Callie Beller Diesel

@Tami Ann using the keywords was how my friend got flagged on Etsy. The practice at the time was to keyword stuff the title, so she was using all the possible names for a butter dish. Remember, hers was a dome style, not even a French butter dish. I suspect someone just did a keyword search for the copyrighted term and send a cease and desist to everyone using it that wasn’t them.

Hi and welcome to the forum! The difference isn’t in the mould, it’s in the different kinds of casting slip you pour into them. You can get porcelain casting slip, or ones with other formulas. If you want to switch between different kinds of casting slip, just be mindful if cross contamination could be an issue. In some cases it might, in some cases it won’t matter.

Aha! The clay body is a buff one, which means it’s both a thickness thing and a reaction with the iron in the clay. The simplified explanation is that whatever’s in honey flux, it behaves very much like a rutile blue glaze. The blue colour isn’t from a pigment, it’s from how light refracts back through the glaze and into your eyes. So thickness and the colour of the background the glaze is on will affect the end results. A thinner application and a lighter background will make this glaze look like it does on the Dover white clay example Lee posted above, and you can see what thickness did to your buff Anasazi. If you put this glaze on a red or black clay, you’d need only a very thin layer to get that same blue/white variegation effect that is on the chess piece in your last picture. If you want it to look like Lee‘s version, you’ll have to use a different clay, or apply a white slip/underglaze to your existing one. edited to add: given that the MSDS lists zinc in the materials, cooling time may be a factor as well. If the kiln pack was tighter on one firing than the other, that could also account for the difference. Zinc tends to allow glazes to stay more fluid for longer periods, giving them more time to either continue any chemical reactions or to just smooth out.

The big caveat to anything raku is that for every rule, there’s an exception that proves it. But in general: Thickness isn’t a guarantee that something will live. A poorly constructed but chunky piece can still break. You want to think clay body, and construction methods. Clay body can have a big influence on your results. If you’re using a clay that is sold as a sculpture or raku clay body, it’ll withstand a lot more thermal shock than one that isn’t. I’ve seen people create small, very thin-walled pinchpot style animal figures out of a groggy raku clay with minimal problems. I’ve also seen thick walled stoneware pieces shatter within the first few minutes of the firing. I wouldn’t suggest using a typical talc based casting body: they’re relatively friable after the bisque compared to their green strength. You want to think about construction methods that are as structurally sound as the design will allow, and have as even cross section as possible. Curves>90* angles. You want to allow even heating/cooling over the whole piece, and avoid one side of the piece heating or cooling faster than the other. If cracks appear in a drying piece, I would not recommend repairs: start again. It will forever be a weak point, and throwing pieces into a reduction barrel can enlarge it. Some of the ideal thickness decision is going to depend on the scale of the piece too. 3/16” for an object that fits in your palm could be just fine if you’re working with a groggy open body. If you’re using a porcelain (which is doable) you’ll possibly want to go with a thicker cross section. Additional thickness is only useful if it adds reinforcement, not just for its own sake.

The Kemper ones are great for pumpkins. But not so much for clay.

I sharpen my trimming tools with a chainsaw file, and I do them when they feel like they’re starting to drag or I have to push too hard, similar to my kitchen knives. I use a Do All for most things, and I find they last about 18 months-2 years before the square edge is too worn to keep an edge. They’re about $20 Canadian, so I figure that’s pretty good value. Dolan doesn’t ship internationally.

@missys at the bottom of the comment box, there is an option to either drag photos from your desktop to attach, or you can click on choose files and follow the prompts. If your photos are on your phone, the easiest way is to log into this website through your browser. The comment box view will be similar, and most newer phone models will automatically prompt you to choose a suitable file size, similar to how you’d email a picture.

The last art gallery I was in was probably 20 years ago in a different economic climate. The owners were good human beings, but the rent on the place wasn’t feasible and they wound up closing down. Everyone got their work back, but not any outstanding payments from the previous month. I don’t make high end art work, and I’m not personally motivated at all by ego or prestige, so I don’t really feel the need to chase down opportunities like that. But I am keenly aware that others don’t share my opinion. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be in a gallery, but I haven’t seen it be a particularly lucrative income stream from anyone in my generation (Gen X) or younger working in clay. I’ve seen it bring travel and teaching opportunities and other fun things to some, which can be something. But no one I know who makes full time does galleries for anything other than an ego rub. And if that makes someone happy, give ‘er! IMO if the gallery insists on the artist being responsible for any shipping fees, including return on items that don’t sell, I’d rather sell it wholesale and not worry about when I’m going to get a consignment cheque or how much it’ll be.

I think an important question is what other glaze is the Honey Flux being used with? It’s not supposed to be used alone.

To answer the question most directly.: Personally I do a combination of online (my own website) and in-person. The online is a supplement to my in-person income, and adds up to the equivalent of a medium sized show every year. I don’t promote it as much as I should, or it would be doing better. I discontinued my Etsy shop because I found I was directing 60% of my own traffic, and 100% of my conversions were from my own sources, not Etsy. Also, they started charging a percentage fee on money collected on shipping and I thought that was absurd. The Longer Answer: There is no online marketplace that is a set it and forget it scenario. There are only marketing methods that work for you and your business and ones that don't. What works for you depends heavily on what you need your business to do. The ideal thing for a side hustle or an invested hobbyist will be different from full time business best practice. There's no getting away from putting some time and effort into marketing, whatever level you’re working at, and the payoff always takes way more time than anyone likes. You can either do the bulk of your marketing yourself, or you can pay someone in some capacity to help you with getting your product into your customers' hands. Paying someone else can look like using Etsy, paying in-person show booth fees, paying for social media ads or some combination thereof. Usually the lower the price point to entry, the more work you have to do yourself. In terms of actual software or platforms, your best bets online remain Etsy if you want convenience or to add an income stream, or your own website if you want to own your digital assets. If you're building your own website, use one that's designed for e-commerce. If I were building from scratch, I'd tell people to save time and energy and go straight to Shopify. Square is less money and is serviceable if you need a lower cost entry point, but customizations are very limited. As someone with a Square website, it’s kinda ugly, tbf. Whichever platform you use, it's heavily advisable to make sure you also build an email list. You can add social media platforms according to your energy levels and what you find fun or helpful.

Another thing you can do is cover the slab with a layer of fabric: an old sheet or pillowcase, size depending.

I’m going to tag @neilestrick because he’s better at this stuff than I am, and I suspect it’s a minor adjustment. Cranking a wheelhead toddler-style shouldn’t do any damage to it. Worst case scenario though, you’re still within the 2 year warranty period.

It’s less weird than you think. If you make pots for a couple of years, you get asked about urns. We have several older threads on assorted guidelines for dealing with cremains.

@MKG001 the MSDS doesn’t give anything that screams out “this clay has a bunch of stuff in it that needs to burn off.” It could be the feldspar, could be they used a plastic but dirty kaolin, could have been another ingredient that isn’t listed, but contributes disproportionately to the Loss On Igniton numbers.

I think nail polish would be your best bet if you’re just covering a few stilt marks. OPI and Essie both make a black mirror nail polish that’s somewhat trendy right now. A google search for black mirror nail polish comes up with a number of possible brands. Check your drugstore. They probably have something.

Be careful not to use oxy-clean or others like it! They’ve got extra surfactants and sometimes soda ash that will make a mess of your clay.

If the pitting is showing up on the same clay but with a different glaze, that’s a strong indication the clay body is part of the problem. An interesting observation: I went to the website link Peter posted to see if I could find a more detailed MSD sheet. I wanted to see if there was any mention of any material that might be off-gassing. When I zoomed in on the pictures of the glazed bowls, that glaze also shows signs of pitting. So that’s a pretty strong indication. I didn’t look too hard for the MSD sheet after that, but I’m pretty confident there’s an inexpensive ingredient, or one that makes the clay easier to use that has a lot of sulphites or other organics. If you’ve got any of this clay left and you’re doing your own firing, you might try using the slow bisque cycle if you’re not already. If you are, program a bit of an extra 15-20 mini soak in the 250-600 C/ 480-1110 F range to allow some more burn off time.

Do you have a record of what point your last cone 5 firing errored out at?Are there other factors may have contributed to the panel overheating? Is your kiln in an enclosed area that retains heat? How ventilated is the space? If you’re using pre-programmed firing cycles, what’s the model of the kiln? We can have a look at the ramps and holds and see what the differences are between the cycles and give you a better answer.

Bill already said it, but it’s worth repeating. The cheapest and easiest method to minimize risk is to have good studio hygiene. It’s the old saw about an ounce of prevention being better than a pound of cure. If you generate minimal dust, or use wet cleanup methods frequently, you will cut airborne OHS risks drastically. Covering any glaze buckets in between dry glaze ingredient additions, mopping your floor after mixing glazes and any activity that gets clay on the floor and not sanding your work will drastically improve your air quality. For most clay purposes, cleaning and a good, well-fitting respirator for spraying/dusty activities are sufficient. An air cleaner is a nice-to-have. As per the article Bill linked above however, an N100 filter is recommended for a respirator worn during glaze mixing, not N95. The best mask should be a well-sealed and properly fitted mask, and that will depend somewhat on the shape of your face. It’s better to try one on in person rather than just order online for that reason. It’s worth getting one with straps that distribute the weight evenly over your head for more comfort. If you do shop for an air purifier, filter changes etc will vary by model and the volume of air it’s filtering. The particle size of concern with respirable silica is 10 microns or less. The particularly hazardous ones are the ones under 3 microns, so make sure your filter will actually grab those ones efficiently. Many are more concerned with allergens like pollen or pet dander, so they’ll pick up some >3micron particles, but how efficiently they do so and for how long is an important distinction.

Adobe is great in the desert, but notsomuch where we get more freeze/thaw cycles. In college it was a fun intro first year project to make adobe sculptures in the courtyard as a group out of some reclaim and straw. They’d be left in place and by spring they’d be pretty disintegrated.

My high school did the same as Denise: teacher turned the kiln on at the end of the day with the firing cycle set so that it would shut off in the early morning so she’d be there to check. Usually on a Friday or before a PD day.

This part here is not going to happen. All clay is not the same. You will likely have to process it somehow, and it will need to be fired. I haven’t checked the geological survey to confirm, but I’m pretty sure Washington state doesn’t have sub-tropical laterite, and if it did, there’s still a freeze thaw cycle to consider. In order to meet building code, you’d have to do a LOT of testing and work out a making process to make sure those bricks aren’t going to be a hazard to the finished building or to the humans who live in it. The scope of making an entire house worth of bricks is huge. In terms of labour and expense, it’s going to be the least cost effective thing you’ve ever done. I’m not saying that to discourage you if you’re set on the path, just trying to make sure we’re working from the same set of base assumptions. All of us here absolutely understand the joy of working in clay and how absolutely compelling it is to work with. If your heart is set on doing this, start with the initial tests suggested by glazenerd.

If you’re digging your own clay, you have to do a bunch of testing to figure out its properties first. If you want to process it efficiently you’ll need some kind of mixing equipment, whether it’s a pugmill or something like a Soldner mixer. If you’re doing it as a one-off project, there’s going to be nothing efficient about it, and I suggest just enjoying the process. If you’re looking to do a bunch of similar projects, it’s one of those things where you have to do a lot of testing and setup that will lead to efficiencies of scale. I don’t know that I’ve heard of anyone slurry mixing brick clay. I’ve seen youtube videos of some low tech brick making operations in places like India. They start with a clay that would be far too wet to throw or handbuild with, but isn’t quite wet enough to be reclaim either. They didn’t show the clay prep, so I don’t know if there was a mixing or sieving process involved, or if the material was used as-is. They loaded it into a wooden mould that was open on top and bottom, so they formed the bricks in the place where they’d be left to dry.

On the off chance he’s still checking in from time to time, I’ll tag @liambesaw. He was making lustres at one point, and might have some insight.

You’re not the first person to have that thought, but I’ve never seen anyone bring it into common practice. Your best bet may be a non-fired sealant of some kind. Keep in mind there’s a lot of folks that come to this forum looking for help troubleshooting a cone 6 glaze they’ve put on a cone 10 clay body. If the glaze winds up crazed and the body isn’t mature, it’ll weep.