alabama

Hey Rebekah, I trim everything right side up. For things like pitchers I trim the top and incise the lip before I pull the spout. I used to trim like everyone else but over the years, have morphed into this method.

If you're interested in Black on black pottery...you need the book "The Living Tradition of Maria Martinez ". Last month I got mine off Amazon for about 10 bucks including postage...used! It's a huge coffee table type book! Check out the Facebook "the wild clay club"... they deal with natural clays and are based out Australia. Primitive Pottery by Hal Riegger is a good book you might should ought to read! Firing greenware will give the best results for Black on black pottery.... The reducing material used for the black should be DRY, not "it looks dry", or "it should

I have a Pacifica 400 and when my belts broke, I tried ordering some, but that fell thru...so I tried fixing them and that didn't work...so I went to the local auto parts store and bought a 520k4 serpentine belt ... The ridges from the pulleys fit inside the grooves of the belt...not perfectly, but good enough! about $13.00

On the Facebook there is a pottery instructor based in Pennsylvania that has taken a broken electric kiln and turned it into a cone 10 woodfired kiln! It is raised off the ground, I guess for convenience! In the bottom of the kiln are 2 nine inch intakes above the fire box and in the back is a 12 inch exhaust for the downdraft! His results are great, plus it only takes about 8 hours to fire a load! I plan to do this with an old electric kiln we have in storage at the art center...it has two sections, so the plan is to add height to it by adding fire bricks between the sections...so I can

You might want to check out the annual book series..." Ceramics in America ", By Hunter (I have about 7 issues) and On the Facebook "Research of Ceramics" - with Justin Thomas... there is a featured vessel and the archives on the inside page!

18th c. Reference books: 1. German Stoneware...by D. Gaimster 2. French Colonial Pottery: an International Conference ...edited by George Avery 3. If These Pots Could Talk...by Ivor Humes 4. Pre-industrial utensils... Indian pottery book... "Sun Circles and Human Hands " by Funderburk Pit fired pottery book ..."Primitive Pottery" by Hal Riegger

You may need to read and research more, and avoid modern books that require bisque firing. Primitive Pottery is a good book, articles or books about traditional pottery of the potters on the Ivory Coast, the book Traditional pottery of Papua New guinea is good, Sun Circles and Human Hands has examples of pottery. Most of the unglazed ancient pottery were used for dry storage, like beans, corn, smoked jerky, etc. The large ceramic cauldron used for cooking stayed hot pretty much 24/7 like a crock pot so food was safe to eat from it. Pit fired is a term that is a misnomer, kind

Is there an example of what you're trying to accomplish, on this cuerda seca du jour? Alabama

If you didn't know about crushing shells for pottery, you should burn the shells first...then you should be able to crumble them in your hands. As for the percentage, figure 35%-50% or by the look! . But expect the opportunity to watch it disintegrate after a while.

The way I use shells the most in the associated with hand built pottery are ribs. If you can find one that is smooth and somewhat oval and the right size, it can be used as a rib. If you flip the same shell over, its a scraper. The shell tool is unlikely to wear out in your lifetime! . If you find a shell with a wavy edge it can used as a rocker stamp for texture and designs. See ya Alabama

Shells are made from layers with a type of adhesive or bonding agent between the layers. The adhesive burns out above 451 degrees and the layers change to calcium hydroxide over 951 degrees. Calcium hydroxide is a powder that absorbs moisture from humidity, expands, and if there is enough crushed shells in the clay... The vessel will disintegrate with in a year! I know this is true about mussel shell... And assume sea shells are the same/similar! But then it doesn't hurt to experiment.