Tarheeler

My wife and I both throw, and we wanted the name to represent a shared family business. We went with Moorewood Studio, a combination of our family name and a portion of her maiden name.

I leave the outside of some my cups unglazed (^6, less than 1% absorption), but usually use a liner glaze on the inside of the pot and the outside of the rim. It makes it easier to clean and feels better on the lips. But I haven't had any issues with the unglazed portions either.

Thank you both for the suggestions.

My wife and are quite excited; after several years of throwing, we've finally bought two wheels of our own. They're older (mid 70's?), but seem solid enough. One is an Amaco electric with a cone-drive, and the other a Wengers stand-up treadle wheel. Of course, we had clay on them before they were all the way in the door. Both operate well, and my wife was doing fine on the Amaco. I ran through a couple of 2# balls on the treadle wheel, and there's a bit of a learning curve; it's going to take a while to find my rhythm on it. I know I'm going to have to get used to throwing slower than I'm used to now. Anyone have any suggestions on aiding the process?

We give them a business card, tell them we require a 50% deposit on custom work, and ask them to e-mail us with specifics so we can work everything out. We rarely hear anything back.

Yeah, I've never got the hang of holding a sponge while I work. I normally use the slurry to wet the pot for pulling.

Heres the kicker. Im assuming your Melbourne location is Australia? If thats the case the info I can find leads me to belive that 3phase power in your area is 415v. (i had to go look up the 3phase math again) but if i have this right.... 20amp at 415v is 14376w which should be ballpark for a kiln that size. If your single phase is in fact 240v then you would need something in the ballpark of 60amps. In the US the kiln is classified as a continuous load (on for more than 3hrs at a time) and you would have to oversize by 20% putting you at like 71 amps ish. If the above is true, I would strongly recommend consulting a local electrician about the wireing needs of the kiln. This is very important to remember. If you are changing the voltage or the phase, the amp draw is going to change as well. And that means you have to recheck to make sure the breaker and line-side wiring is sufficient for the new setup.

Gas, wood, or waste fuel is most likely going to be your best bet.

I use a stylus to put in my initials after I trim. Eventually I'll get around to making a stamp for it.

It's an interesting read. I'm an HVAC technician by trade, and specialize in water-based systems such as boilers. There are a lot of things we do in the field that I think would benefit kiln design; we're all about maximizing fuel efficiency and putting as much energy as possible into use. We've been using waste heat from the flue for productive purposes, such as preheating air and making domestic hot water, for decades.

I need to move to where y'all are at; the only wheels I can find for sell are 10 year old electrics for $800 dollars or home-made kick wheels for $400. I want to give a kick-wheel a try, but can't find anyone with one to give it a spin.

Same with us. We buy most of our clay from a place about an hour and a half a away. We just call ahead and place an order for about 300 pounds and make the trip every couple of months. It's in the same area as Seagrove, so we make a day of it and visit different potteries before loading up and heading home.

My wife and I plan to use a storage tank and a system of strainers to recycle the water we use. We'll have to fill the tank initially with a hose, but after that just an occasional top-off and cleaning of the strainers should be all that it needs. We'll use either a hand pump or small electric one (the 12v one is a great idea) to bring the water back in. It'll basically be a homemade cink with a large storage tank.

I'd say that I'm a potter and I make pots. It doesn't preclude me from making pots that are art, and I can fill that role as well, but I'm good with potter. My day job for the last 15 years has been making, installing, and fixing things, and I feel there is a lot of value in titles like craftsman, artisan, and tradesman. If they have lost value in society's eyes, in then it up to us to change that.