rox54

I miss my 96# German Shepherd. We had to let him go at 13, but it was a wonderful life! I still have my kitty, Zorro, who loves the studio! He is wonderful to have around and  has never ruined anything, which I can't even say for myself! 
 

It wouldn't let me load 2 photos, but I had to share my handsome boy ! 

I miss my 96# German Shepherd. We had to let him go at 13, but it was a wonderful life! I still have my kitty, Zorro, who loves the studio! He is wonderful to have around and  has never ruined anything, which I can't even say for myself! 
 

I have always kept a dog bed in my studio,   I have  only had three dogs in the past  that would hang around.   My  new dog  is still at that chewing stage so I haven't introduced him to the studio yet.   He is a chiwienne  and somewhere around a year old,   it could be another year before I try.  He is laying on the top edge of the couch right now looking through the blinds,  he must be part cat.     Denice

I'm not allowed to have pets in my rented mobile home, which contains my studio. Broke the rule once with a pet python named George, who was nice and quiet and kept to himself. George  declined to consume a Dumbo rat I had gotten him (wrong type for sustenance), so I kept the rat and named him Lunch. The landlord finally said it was either me or the snake-one had to go (he was severely phobic). George was re-housed with a friend, but I kept Lunch. He was a wonderful pet, but he croaked a few years ago. Now I have tropical fish, but they do nothing for me in the studio.  I guess I have gone off track regarding pets & studio, but I like to contribute LOL

My dog Bruiser is a blanket baby, being possessed of little fur. (He’s a boston/pug cross). So he doesn’t like coming into the basement studio unless it’s high summer and too hot anywhere else. He’s not much of a studio assistant.
This thing here, however, keeps trying to sleep on the reclaim bed that’s covered with a sheet, is deeply fascinated by both throwing and trimming, and keeps trying to go for a swim in my slip/glaze buckets. I present to you all my first-ever cat, Nippet. 
She would like to be deeply involved in all pottery processes, and has appointed herself official studio cat.

I never look at that view, but if it bothers people there are other ways of viewing posts....
I click on "unread content" and browse from there.  I sometimes click on browse and click the big button beside equipment, to mark them as read, as most of that category goes over my head.

All functional pottery is haptic. Feedback by touch. 

@Pyewacketteit sounds like you've been going through a lot. Hopefully we can help you find a resting spot with your clay work. 
It’s been a while since I’ve worked with B mix, but I recall it being very thixotropic. Although water is a factor, some of the softness and tendency to flop comes from movement and kinetic energy transfer, such as any form of wedging, including cut/slam. 
I had better luck with b mix when I wedged it up the day before I planned to throw it, If you do your clay prep a day or so ahead it’s got time to settle out a bit, It’ll re-soften quickly as soon as you smack it down on the wheel. Bonus, you can just come in and start working as soon as your water bucket is full. I also found throwing with a metal or wooden rib helpful: it scrapes the water and the slurry off the surface, again buying you more working time.
I’ve found that cut/slam reduces the amount of wedging you have to do by a lot, but you still need to polish it off with a little bit of spiral. As few as 10-20 pushes should do it if all the bubbles are out and everything is the same consistency.
Re coning: most of it is applying pressure in the right place, and it’s about leverage, not strength. Most videos do emphasize anchoring your elbow into your torso/hip, but it’s also important to brace your feet for maximum stability. 
I really, really like the first half of this video from Florian Gadsby for centring and coning. The centering info is handy, but coning specifically begins at 4:25 with relevant bits up until about 7:30. He’s got multiple unimpeded camera angles, and shows how to use less water. He’s also got good descriptions of where he’s applying pressure at what point. 
Pro tip for the “neurospicy” amongst us: the little gear at the bottom of the YouTube screen has a dropdown that allows you to adjust the playback speed. As an ADHD’er, I can’t take in video tutorials unless they’re sped up, but in this case, you could slow the video down to 1/4 speed to really take in details.
 

Beneft of the softer drycleaning, new shirt wrap is its softness. Can cover softer stuff without harming it

one way -
Pick a height or width you like put it in a volume calculator https://www.omnicalculator.com/math/cylinder-volume. Make sure the calculator is set to inches high, inches diameter, fluid ounces. Determine the shrinkage of your clay, let’s say 12% as an example. Then throw your mug by multiplying the design height and diameter to be 112% (1.12) so your mug ends up shrinking to the expected design amount.
Comfortable and aesthetic diameters for mugs are approximately 3-1/2” -4” with 4” closer to a stein type vessel. A vessel that is thrown at 3-7/8” diameter and 5.5 inches tall  likely fires and holds 26 oz and finishes about 5 inches tall and 3-/3/4”  diameter after firing.. All that’s left is pick a nice handle and personalize! If I remember correctly, the mug below is about 4” in diameter and a touch over 5” tall and holds two full cans of beer (or soda) leaving room for a nice trimmed foot - maybe 1/4” or less.
 

Another trick for accessing Adobe products (Lightroom will also resize images I believe)  is to just subscribe for the free month and then cancel when you’re done. If you have trouble remembering to cancel subscriptions like this, use a visa gift card number that has a zero balance  where they ask you to enter your credit card info. When they go to process the transaction in a month’s time, you’ll get a notification to update your payment info, and you can cancel or subscribe.

Thank you! I feel better that their requirements weren't clear to someone with more experience. The 4x6 threw me off, but setting the pixels at 600x900 max is very helpful. I save my images in JPEG so I think I should be ok then. I use Windows and will look for a good free app.  I really appreciate the sharing of knowledge here!

The language they gave you leaves a lot to be desired, in terms of clarity. 
“between 72 and 150 px” refers to “pixels per inch.” For a 4x6 inch image at 150 pixels per inch, resize your image to be 600 x 900 pixels. 
JPEG is the default file format for most digital cameras, so chances are you don’t need to change anything there. 
Photoshop is the most popular image editing software. The language they used sounds like they expect everyone to have it. But it’s not feasible for many people (very expensive and steep learning curve). If you have a Mac you can use Preview which comes for free on a Mac. I often use a free app called Image Size on my iPad which will do the resizing too. 

If these are for jurying, they look “proper” to me. 
My one suggestion, invest in a backdrop that gradates with more contrast. Whiter in the front/bottom and much darker in the back/top. It will give the photo more depth, and make the pot stand out more. I like the Flotone “Thunder Gray” backdrop. 

While teaching at the HS I had a handout for teapots. . . .as my advanced classes had to make one for a MP benchmark. I had it posted on my blog
 

 
best,
Pres

I epoxied a wood disc to the back of a 16" porcelain platter last year, lots of surface area joining, and it fell off in just a few days. I prefer a mechanical system- wire through a hole in the foot or something like that.

I have had arthritis in my hands beyond memory at this point. Using your hands is whay I consider a key element to life and hands. My guess is you are not a professional with clay so you will not be using.8- 10 tons a year which. puts a hurt on the hands . I would  not worry about clay and your hands. Mild Artritis is in all us old timers who use our hands in life. 
I am 100% a believer that clay can help  strengthen and exercise the muscles . As you age no matter what your artritis will continue
Clay has kept my hands strong . They do not like cold but thats also an aging issue.Heck I do not like cold-never have liked heat either-I like it just right.

I suggest unless you have power mixing equipment say like a peter pugger you forget the whole dry thing.
The factor you never spoke about (gas .travel, dry vs wet costs) was your time and a quaility clay product at the end of your labors . Clay makers mix the clay ,take the air out of the clay and pug and bag and box your clay-you cannot even ever come close to doing this yourself and think you are saving a thing. Especially money
now if you have a lot of power equipment  for clay making and tons of FREE time then lets talk more
Now its it dry slip casting clay thats another story but you never mentioned slip.
 
PS I have bought dry clay in 50# sacks to add to anothrer clay body (custom blend) and what a pain-I donated most of that dry clay to an art center as a tax write off decades later

Ceramics by Nelson was our text at Mansfield State College. A small school near my parents home in north central PA. I was taking ceramics as part of an undergraduate program for my Art Education BS. The school had several good, albeit lesser known professors. My ceramics professor was Stanley Zuchowski, a graduate of Alfred. He threw large, and was a big man often hefting barrels of slip from one end of the room to the other when making clay.  In order to keep anything in the class from the wheel he had to see a 9 inch cylinder out of 3lb of clay. After that we were allowed to throw almost anything. I believe I got some of my prejudices from him: There are only 3 forms off the wheel, the cylinder, the bowl, and the plate. A bowl always has a round bottom, if the bottom is flat it is a lowly dish.  
My true introduction to ceramics books came when perusing the office of the ceramics department at Penn State University where I began graduate classes. I took them within the Fine Arts department as non degree. There were several texts i there that I knew I would one day own: Clay and Glazes for the Potter, by Daniel Rhodes; The Potters Dictionary of Materials and Techniques, by Frank and Janet Hamer; to name a few. To be honest, I first looked at these books for the pictures of pots, I had been interested in art all my life, but had very little experience with ceramics until that first class in college. It wasn't until I started reading beyond the pictures that I understood the art, craft and science beyond the pretty pictures. So my library has grown to fill much of a room.
best,
Pres

I’ve found a few things over the years on handle attaching:
1. Slip vs water vs magic water: there is not a universal method. What works on one clay might not work with another. I’ve used white stonewares at cone 10 that needed slip and score, and red stoneware at cone 6 that wouldn’t grip for love nor money if I was using slip, but needed scoring and water instead. If one trick doesn’t work for you, try another.
2. If your handle and your mug body are at different stages of dryness, that’s the thing most likely to cause handles popping off in drying.
3. Wiggle that sucker on there! Whatever you use from step one, if you don’t wiggle the handle into the attachment point until it stops moving, it’s not attached well enough. If done properly, a handle will break off just outside the join rather than the join itself giving way.

The cortisone may do it but if not its a simple staright froward surgery and I have seen many great outcomes .In terms of arthritis use warm water and keep using your hands to keep them strong. I think your doctor is taking the stay in bed thoght way to far. If you stay in bed life will not hurt you they say until the heart attack .
If you want a real opion go see a hand doctor not a GP
I have had two major hand surgies and have arthrites and large knuckles -no one has said stop throwing-maybe a bit less but move it or loose it is the theme in life. At least mine

Thank you for sharing Gep!
It's one thing to gain experience and knowledge through experience, another to systematically apply same and improve, and yet another to clearly, concisely and successfully communicate how you are doing it. Nice work!

I mentioned a couple of months ago that I was working on this blog post. This is my response to those artists who express confusion or bother when they see my nearly (or completely) empty booth at the end of a show. I am happy to explain exactly what I’m doing. I also point out common mistakes I see other artists making. Buckle in, this is a long post. I tried to be as thorough and honest as possible. This went up yesterday and I’m getting tons of traffic and lots of good reaction to it.
https://www.goodelephant.com/blog/ill-tell-you-exactly-how-i-did-it

+1! It's easy to be verbose, being concise takes much more finesse.
Pres's question of the week has a lot of similarities to a post I did a few years back asking new members to give us an idea of their experience / knowledge in relation to the question they are asking. Information overload is going to do nothing but confuse people who come here for a simple answer to a basic question. 
There is always room here for lengthy questions, statements and replies as there are many potters on this forum with decades of experience and expertise;  finding the balance between what should probably be answered with a simple reply vs a lengthy one is key.