LeeU

Way cool!! (yep-link works fine) BTW--I tried to find you on Pinterest but no luck--what is the name of your board? I searched for Hyn Patty.

And thank you for your kind words.  I've been doing equine sculpture and sculpture finish work since 1976, and ceramics since 1984 though I didn't have kilns of my own until 2003.  I posted (but forgot that I'm not supposed to) the links but if you didn't already get them, just message me.  I want to abide by the rules!
 

I don’t know about other lustres, but gold and white gold are made of those actual materials, and don’t tarnish.
Some raku glazes that contain a lot of copper can be prone to reoxidizing over time. Usually folks will coat pieces like that with spray varnish or similar. I think it could work for Palladium. 

Here is the completed piece all glazed up.  All work has been done in the kiln, completed with satin glaze and minimal china painting.  The only thing on him that isn't ceramic media are his mane flights which are enameled metal, inset with pins into tiny holes along his neck.  Completed to a light dappled grey and with an optional base I have made for him to be affixed to, this piece will be posted to public auction.  He measures 3.75" inches tall and will be a unique color and variety in an edition of not more than probably 20 or so variations.  Once I have finished editing his photos and he has been sold at auction, I'll add a photo to my gallery album with him standing on his base.
Tada!  So now you know how I make my equine fine art sculpture in ceramics.  This one earthenware but I also work in porcelain and fine bone china.
 

Not sure if this will work but here's a video of my working on him today in studio.  I'd much rather be riding my motorcycle or hiking on this sunny day but I have a show deadline coming up fast next weekend!  
Underglazing Details on Curio Porthos
It is set public on my Facebook page so maybe you can see it.  Not sure if I can directly upload a video here though.  If you all can't view it let me know and I can see about uploading it to a blog post or something on my website instead.

I also posted this photo of first version 1/9th traditional scale Porthos with the docked tail.  This is a roto cast hollow white resin I have cut up for mold making.  I'm in the process of using colored oil clays to 'clay up' for pouring those molds in plaster.  Once the molds are poured, I test them to make a single casting like the curio bisque at the top of this thread.  This allows me to see where the mold is skimming or tearing clay off as I demold so I can trim those edges clean.  Tiny undercuts can be skimmed off the plaster mold pieces easily.  If there are air bubbles, I fill them with plaster paste or epoxy.  If there are details that are too soft, I can go back in and recut them much more sharply in my plaster master mold.
Then, rather than continue to use that first mold, I seal it with mold soap and then pour a silicone rubber mold of each plaster piece.  This will then allow me to cast as many plaster production molds as I want!  As the mold detail wears very rapidly (especially if I am casting porcelains) then I may need to be able to reproduce the mold several times over to keep every piece of my edition super crisp.
As usual, this probably belongs in the mold making and slip casting thread...

Thank you!  Speaking of Fabio tails... With a really complex tail such as my hairy Pasture Porthos sports I may well need to cut the tail into at least two pieces and have quite a few mold pieces /and/ still have to flood, then redetail, some of the undercuts.  Oh well!  This boy will be my most challenging piece to mold to date (this is a 3D print that is mirrored to face the other direction and a different size).  For now I am cheating.  I sent this boy and his larger version off to England to be molded and cast in bone china bisque for me.  But I will be playing with cutting one up here in studio and trying to mold that tail myself just for the challenge.  BUT at least I know he'll be in production in time for Breyerfest in July even if it takes me a while to mold and cast this version on my side of the pond.
For scale I can do pretty much anything I want within the limits of my 3D printers and the quality of my scans.  Or in the case of the spider foal - larger than 'traditional' scale because I'm doing that one BIGGER than usual.  But 'traditional' scale is what most equine bronzes are normally produced in - 1/9th scale to the real horse.  Larger than traditional is usually about 1/6th scale.  Classic is about 1/12th, etc on down or on up!  Some of these scales are used so often for equine art that they have names (though often more than one name for any given size).  Porthos is considered 1/9th scale, which usually is about 7 inches tall.  But as he's a draft horse who's taller and larger his scaling down to 1/9th came to 8 inches tall.  Of course he'll shrink a bit in each ceramic media, that's just his resin size.    If you do internet searches you can find various 'model scales' or 'model horse scales' to compare.
'Venti' scale Pasture Porthos is a little smaller than 'classic' scale at 1/15th is shown with the larger roto cast white resin that is 1/9th 'traditional' scale.  Then micros are about 1/40th scale (around 1.5" tall).  Curio falls in around 1/20th scale for comparison (not pictured here).

Noted.  And sometimes I use IPA - depends which one is handier.  I've never had an issue with either one since I literally only use a drop or so in my water spray bottle of the bleach.  The generic bleach I buy only lists one ingredient and nothing added for scent.  (I also incidentally use it for phytosanitary applications like tissue culture of plant materials.)
Yes!  This method of cutting up the piece is typical for casting porcelain and bone china in the UK and Europe.  Indeed it was a few photos shared here with me from another member (who may or may not wish to be named) that helped me figure out this problem.  I also worked with porcelain sometimes and I've been working on perfecting and testing English bone china slip I've made here in my studio.  So I went ahead and produced this multi-part mold for that purpose.  It works just as well for earthenware. 
As I knock some rust off I'll be pushing to try and make more complex molds that would allow me to cast Porthos as whole and as close to one piece as possible.  Body with three legs attached most likely, with the head and neck separate and that cocked back leg.  That would take less assembly and thus less time.  And problem solving with mold making is an excellent challenge to practice if you want to get better anyway.
One of my new sculptures I have started is the 'Spider foal' that is rolling.   I'm jokingly calling it my 'spider' sculpture for now because it looks hideous!  But it's in the early 'skeleton' stage where I flesh out the proportions of the bones and set the joints as points of reference from which I will build up tendons, muscle, skin, etc over top.  Anyway, you can see that I do not like to sculpt with molding limitations in mind.  So being able to mold them in pieces and assemble ANY kind of pose or complex arrangement really frees me up to do anything I want.  

Now, to give you a sense of what 'curio' scale means here is the same bisque shown in my hand.  Here I have airbrushed on underglaze in greys and black and I am now dappling him.  Once fired with a clear glaze over this underglaze, he will be a dappled grey!  This is a sales piece that I will be offering at auction probably next weekend while I'm at a live show event.  But for now there's a lot of work to do to him to get him ready to be the new sample of my sculpture in ceramic!  I'll post more photos as I go so you all can see the finished boy when he's done.  I work in many layers, fire a number of times, and will also work in over glazes.  The upright mane ribbons will be added later after he's completed and are going to be enameled metal but I haven't finished making them yet.  They each fit down into little  holes I have drilled down his neck.
I am also making mold pieces for a larger 'traditional' scale version of this boy that stands about 8 inches tall.  I hope to have that one casting by June in time for a huge international event I'm attending in July at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY.

This is Porths, my first version of this sculpture I started way back about 2007, almost completed in 2009 before illness derailed my studio for a while.  At any rate, I FINALLY finished this boy last year and released him in a resin edition.  I've since gone on to do a 'hairy' Pasture Porthos who's a bit chunkier, and with more feather, thicker legs, long mane and swishy Fabio tail who's casting in a resin edition this year.
Anyway, I've been busting butt to make MOLDS for these two versions of my Porthos sculpture.  Currently I am having the hairy Pasture Porthos molded and cast in England in fine bone china, though I'm also about to start testing slip and settlers for fine bone china pieces here in my studio later this year.  Meanwhile I'm focusing first on using finely ball milled earthenware with talc to cast some pieces.  This first one I've molded right here in studio is what we call Curio scale, a large mini in size.  He's my test cast to see if my mold worked (it did first try!) and to help me figure out how I want to rework and clean up my mold pieces to work even better.  Then I'll be making rubber molds starting next week of each plaster mold piece so I'll have a master from which to cast as many plaster replacement molds as I ever will want, later.
So here's my first ceramic bisque of Porthos with his original docked tail version (mane flights to be added later), an American Percheron with tail bows.

Several of my students use the Xiem tool bag. It get's pretty filthy and doesn't clean very easily since it's canvas, but they seem to like it. I think that open bags are best, because it allows for easy access when your hands are dirty, and it allows the tools to dry after washing them and putting them away. The worst thing you can do is close up your wet tools and sponge in a plastic tool box because they'll just grow mold and mildew.

I use Peggy Heer’s orIgInal Spooze, which is, essentially, 1/3 ea. clay, vinegar & corn syrup. Sorry-too tired to find the recipe, but it's online.  I use this when I want to join or mend something or fill in a crack  on dried greenware. It works great for my purpose. (which is not production/retail/professional). It has never failed! 

I use Peggy Heer’s orIgInal Spooze, which is, essentially, 1/3 ea. clay, vinegar & corn syrup. Sorry-too tired to find the recipe, but it's online.  I use this when I want to join or mend something or fill in a crack  on dried greenware. It works great for my purpose. (which is not production/retail/professional). It has never failed! 

I use Peggy Heer’s orIgInal Spooze, which is, essentially, 1/3 ea. clay, vinegar & corn syrup. Sorry-too tired to find the recipe, but it's online.  I use this when I want to join or mend something or fill in a crack  on dried greenware. It works great for my purpose. (which is not production/retail/professional). It has never failed! 

Just for fun, I made a few "unsophisticated" rattles a couple of years ago. I used different clay bodies for the shell and the inner beads, in  various combinations, like glazed or unglazed balls inside, the same size or mixed, small or large, a lot or a few--the container might be a grogged stoneware, a thin procelain, or  a high-iron red. The range of sounds are fascinating--from light and tingley to a drum-like heavyness. This one is afavorite, that I use to sit in on a music jam at a local community center--I have no musical talent whatsoever, but "playing" the rattle I can pull off.

My entire collection, from the early 80s to the present. Binder on the left holds my (pre-internet) tech sheets from many sources; the Nelson, Lawrence, Penland, Clark, & Rhodes are the bibles from back in my school days;  Pitelka and Branfman were added from recommendations here;  Seagrove, a gift from a friend; two (Beware & Road) from John Baymore of NHIA (who helped me get back intoi ceramics); one  (Surface) from Maureen Mills (NHIA & NH Potters Guild) and one, signed, from Marcia Selsor, previously on this forum.  How & why I got each book, what I learned and still refer to, and what they (the books & the people) mean in my life matter to me as much as the contents. Fun topic! 

I do like water.
A few years ago I tried for a fountain, driven by a small pond pump.
Credit the FDR Memorial (Washington, DC) fountains, in part, for positive inspiration, a neighbor's drop-in pool kit for negative inspiration.
The former, a variety of water sounds, each fountain different, each pleasing; the latter, a solid stream, not so pleasing.
I wanted a soft drip, hence, the water flows over the inverted cone shape, falls a short distance (.8 to 1.2") to the tower base, then another inch or so to the reservoir, producing a gentle gurgling murmur.
The pump is concealed between the base and tower, wrapped in foam to dull the humming.

Speaking of Books there is one being made now that is all about the place I learned the most in Ceramics. I wrote a piece for that books which is in the editing stages now.
It was called the Laundry 
In the 50's-60s it was a commercial Laundry. In the late 60s it was bought by the Humboldt State University and turned into a pot shop. It has floor drains (wood covered cement troughs that drain out). They added a kiln room off the back. The builing is one huge barrel arch roof. A really great pottery setup for teaching.
Back then my mentor Reese Bullen  (who started the Art Dept there) hired a new instructor to help him teach ceramics from Alfreds as a recent gradute Lou Marak -it was 1969. I came a few years later to that program.
They hired another Alfred grad the year I came as well  (1972). It was the heyday of ceramics for this school. It was after the war and it was ahuge open learningtyransition time in ceramics-from Volkus to Arneson clay was expanding. Thes e recenty Alfreds guys where on fire from leaning from the greats who taught and wrote at Alfreds. Rhodes and the like passed what they knew down to my teachers who passed that to us. It was a solid 5 years in immersion in all things clay and kilns for me.Many a teacher and potter came out the other side of that Laundry .
In my time I learned slip casting, low fire ,high fire , kiln firing, hand building ,slab work,clay and glaze formulation just to name a few. I Worked in work study program for years as kiln and glaze room tec.( Back then tec was not used) loading and firing kilns of all types.Salt to low fire electrics-with redution cone 10 gas as the standard .
The program slowly after many deacdes switched as did many programs to  around the country  in schools to sculture and making art-mostly low fire. This slowy in my view turned the ceramics program into a lesser one than the one I was in at that time. I have heard lots of feedback on this from students over the past 30 years
Now the University recently became Cal Poly Humboldt and humanities is at the botton of the pile now. They now have funding to build in massive science expansion 3 new parking structures and you gues it the Laundry will be scraped to put in a parking lot as Joni Mitchell once said in a song. The last 10 yeared ceramics professor retires this year (JUNE) and no one is fighting this stupid mistake. For me the university long ago lost the community support as they do not care about that.
Two of the old ceramic teachers is compiling this book on 50 years of the Laundry-its history and students. I am just one of those and one of the few that choose the production pottery route over teaching and also stayed local and am still producing . In my. time we once had over 20 full timers in this small area making funtional wares now its me. Last man standing full time. The laundry is a special place for me in my brain  as well as the people who shared what they knew way back in the early 70s with me. When folks  are buying and using my pottery they really are using pottery that came from my years at the Laundry and those who taught there at that time.
Ps this book is being complied and underwritten by a gallery In Davis Ca called the John Natsoulas Gallery. John is footing the bill
He has a press at gallery and has had a 30 year ceramic realationship with HSU ceramics and did a book on the UC Davis ceramics lab already
its a great thing he is doing for our local clay history-if you are ever in Davis Ca stop by that gallery its worth the trip-just look for the 15 foot  high ceramic cat you walk to enter the gallery. You cannot miss it.
https://www.natsoulas.com
 

What
Attachments (in my experience, err, limited experience), almost always one piece is damper than the other.
The drier bit, I'll pick up half a drop of water with my finger and wet the attachment point - not enough to run, enough to impart a sheen that dissipates as the water is absorbed - add another half drop, as required (credit Ingleton potter Dick Unsworth's teapot process video).
The wetter bit, I might dampen just enough to bring up a sheen, then score it in two crosses* (like UK flag), pile on a blob of slip, score the pre-dampened landing spot (in no particular pattern), dampen it a touch more, then get to attaching. I don't mind if it slides a bit at first, for it tightens up considerably as the moisture dissipates into the surrounding (dryer) clay.
For shallow angles, like the top portion of a mug handle's lower attachment, I roll a small coil (2-3 mm, if that), cut to length, wet it, set it aside. After all ends are attached, I'm brushing a bit of slip in there, placing the coil, then smooshing it in. The edge of a loop tool fits in there. A damp brush can help. I don't remember where I saw this, perhaps a Pinnell video clip.
...now I do the same on the top attachment as well.


Why
Variations on what we were shown in Wheel I class.
There was talk of vinegar and "Magic Water" - I was curious; what is magic water**, how does it work, what are advantages & drawbacks?
I was curious, but not enough to dig into it, for my attachments were much less a problem (at that time) than so many other things!
Adding the tiny coil, well, the radius can be achieved by other means, shaping the end, for example (credit Simon Leach video clip).
 
* The slip squeezes out along the score lines.
Nah, but that was the idea, which is now habit.
**Here's an article and recipe:
Magic Water (ceramicartsnetwork.org)
 

I buy my clay in about 3 -6 ton lots minimum and order it made extra soft for bad wrists. I have a shed near the road witha canvas front facing north in the shade of my potshop. That shed stays cool year round. I then bring into shop about 750#s at a time and store under wedging tables on redwood floor boards.(2x12s are my floor in old shop-new addition is painted plywood floors ) Clay warms slightly in shop in winter with heat -summer heat is off and its cooler in shop
I order from Laguna clay and have it trucked the 13 hours north and supply a few other potters as well that Have been with me for many decades on clay buys-although many are now gone.I have been with Laguna since they bought out westwood clay in the med  80s before I was with westwood in the 70s also used to used  Robert Brent Clays  when they where in Healsburg and Quyle clay from the Sierra. They now are out of the clay business. Also usewd some Emory clays from Sacramento area -all those where stonewares-switched in mid 80s to all porcealin .From Laguna  just before they bought up Westwood.I drove down to LA in 185 to meet the Laguna owner and try there porcelains .He sold Laguna about 5 years ago to the new owner.
I also store some clay just outside shop door for slab roller use-I moved my two peter puggers last summer onto new kiln cement slab and have yet to. decide about where slab clay will live-it never ends.
Ok off to see the eclipse via some airplanes

My clay is indoors. It's a low production home hobby studio (I'm no longer doing retail in stores). It's tight at first, but I can fit two 25 lb sleeves in a 5 gal. painters bucket. Those sit on plant dollies. Works great! 

There are several potters who show their seams on mugs and bowls. I can't think of names off of the top of my head, but I follow a few on Instagram. Saying that you copied the seam is like saying that you copied the shape of a mug. 
Betty

Just heard this -The owner of Kemper Tools has sold the business. New owner has to move the factory as the property has sold as well. Not sure if this will stay  as a domestic business and what will be made  in terms of the tool line. They made so many I would not be surprized that that line is trimmed down . Pricing may change as well.. It's funny as I noticed Bailey has a sale going on Kemper now which is odd. My guess is there will be a time period that these tools will not be in production as well. The good news is Kemper will be around in some sense in the future. 

My clay is indoors. It's a low production home hobby studio (I'm no longer doing retail in stores). It's tight at first, but I can fit two 25 lb sleeves in a 5 gal. painters bucket. Those sit on plant dollies. Works great! 

Copying a design versus using the same technique while making a pot are two different things. Are there any new designs in functional ware that haven't been done before by someone somewhere, I don't know but I sort of doubt it.
I have noticed quite a few makers doing exactly what you describe; leaving the mark of the making process visible at the joins. I don't think you need to waste your energy trying to justify your work. Getting inspiration from others work is one way to challenge yourself into making new forms, and making them your own.  I'm sorry you are going through this, it must have been upsetting to you.