a door separating the two parts of your home? if not, a very thick plastic shower curtain can keep the excess heat and many fumes out if you can find a way to hang it. higher is better. if you make a large amount of dust, when does it happen? a mugfull is large. stilt marks indicate earthenware, is that what you use? do you have a kiln in that area? how often do you fire if you do? in my can be disregarded opinion, you are worrying too much. sanding stilt marks is not going to kill you unless you are doing it all day long without a break for about 30 years. a dose of reality would be a good step for you to take. whatever source of knowledge about ceramic making you now use, try some of the excellent books by an expert in the field of health issues caused by this kind of activity. i have not thought of her in years so my memory banks are not being searched well at this time. someone else will know it and post the answer if i do not wake up at 3am with her name on my lips. MONONA ROSSOL!! good old brain.!

why are you including the MDF inside the wrapping? i usually see people wrapping only the pots in plastic. that way it doesn't matter what kind of board you put it on.

i would continue to ask the original shop BY TELEPHONE! get to a technical person or whoever fires the kiln. only that person can tell you what may be different about your firings in the past. perhaps your kiln is different in some way. what do you mean by standard speed? have you tested the heatwork with cones?

phil never said a word about being ill. wash st is just around the corner from my house. a lot closer as the crow flies. he started the round table discussions as soon as they opened. he showed examples of awful results of glaze firing and i contributed one of my spectacularly bad ones. it got added to the box to show the next group. he told me that not having a chemistry based education meant i was walking on a razor blade and would fall off sometime. the next time he saw me he said he liked my work. the memorial was stuffed with people who knew him. when bill van gilder walked in, he was covered in clay. we all agreed it was a tribute to phil that he would appreciate. lovely man, always generous with his time and advice.

i can't remember, both were in the 1970s. i had a $69 spinning tiger wheel and i had a paragon 88 kiln before i moved into the first home i owned, a condominium apartment. i remember getting the thick wire run into the bedroom that became my studio there. i think i replaced the little wheel with a pacifica when i bought the apt. my mother in law decided to give me the down payment but i had already saved it up so i got the wheel then. still using it. don't cry at the price, about $250 for each at the time. including shelves and posts for the kiln.

johnny, i have been doing this for years. i just use some WD-40 inside the bowl and spread it around, all over with a foam brush. get it in and out of the texture. once it is inside the mold it will only affect the clay that you press down into it. no mess. smell is not awful. cannot see enough detail about the bottom. use a circle of cardboard where you want the bottom to be flat.

to see the color of the piece you have, wet part of it and look fast. it will dry back to what you see now but in that brief time it is wet, you can see what it would be with a clear glaze on it. not that you plan to use one on that piece, just giving you more info than you have right now.

have you ever tested the clay to find out how hot to fire it? is the pot you tried to cover with this slip made of a different clay? there are lots of things that need to be just right in order to use a found clay.

i never realized my whammer dammer would be so hard to find as a finished product. the very elegant looking fancy ones look very pretty. i just want to smack the clay into place so i did it myself. if anyone in another country wants one, try a business that sells wood for building houses. i know we call that wood "lumber" while in the UK it is called "timber" so i am only calling it wood. a hardwood that has little grain would work for that very smooth surface. if you find a business selling wood, ask for a piece about a cube shape about 10 mm and 72mm long so you can use most of it for the large part and have a handle left at one end. the dealer may be able to shape it for you or suggest one of his customers who can do it. it cannot possibly cost more than shipping and might be ready very quickly.

to anyone seeing a kiln like the photo in the original post, that is a really good kiln for a first one. notice how little firing has been done in it. look at the shiny metal above the peepholes. nobody fired that thing to 2300 degrees as it says on the label. if they had, there would be smoky burn marks at the top of the peepholes. the very clean top bricks show minimal heating. the floor is pristine, nobody ran glazes all over it. the elements may be original to the date of purchase. i would bet it was used by someone whose hobby was painting bisqued ware from a " ceramics shop" that today we would call a "paint your own pottery". that would mean it was only used to cone 06, about 1800 degrees F if i remember it right. the sitter is not as clean as it could be, a damp rag would remove that white stuff. the tiny bits of surface rust i see here and there are nothing to worry about. yes, it is not in sections for easy moving but it is only 18 inches deep and not that heavy. it is not so wide that going through a normal door will be a problem. it gave good service to someone back in the 1970s and would continue to give good service today with the proper electrical connections. it would be a definite buy for me.

take it apart. you might not have left it with protection from drying out in the hopper and the final nozzle. that end can just dry up and prevent anything from exiting. your clay in the center of the machine might just be spinning around, unable to move foreward.

CATHERINE, GOOD NEWS! i just found a youtube video about pitfiring. there are several men doing it and one is andy ward ancient pottery. several others. they all show how to process raw clay. have fun!

strange question so i will ask, what are you hoping to accomplish? are you trying to change the color of the clay to white so colors appear more vibrant? a description of your purpose might give you more info than your original question.

welcome to the forum. how will you get them hot enough to change from clay to pottery? this is a really difficult thing to do, lots of research and testing is involved. i do not know anyone who has done this beyond the great american indians who have made wonderful things for centuries. maybe you can find a video of one of the most famous, Maria Martinez and her son. we do have a member in the southeast US who does something similar, perhaps she will reply. you might look at your local library for books discussing making pottery so you have the vocabulary to discuss the processes involved.