Callie Beller Diesel

Contact Cress. They’re really nice.

It’s mostly a matter of fit.

Shhhh! It looks deliberate. No one else noticed this. I like the soft lines.

Shrinking is normal. All clay shrinks as it looses water, and it will shrink more in the glaze fire.

I don’t know who thinks less of planters. People who have boring houses with no plants, I suppose.

Hi Fuller and welcome! Just as a heads up, if your wet pots freeze, they’ll break apart and collapse as they thaw.

I agree with Sorce about refiring probably making the pooling situation worse. Will it be necessarily harmful to use as is? Probably not. Will it break down eventually because of that thick pool on the bottom? Probably. Verdict: use it yourself to find out *exactly* how that works and what it’s like, but don’t sell it or give it away.

It’s my most recent pottery related purchase.

I think he’s just working with might just be straight oxides, perhaps with some flux added. I think the uneven drying of inside vs outside of the pot in order to create that rough, cracking texture, similar but milder than the sodium silicate effect is what he’s after. The fact that the slip or glaze is changing somewhat under the blowtorch is likely just a side effect that he’s taking advantage of.

If your elements have dark spots, that’s a strong indication your elements are dying, along with the fact that it’s firing that unevenly. Elements can be shot, and still be in place and upright. Testing your resistance is a quick and easy way to confirm that, yes. If you don’t own a proper meter, make sure you get one that can be used on a stove. There are ones that don’t read up to that level of voltage, and they’re cheaper, so you might be tempted.

Gas kilns tend to be outfitted with sensible peep plugs that are made out of one form of insulating brick or other. Electrics mostly come with slipcast ones that are breakable and stupid. Or maybe not stupid from the point of view of whoever manufactures them.

Is this a case of all vacations are trips, but not all trips are vacations?

I totally use liner glazes. I’ve found it’s important to decide exactly where you want which glaze to end and the other begin, and pay attention to how you make your rims in order to make that happen more easily. For instance, I like showing off a little of the red clay in each piece, so I throw my serving bowls (see current profile pic) with a flat beefy rim that I polish, but leave as bare clay. Because of the rounded square edge, it’s easy to make that line of demarcation nice and neat with a little wax and a quick wipe. With mugs, bare clay rims make me shudder to think about. So I b

20% humidity will definitely result in bone dry ware indoors. Especially with an indoor temperature of 21 C.

So, my husband has worked in shipping and logistics for the last 15 years or so. At one point in his career it was his job to to send electronics, and hazardous materials for scientific analysis over international borders. So he’s passingly familiar with convoluted shipping rules we all fear falling afoul of. He says first, using popcorn is a draw for rodents in warehouses, and please, for the sake of people who work there, don’t. Also, using popcorn may be illegal, depending on where you’re sending it to. There are some surprisingly strict, yet obscure rules about shipping foodstuffs, prepare