LeeU

Scored an old iron bacon press; want to make a mold so I can make trays. I found a good clay for the purpose (Si02) but I need a better first impression so when I bisque it and make the final mold I get enough detail, especially in the letters (it sez bacon press).  The rough & quick tray is with a direct pressing, so the words are still reversed--it's just for some glaze testing. 

This lovely penguin was made by Liz Fletcher and I got it in a NH Potters' Guild pot swap. A good friend collects penguin stuff and I am reglazing it to make her a gift of it. The black was too thin in spots and there's a little chip on the beak that needs coverage. Hopefully, an 05 refire will do the trick.  Yes, that's snow in the background.
 

This lovely penguin was made by Liz Fletcher and I got it in a NH Potters' Guild pot swap. A good friend collects penguin stuff and I am reglazing it to make her a gift of it. The black was too thin in spots and there's a little chip on the beak that needs coverage. Hopefully, an 05 refire will do the trick.  Yes, that's snow in the background.
 

We've got 2 huskies, a 3 year old white one (Kita), she's 65lbs, and a 10 month old cream one (Kodi) and he's 45lbs so far.  We also have a 12 year old daschund (Scotch) and a 15 year old tuxedo cat (meowzer)!
 

According to this thread: I only have 9873 hours to go. 

Well I think we all would rather hear what form of education has helped you the most in pottery, but you asked for it!
 

I have a 10x11 maker's space.  But I did work in a small tabletop slab roller which has paid for itself over and over and over.  And it is work space also.  That is where I sit to do hand work.   However, no place for an extruder or a pugger.  Those things happen the old fashioned way.  And I should say, I do not dry all my pots in that 10x11 room, they are shuttled next door to the "spare room" which hurriedly gets purged when company comes!!   
r.

Still use catawampus. . . after living all over the country I have found that some words are regional, and but have credence. At the same time some words really date you! Catawampus  might have been Wonky a few years ago, or even lop-eared, whatever the word is undeniably descriptive by sound of being misshapen.
 
best,
Pres 

What matters most to me when throwing is not giving up. The internal dialogue goes something like this:
"I should be able to throw just as well and just as much as I did years ago."
"Oh really? Who sez?"
"OK, let's just see (again)."
"OK, I observe and concede-it just ain't happening."
"OK, practice, practice, practice."
"OK, I am bored, bored, bored."
"OK, I admit that the wrist, back, neck, right knee,  and left hip are not happy campers."
OK, no one can make me and I don't wanna. "
"OK, we'll just call BS on that one."
"OK, I accept reality."
" I'll give it a rest for a few days. "
"Time's up; try, try, and try again. "
"Good girl!" 
It's not about the wheel, which is smooth as silk, reversible (which is useful & I enjoy for some pieces), and the speed is highly variable, readily responsive throughout the process. I'll never use enough weight to worry about torque & my current model Brent would more than handle it if I wanted to pull a whopper some day.  What I'm not up for,  having done my homework, a bit of experimenting w/chiropractor's help, and thinking a lot about what I want out of the time/money I have for this activity, is a brace for standing. I'm OK with a reduced engagement with throwing, and thankful for those bowls that make the cut. What matters most is, as noted, not giving up. 

I now have the 9th piece --a textured bowl--to add to what I'll fire in the anagama kiln in April. I'm aiming for 15, and those still to come need to be spectacular---well, at least they need to reflect some elevated creative effort on my part!  The 3 pieces shown are a fair example of where my head is heading--pun intended.   

I now have the 9th piece --a textured bowl--to add to what I'll fire in the anagama kiln in April. I'm aiming for 15, and those still to come need to be spectacular---well, at least they need to reflect some elevated creative effort on my part!  The 3 pieces shown are a fair example of where my head is heading--pun intended.   

I now have the 9th piece --a textured bowl--to add to what I'll fire in the anagama kiln in April. I'm aiming for 15, and those still to come need to be spectacular---well, at least they need to reflect some elevated creative effort on my part!  The 3 pieces shown are a fair example of where my head is heading--pun intended.   

I was trained on a large gas kiln and never used electric until a few years ago. Having occasional opportunities to get into community wood firings and raku firing, I'm a happy camper. I finally got  OK with the fact that as much as I loved making my own clay bodies and glazes, and was pretty good at it, my situation just doesn't accommodate that today.  So I am using commercial bodies and glazes and find I like them just fine. I did a head-adjustment on myself to get out from under the old tendency to think gas/wood was superior to electric and that not mixing your own stuff is sort of a petty crime. Now I'm working to get Ok with limited throwing facility and getting into an appreciation of the conceptual and process aspects of hand-building.
My workbench today has a thrown and altered bowl form, then hand-worked with stamped, paddled, & incised techniques. I like how much work actually goes into making something look "other-than" a properly, nicely, thrown bowl.  
 

I was trained on a large gas kiln and never used electric until a few years ago. Having occasional opportunities to get into community wood firings and raku firing, I'm a happy camper. I finally got  OK with the fact that as much as I loved making my own clay bodies and glazes, and was pretty good at it, my situation just doesn't accommodate that today.  So I am using commercial bodies and glazes and find I like them just fine. I did a head-adjustment on myself to get out from under the old tendency to think gas/wood was superior to electric and that not mixing your own stuff is sort of a petty crime. Now I'm working to get Ok with limited throwing facility and getting into an appreciation of the conceptual and process aspects of hand-building.
My workbench today has a thrown and altered bowl form, then hand-worked with stamped, paddled, & incised techniques. I like how much work actually goes into making something look "other-than" a properly, nicely, thrown bowl.  
 

I was trained on a large gas kiln and never used electric until a few years ago. Having occasional opportunities to get into community wood firings and raku firing, I'm a happy camper. I finally got  OK with the fact that as much as I loved making my own clay bodies and glazes, and was pretty good at it, my situation just doesn't accommodate that today.  So I am using commercial bodies and glazes and find I like them just fine. I did a head-adjustment on myself to get out from under the old tendency to think gas/wood was superior to electric and that not mixing your own stuff is sort of a petty crime. Now I'm working to get Ok with limited throwing facility and getting into an appreciation of the conceptual and process aspects of hand-building.
My workbench today has a thrown and altered bowl form, then hand-worked with stamped, paddled, & incised techniques. I like how much work actually goes into making something look "other-than" a properly, nicely, thrown bowl.  
 

I was trained on a large gas kiln and never used electric until a few years ago. Having occasional opportunities to get into community wood firings and raku firing, I'm a happy camper. I finally got  OK with the fact that as much as I loved making my own clay bodies and glazes, and was pretty good at it, my situation just doesn't accommodate that today.  So I am using commercial bodies and glazes and find I like them just fine. I did a head-adjustment on myself to get out from under the old tendency to think gas/wood was superior to electric and that not mixing your own stuff is sort of a petty crime. Now I'm working to get Ok with limited throwing facility and getting into an appreciation of the conceptual and process aspects of hand-building.
My workbench today has a thrown and altered bowl form, then hand-worked with stamped, paddled, & incised techniques. I like how much work actually goes into making something look "other-than" a properly, nicely, thrown bowl.  
 

@liambesaw
The Rays cream is actually the first layer glaze. It’s only colorant is rutile (titanium) so it has always been an overfired matte where if you were lucky you would get a runny matte in which the crystals collected  in the runs and at the bottom where it would turn shades of blue.
Old recipe, pinholes most of the time, bad chemistry and also started out as a Bristol glaze back in the day to get this to melt around cone 4 ish. 
To answer your question Rays cream was the base and I  have a blue fur over the top (rim dipped to 2”) in a very half hazard manner for this test piece.
The rework was to lower the temp with boron, reduce the zinc to only as needed and eliminate the pin holes while bringing the flux ratio to a durable one. 
They like this glaze because as a runny matte anything over it or it over a smooth glaze has movement. It usually looks pretty good with minimal effort which is what everyone wants Updating this to a more boron controlled melt allows easy dial in of how much run. From there we just need to dial in  the thickness for one dip, two dip, three dip. So SPG for the interns after testing is important for consistent results. Right now this works fine at 140% water to dry glaze at mix time. I think the final dipping thickness will be 135 - 138 ish so a bit thin.
three second dips are the norm in our studio.
I will message you the write up to the resident artists if you want the test recipe to try, just drop me a note.
some generic pics of what this can do depending upon application thickness. All the pinholes, crazing and imperfections have been designed out of it at this point and it works on low expansion porcelain. Now time for the studio artists to figure out what they don’t like about it.
 
 
 
 

Hmm a skilled potter and talented electrician. Nice glaze!
Just  finished our Rays Cream to get rid of pinholes and dial in the perfect amount of movement with trapped titanium crystals.
Funny,  just pulled this out of the ELECTRIC test kiln today. (Sorry, I know  I have it made, but couldn’t resist)
 

Got a glaze firing in, was able to fit 40 mugs.  This is a representative sample!  So happy to finally have an electric kiln working!
This week I have a bunch of candles I'm working on, gonna be great!  Right now I have a bunch of lidded containers bisquing, big stuff I have to fire alone, can't really pack it too tight.  Y'all that grew up on electric have no idea how easy youve got it!!!
 

We have a tile floor in that room and I decided against casters, instead I cut sections from a scrap piece of that interlocking dense foam flooring and attached to the bottom of the legs, slides easy, takes a little more effort with 300 lbs on the table, but no risk of damaging the grout and/or tile.

What matters most to me when throwing is not giving up. The internal dialogue goes something like this:
"I should be able to throw just as well and just as much as I did years ago."
"Oh really? Who sez?"
"OK, let's just see (again)."
"OK, I observe and concede-it just ain't happening."
"OK, practice, practice, practice."
"OK, I am bored, bored, bored."
"OK, I admit that the wrist, back, neck, right knee,  and left hip are not happy campers."
OK, no one can make me and I don't wanna. "
"OK, we'll just call BS on that one."
"OK, I accept reality."
" I'll give it a rest for a few days. "
"Time's up; try, try, and try again. "
"Good girl!" 
It's not about the wheel, which is smooth as silk, reversible (which is useful & I enjoy for some pieces), and the speed is highly variable, readily responsive throughout the process. I'll never use enough weight to worry about torque & my current model Brent would more than handle it if I wanted to pull a whopper some day.  What I'm not up for,  having done my homework, a bit of experimenting w/chiropractor's help, and thinking a lot about what I want out of the time/money I have for this activity, is a brace for standing. I'm OK with a reduced engagement with throwing, and thankful for those bowls that make the cut. What matters most is, as noted, not giving up. 

What matters most to me when throwing is not giving up. The internal dialogue goes something like this:
"I should be able to throw just as well and just as much as I did years ago."
"Oh really? Who sez?"
"OK, let's just see (again)."
"OK, I observe and concede-it just ain't happening."
"OK, practice, practice, practice."
"OK, I am bored, bored, bored."
"OK, I admit that the wrist, back, neck, right knee,  and left hip are not happy campers."
OK, no one can make me and I don't wanna. "
"OK, we'll just call BS on that one."
"OK, I accept reality."
" I'll give it a rest for a few days. "
"Time's up; try, try, and try again. "
"Good girl!" 
It's not about the wheel, which is smooth as silk, reversible (which is useful & I enjoy for some pieces), and the speed is highly variable, readily responsive throughout the process. I'll never use enough weight to worry about torque & my current model Brent would more than handle it if I wanted to pull a whopper some day.  What I'm not up for,  having done my homework, a bit of experimenting w/chiropractor's help, and thinking a lot about what I want out of the time/money I have for this activity, is a brace for standing. I'm OK with a reduced engagement with throwing, and thankful for those bowls that make the cut. What matters most is, as noted, not giving up. 

What matters most to me when throwing is not giving up. The internal dialogue goes something like this:
"I should be able to throw just as well and just as much as I did years ago."
"Oh really? Who sez?"
"OK, let's just see (again)."
"OK, I observe and concede-it just ain't happening."
"OK, practice, practice, practice."
"OK, I am bored, bored, bored."
"OK, I admit that the wrist, back, neck, right knee,  and left hip are not happy campers."
OK, no one can make me and I don't wanna. "
"OK, we'll just call BS on that one."
"OK, I accept reality."
" I'll give it a rest for a few days. "
"Time's up; try, try, and try again. "
"Good girl!" 
It's not about the wheel, which is smooth as silk, reversible (which is useful & I enjoy for some pieces), and the speed is highly variable, readily responsive throughout the process. I'll never use enough weight to worry about torque & my current model Brent would more than handle it if I wanted to pull a whopper some day.  What I'm not up for,  having done my homework, a bit of experimenting w/chiropractor's help, and thinking a lot about what I want out of the time/money I have for this activity, is a brace for standing. I'm OK with a reduced engagement with throwing, and thankful for those bowls that make the cut. What matters most is, as noted, not giving up. 

What Lee U said,  I am going out to  my shop to practice again and again.  I found a clay I like throwing three months ago, that has been a big help.  I threw a large set of dishes right before my MS messed up the motor control on my right arm.  I don't plan to do that again,  I just want to be able to thrown for fun or make something I need.  I am lucky that handbuilding was always my first love and that I never gave up working with clay.     Denice

What matters most to me when throwing is not giving up. The internal dialogue goes something like this:
"I should be able to throw just as well and just as much as I did years ago."
"Oh really? Who sez?"
"OK, let's just see (again)."
"OK, I observe and concede-it just ain't happening."
"OK, practice, practice, practice."
"OK, I am bored, bored, bored."
"OK, I admit that the wrist, back, neck, right knee,  and left hip are not happy campers."
OK, no one can make me and I don't wanna. "
"OK, we'll just call BS on that one."
"OK, I accept reality."
" I'll give it a rest for a few days. "
"Time's up; try, try, and try again. "
"Good girl!" 
It's not about the wheel, which is smooth as silk, reversible (which is useful & I enjoy for some pieces), and the speed is highly variable, readily responsive throughout the process. I'll never use enough weight to worry about torque & my current model Brent would more than handle it if I wanted to pull a whopper some day.  What I'm not up for,  having done my homework, a bit of experimenting w/chiropractor's help, and thinking a lot about what I want out of the time/money I have for this activity, is a brace for standing. I'm OK with a reduced engagement with throwing, and thankful for those bowls that make the cut. What matters most is, as noted, not giving up.