Callie Beller Diesel

So far, it’s a mug with a swear word on it, because 2020 seems to be inspiring certain sentiments at every possible opportunity. It’s what my therapist would have termed an adaptive (as opposed to maladaptive) self soothing method, so whatever helps! I did manage to get my hands on 50 or so pump dispensers (they’re kinda scarce as it turns out), and I made my first 6 hand sanitizer/soap bottles. They came out of the kiln yesterday and I think they’re quite nice! My MIL has already claimed one, so we’ll see how those go. I’m playing around with some soap dish designs, trying to find one that’s easy to make AND that I like. I’ve made ones I like, but they are a bit fussy. I need to simplify them so they’re faster.

@liambesaw Should have known better! Thank you.

Hey folks! We have a couple of recommendations to make post threads a bit more legible in light of how some folks have been using the tag and the quote features on the forum. We want to clarify how to use these features more effectively to make everyone’s user experience enjoyable, including those with slower internet speeds or less availability, or those who visit from a device instead of a desktop. Tagging Tagging is a handy feature that lets you get the attention of someone who has been in the conversation but hasn’t responded in a while, someone you’d like to ask a specific question or clarification of, or someone you believe could help with a question who hasn’t chimed in yet. To tag someone in a conversation, type the “@” symbol and begin typing the person’s screen name without a space. (eg. @Cal, not @ Cal.) A dropdown menu will appear, and you can select the correct forum member’s screen name from that. If done correctly, the member’s screen name will appear highlighted in green. The tagged forum member will receive a notification when they return to the forum that they have been tagged in a post, and will then hopefully go check it out. Quoting Another handy feature that we have is the ability to quote another person’s comment in a thread. This can be done by clicking on the quote button at the bottom of the desired comment. The entire comment will appear in your reply box, and you can then add what you like to your new post. It’s useful in order to respond to specific things within a comment, or to refer back to a comment that was made earlier in a longer thread. It’s important to remember though, that quoting an entire comment duplicates a lot of information, and can use a lot of visual real estate on the page. This presents issues for people with slow internet speeds, members who read threads from devices instead of desktops, and means a lot of scrolling for those following along. If you’re going to use this feature, it’s helpful to delete the parts of the quote that aren’t germane if it’s from a longer comment, or if it contains images you don’t need. You can also highlight part of the comment as if to cut and paste, and an option to quote only a small part of it will appear. Click on the small box that appears, and your chosen snippet will appear in your reply box. The quoted member will also receive a notification that they’ve been quoted in a thread but by itself quoting is not the most efficient way of simply getting someone’s attention.

Hey Liam, do you have an article I can link to on this? I’ve got someone asking about it in a FB group.

So? How did it feel?

Easy now! Baby steps.

Stilts are meant to be used if you're glazing the piece all over in order to make sure an earthenware piece doesn't weep after it's fired. Earthenware isn't usually vitreous when it's fired to maturity, so you have to make extra sure that the glaze fits the clay body if you're making functional ware. Cookies are used at all temperatures where the bottom of the piece or the footring or whatever comes in contact with the kiln shelf is left unglazed, but one is worried about glazes running.

I've been hesitating on posting some of my ideas because the response taken to Covid here in Canada has been very different, and I'm not sure if some of the things that will be working for me will be helpful to the Americans here yet. My province shut down for 2 1/2 months and our numbers were still declining all through stage one of reopening and are holding steady 2 weeks into stage two. It makes for a much different business environment, I think. But here's what things might look like if matters improve. Fall and Christmas shows aren't cancelled here, although that may change if we experience a second wave at the wrong time. Many are expressing a distaste for crowds. Some informal surveys done by a few colleagues among their mailing lists and social media followers indicate while some are planning on coming to in person shows if they're available, the majority are planning on shopping online for the Christmas season. I did my first weekend at my usual summer farmer's market last weekend. This market had the go ahead to run with food, alcohol and plant vendors only, as groceries are an essential service. Stage one reopening began one month before the market did, and stage 2 reopening began 2 weeks before, which means us non-essential vendors could join in, with special precautions. and caveats. If the number of infections starts going up and we have to increase the restrictions again, the non-essential vendors will be excluded by the province, so there's that. The new to me health precautions include: Redesigning my booth so that either it is only front-shoppable, or having only one family cohort in the booth at a time to promote physical distancing Providing either a hand wash station or hand sanitizer for both myself and my customers Discouraging shoppers from handling wares if possible ( I have been asking customers to hand sanitize before picking things up, and it's been well received) All tablecloths must be covered in plastic in order to be sanitized regularly with a 1:50 bleach solution or other disinfectant from an approved list All pin pads and other touch points should be covered in plastic and sanitized regularly as above Vendors are encouraged to wear masks, and wash hands regularly There are rules about people from different family groups in one booth being required to wear masks around each other (didn't pay a lot of attention because I'm by myself) I have to submit a questionnaire every week saying that I don't have any symptoms, I or my family haven't been out of the country in the last 14 days, neither I or my family have been tested or come back positive for Covid 19, etc. Plexiglass shields are recommended, but not required There's even more for food vendors. The market itself has increased the already generous spaces between booths to encourage more distance between people, they're limiting the number of people in the market at a time, they've provided a few extra hand wash stations and all foot traffic is one way. Mask wearing is tapering off after a month on stage 2, but I'd eyeball adherence at about 1/3 to 1/2. How did I do sales wise? It was a generous day and better than average, but not a record breaker. People bought the small to medium items mostly, and held pretty strongly to Mark's previous observations about buying during recessions. People were glad to be out and about, and there were surprisingly few tire kickers. People were definitely conscious of supporting their local producers, and glad to see us since all the spring shows had been cancelled.

@Benzine You had to sign up for kilns, so everyone knew I had loaded it.

If you don’t know how to throw a chuck or don’t have space to store one, you can take a suitable other container that will accommodate the vase neck (yogurt tub, bucket, flowerpot), pad the rim with something (towel, pool noodle, heat tape) and centre that on the wheel head with some clay.

What is your firing cycle, and what do the witness cones tell you about how complete it is? Is it reaching a true cone six, or is it only getting to 5? Any soak holds? How fast is it going?

I once put a Plainsman raku body though a cone ten wood fire. They tend to be very refractory.

My personal dumbest moment was back in college while loading the outdoor soda kiln in sub zero temperatures while not turning on the gas burners to heat the inside of the kiln. The posts and the shelves were so cold (they were kept outside) they froze the wadding, and when it melted, it shifted the stack and the whole thing fell over. I was not popular for this particular move.

@Min Gimme a day. I’ll try and talk to Caleb and Jess, see what they say. Bison and MC can probably pull it off, because they’re fairly skilled on the email and social media front already, and again they’ve got a clientele that habitually shops online and uses social media a lot. I’d say I’d personally only sign up for a virtual market if the organizer’s online marketing abilities were markedly better than my own. Otherwise you might just be better off organizing a small online show with a few friends to spread the word. And no, I would not pay full (medium to large show) a booth fee to participate.

The Royal Bison out of Edmonton took their spring show online to some excellent success according to a couple of friends who worked it, and Market Collective is opening an online storefront here shortly. That one might bear watching as well. For context for the non-Canadians, Royal Bison is a very small Indie market that has deliberately kept their size under 100 vendors in a small venue so they can keep their table fees to a song. It’s curated, with an eye to eclectic, and they do pick quality vendors. They have a young, dedicated, tech savvy audience with a taste for handmade, and their marketing methods has always been heavily focused online. So they already had a lot of things in place to make an online market work. I can reach out to a friend and get more information on how it operated, if you like.