kswan

I've found as I get older that I do not want to hear music at all anymore. I can't stand the earworms that follow me all day long. Today it's Lizzo... 
I listen to a streaming local NPR station for a few hours, until it starts repeating itself. I've learned things about human sweat, the new Webb telescope, the color of Greenland's melting ice sheets, John Waters' latest novel and other random things I'd never know otherwise. They also have a bunch of youngster reporters talking about the things that youngsters like these days and I've got no idea what they're talking about!!
Audiobooks from the library: knowing that people are trying to ban Toni Morrison's books got me to read and reread some of her works, especially The Bluest Eye. Luckily, I live in a county where they are doubling down on providing more access as opposed to reducing it. Also went through a few Anne Tyler audiobooks recently: French Braid, A Spool of Blue Thread, Noah's Compass. Historical fiction is good too.

The radio stations have gone down hill in our town so I have started listening to Sirrus music on my television.    Sometimes I listen to a movie or television show I have already seen.    When I designed my studio I put some nice big windows in it for light and the view.   I enjoy the light but I rarely look out the window,  I am usually so focused on what I am working on I don't look up.   Denice

Interesting Selection @Chilly I read a lot of the same! Mostly on a tablet, Ever read L.E. Modesitt? Social Science fiction/fantasy.
@Mark C.any particular genres, are there some with more play times, 60's, 70.s, Surf Rock, Country??? 
@oldladygenres? Mystery, scifi, fantasy, thriller?
My tastes in music and books runs all over the place, one minute it is Hard Rock and the nest it may be Classical Guitar, books may run from Sci-Fi to Thrillers and anywhere in between with a lot of the Classics thrown in. 
best,
Pres

Elderly MacBook connected to Studio's surround sound makes selecting locally produced KCBX* shows simple/easy; when not listening to "live" radio, I'll pick a favorite to stream. Sometimes I'll play music from my library, but not often - I listened to familiar music in my working life and have stopped collecting music since retiring.
When the weather's nice, I'll roll up the door halfway or so and listen to the birds, breezes, waves...
*Evening Blues, The Road Home, Across the Tracks, Morning Cup, The Club McKenzie, the Saturday afternoon folk music show (I like everything about it, except the Name - negative associations with broken spokes, see?), and several others.
The nationally syndicated shows can be streamed as well, however, I'll usually catch them when broadcast, else skip it, e.g. Democracy Now, TED Radio, Fresh Air, Bioneers, Latino USA, Counterspin, Hidden Brain...

Often I'll just work in silence. I don't get that very often in the studio so it's kinda nice. But if I need some sound I'll turn on a Pandora station or a mix on my laptop.

I did the same thing,   my studio was in the back yard and my husband would throw rocks at it at 2 in the morning.   I had been wanting a telephone installed  (before cell phone),   he finally decided that was  a good idea.     Denice

I've found as I get older that I do not want to hear music at all anymore. I can't stand the earworms that follow me all day long. Today it's Lizzo... 
I listen to a streaming local NPR station for a few hours, until it starts repeating itself. I've learned things about human sweat, the new Webb telescope, the color of Greenland's melting ice sheets, John Waters' latest novel and other random things I'd never know otherwise. They also have a bunch of youngster reporters talking about the things that youngsters like these days and I've got no idea what they're talking about!!
Audiobooks from the library: knowing that people are trying to ban Toni Morrison's books got me to read and reread some of her works, especially The Bluest Eye. Luckily, I live in a county where they are doubling down on providing more access as opposed to reducing it. Also went through a few Anne Tyler audiobooks recently: French Braid, A Spool of Blue Thread, Noah's Compass. Historical fiction is good too.

Lee, that's a beautiful piece! I hope you will share the final results with us. 
I listen to audiobooks, I'm addicted! I renewed my library card during the pandemic and stopped buy ebooks and audiobooks. Extra $$ to spend on clay.  
Betty

And just for fun, you really should check this out, which, astounding to me,  is the SAME vocalist Ha Hyun Woo https://youtu.be/xgkDAEdSVeg  Also a great series (Stranger 2).  I made this bowl a bit ago, listening to Korean rap & hip hop, & glazed it w/Coyote's Aries.  This last piece fills my kiln, literally my first firing in a year--finally broke through the morass.  For some odd reason the K-films & music has been significantly instrumental in lifting my spirits. Update-just for fun, here is the finished bowl. It too is lifting my spirit! 

 

talking books from the library.  Anything from young adult adventure/sci-fi/fantasy to Dick/Felix Francis, James Patterson, JK Rowling, Lee Child

Thanks @Hulk, you've got a lot of great practices and some I do as well! And yes, I am Kathy, hence she. No biggie, though. I'm kinda shy and don't share too much about myself!  
I change into my pottery shoes and clothes when I go down to my studio, and take them off before going back up. Having known someone with silicosis got me super paranoid about letting clay dust get into the rest of my house. The laundry is down there too, so it's very convenient to toss all my stuff in the wash. 
I also do sort of a triage system for my clean up water as well. It seems to make it easier than always filling and dumping out dirty water. One big sponge is only for clay surfaces like the wheel, slab roller, wedging table or bats. The other is for gross things like the floor, where dust blobs and dead bugs mix in with the clay bits.  When I spill glaze drops on the floor, I use a paint scraper to get it off and slide it into the dustpan. It's then easier to wipe the remains and not get my cleaning water dirty so fast. Otherwise, I feel like I'm just spreading it all over.  
I get overwhelmed by seeing large piles of things that need attention. Tons of tools and bats covered in clay that need clean up stresses me out, so I try to mostly clean those as I work, like wiping down my bats around my piece before taking them off the wheel. 
I'm afraid I have bad work associations with those industrial wringer mops, Hulk! I had a regular sponge mop, but it broke and I haven't gotten around to replacing it. I've got weird tight spaces and actually the big sponge seems to be just right for getting the floor cleaned up.  If I'm cleaning up a lot at the end of working, I wear my respirator and turn on the HEPA filter. I set it to turn off after two hours.
I'm taking a break from a large glaze session right now to drink more coffee. I've got to run two glaze loads before Friday, cutting it close for sure...

When I was teaching ceramics at the high school level..... We lined 5 gallon buckets with old pillow cases to store the clay to be reclaimed. When ready to dry, we just pulled out the pillow case, tied a knot at the top and set it outside to drain.  If the outside weather was too wet or too cold we put the pillow cases in our utility sink which had a clay trap.  When ready to wedge, we just opened the pillow case on the wedging boards. 
I required X number of studio maintenance from each student each grading period.  Reclaiming clay is little more time consuming in my own studio without the help of all those teenagers! 

And here I have been using my hands and fist to center 20# pieces of clay on the wheel! Especially when opening up for large jar pieces. . .pounding the fist into the center of the centered clay while the wheel is turning slowly is almost therapeutic. Guess I'll have to carve one of these out.
 
best,
Pres

The handle is bone I found and the mallet bit is spruce from my firewood pile, they both have grain so look like one piece. Here’s another that’s all wood, cut from a 4 x 4. These really do work well for shaping and centering big pieces of clay, do it just like Oldlady described. 

Congratulations on going out with a splash (literally)! 

The “Whammer Dammer!” My partner introduced me to this tool a few months ago via a David MacDonald (Syracuse, N.Y.) video. Clay mallet. Changed my world. I had seen them over the years but never tried one. Hand and wrist saver for sure. Centering aid, especially for big pieces. I use mine mostly to beat out slabs then finish them with rolling pin. It’s normally covered with a sock, but I’m showing off the tool.   

you might try making something you commonly make using what you think is the right amount of clay.   cut a piece of a fresh pug and touch a sharpie to the place the pug lands when you run the machine.  my bailey has a stainless "table" that slides as the weight of the pug pushes it away. i have lines on it.  i find that about 4 inches is just right for a soup bowl, the thing i throw often.  the diameter of mine is different from yours so maybe only 3 inches is what you want.
weigh that piece.  make the item and judge whether it is too little or too much.   the point is to avoid weighing every time by  learning  what length contains the amount you are aiming for and mark the lines so you can cut the same size piece each time.  if you are confused, just think that lines equal weight and equal lengths give  equal weights.
to save my hands, i use a "whammer dammer", a piece of wood that acts like a square baseball bat.  put the clay on the wheel and wham it down onto the wheelhead or batt.   use slow speed and wham it all the way around shaping it as you go.  i use Mea's hockey puck shape, never a mound with a slope.  why make a shape you have to change to throw anything?

Yup. 
It might not be a problem for you but what I did when I bought my mixer/pugger is cut off a dozen or so discs right from the pugger and dried them out. Some cracked, some didn't. Could try some slices cut from the length of the pug to compare the two methods. (I use a smooth white ^6 clay that is a bit fussy) Auger leaves it's mark in the clay for small puggers just as it does for large ones. 
I posted this image in another thread the other day. This clay has sat for about a year, nice and soft, never frozen, auger marks are super clear.

 

I haven't had pug mill at home, but do remember the Walker at the HS. I would always be amazed at the clay that came out of the machine.  Throw in some scraps from the hanbuilders, some slop from the throwers, and run through twice to have great clay. I never noticed any auger marks in the clay no matter which way I cut it. As long as it didn't dog ear on me it was good to go. I think that the side delivery at the end of the auger run had something to do with the compressed body and the lack of auger spirals. It was also easy to cut a cutting frame for 3 lb throwing pieces no matter what angle.
best,
Pres

I take a long pug (10 or 12 inches long), lay it on its side. Slap my hands onto both ends, like I’m clapping my hands together but the pug gets in the way. Pick up the pug, turn it towards me a little, smack it down lightly on the table. Then keep repeating. Clap, pick it up, turn it a little, smack it down. Within 15 to 30 seconds, the proportions have changed to a wheel-ready shape. 
Congrats on the pug mill! 

I slap 4 logs together and drop them onto my wedging table and shape them into a standard 25# pug then cut them into usual amounts to throw

Another way to do it would be to weight out the amount of the pug you need then cut it in half so instead of an approx 8 - 10" pug you have two 4 - 5" lengths. Smack or thump those into roughly a roundish shape with flat bottoms. Center the first one on the wheel then flatten off the top then slap the second one on top of the first (without trapping air between). 
VanGilder has a video showing a useful tool for cutting clay into equal weights. It's at 3.37 of the video below. I totally agree with him on throwing the pugs on the side not in a soup can orientation. Some claybodies might be okay with the soup can orientation but with others the auger spirals will cause cracking issues.
 

I don't wedge!;  I drop!.  
Take you log and hold it up and drop in strait down. then pick up and drop again to make the log into a block, then drop the block so that it becomes comes a 8 sided block.   now use that to start on the wheel.   I work on a table and lift the clay as high as my arms will go and drop the clay on to the table.   Some times I slam the log on to the table if the clay doesn't wake up and move like it should.    If the clay sticks to the wooden table, the clay is too wet (if it bounces, it ain't wet enough). 
You are shaping the clay not wedging it.  
LT
 

Here are a few glazes that we use in my studio that are very stable and consistent.
Butter is great on top of other glazes, and also looks good alone on brown speckled clay.
Harris Red is a great iron red glaze, tends to be the most red on brown bodies.
Runny White is quite stable on its own, but flows a bit on other glazes. Looks great by itself on speckled brown bodies or on top of just about anything.
S-4 Blue looks a lot like denim, has nice surface variation, and looks good on both white and brown clays, especially on speckled brown.
Spearmint is a nice green with good surface variation.
Nutmeg is a fake shino, which I normally hate, but this one's not bad. Goes lighter as it gets thicker.
*edit- These tiles all show double dips. They are not runny with a single dip.

Nutmeg.pdf Spearmint.pdf S-4 Blue.pdf Runny White.pdf Harris Red.pdf Butter.pdf

Well said. I wish this was at the top of everyone’s views of social media. People are hooked on the dopamine from the “likes.” But you’re right, the rewards you sometimes get from talking to real people in person are on a whole different level. It puts the social media “likes” in the right perspective.