Callie Beller Diesel

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.

So, my city does have a group of china painters, but they don’t have a lot of web based presence other than this link here. This group has helped me with lustre questions in the past, but it’s been a while. They are a wealth of knowledge though.

If you wanted to confirm if the shelf was cooler or hotter, another way to do that is re-fire one of the scummed pieces and see if it improves or gets worse. If it goes worse, the shelf was likely hotter. If it improves, the original shelf was likely a bit cooler.

I’m not going to tell anyone their experience is invalid, but I am going to point to the response I made right above yours. As you pointed out, there’s not a lot of info on mycotoxins in clay, but at a glance there’s a LOT of it regarding medications, grain storage and animal feed. Humans have worked with clay for centuries, and of all the health issues that are prevalent, assorted mould allergies or contact reactions do make the list. You can smell the petrichor when you open the bag, and see the spots. Clay that you buy from a supplier at some point was part of a river bank, and it doesn’t get washed or anything before the components get sieved and mixed, so it should be no surprise that things grow in it, whether its “fresh” or reclaimed. In fact it’s relatively common practice to encourage a certain amount of mould growth in clay for plasticity, and for otherwise healthy folks, it’s not an issue. Keyword there is healthy. If you’re immunocompromised for any reason, the advice is first and foremost to discuss with your doctors and other healthcare providers.

All material, packaging and shipping costs have increased in the last 3 years or so, and some minerals will continue to to increase in price with a shift towards renewable energy. If you’re making pots for profit, learning how to mix your own or paying a glaze formulating service for recipes could be worth looking into.

Now that you have an idea of the expenses, you can adjust your pricing. If your show had good turnout, you could also consider asking for a small entry fee for shoppers (keep it under $5 or make a food bank donation an alternative and no one fusses). If you have 500 people through the door, $2 per adult helps offset costs and helps keep your booth fees reasonable for your vendors. It’s common practice here, but I get that other places might balk. It’s worth a test, especially at a Christmas market. If your spring market was this successful, usually you can expect double that in November/December. Plan now and it’ll give you a chance to talk to your accountant about the best way to go about dealing with sales tax.

Re form 1099: they may not be necessary unless there was anyone that sold more than $600, even at a stretch. I suppose it would qualify as “other income payments?” I suppose the question is, would you taking this money on behalf of others and then remitting it directly to them count as taxable income, or would the government consider it to be a deductible business expense, and thereby be revenue neutral? I want everyone who reads this to understand that they should definitely take their accountant’s advice over mine, and this is just a question I’m asking. From the IRS website: File Form 1099-MISC for each person to whom you have paid during the year: At least $10 in royalties or broker payments in lieu of dividends or tax-exempt interest. At least $600 in: Rents. Prizes and awards. Other income payments. Medical and health care payments. Crop insurance proceeds. etc

@Clean Pottery if you know the brand of feldspar you plan to use, that could help us get a lot closer. Estimated analyses tend to vary pretty widely from actual on feldspars in particular, and the ratios of alumina and silica are important on this particular conversion.

Practice with a coffee can/other round container that you can put a little weight into (some form of dry clay/grog) that mimics the weight of a pot.

I haven’t chimed in on this thread yet because we deal with sales tax VERY differently where I’m at. But as far as organizing future sales goes, I think a flat rate charge for anyone wanting to participate is usually the least complicated method for everyone involved. Based on no one making under $150, maybe a $25 rate to cover promotional material/space rental, your own labour, etc. This price could be based on your projected workshop rental fee divided by however many spots there are room for. Organizing it like a small scale show/table rental scenario simplifies a lot of things, would allow the event as a whole to be profitable, give the studio a predictable income, and have everyone in charge of their own payments and tax remittance. If you have a number of people who don’t sell on the regular but wish to still take card payments, you could consider purchasing a few of the small tap readers and styluses for studio use, and rent them for a small ($5-10 maybe?) fee. They’re very easy to pair on the fly, and setting up a basic Square account can be done by occasional vendors the day before. Edited to add: organizing it as a craft show could pull all your permits/licenses under one umbrella and simplify that as well.

Can you tell if that shelf was hotter or cooler than the others? It could be as simple as that.

+1 for the Neoprene pad (the Xiem bat mate or a chamois/sham-wow). It’s a lot more stable than clay wads, and not as expensive as a GG. (Not hating on the GG, just not my thing.) For trimming, the positioning is very similar to centring, but with a trimming tool. Firmly braced, both hands in contact whenever practical. Middle fingers of my non dominant hand are in the middle pressing gently down, dominant hand holds the tool. Dominant elbow is braced on the knee/torso. Clay is cut away with a sharp tool and a light touch.

I’ve had something similar happen in a glaze that had dry epsom salts added to the batch. The salt crystals didn’t dissolve fully, so the bits left almost identical white patches. So my question is, was your glaze lumpy, and could this have been caused by chunks of something (maybe the soda frit?) that weren’t fully dispersed? Did someone brush the lumps off of the pieces on one layer and not the other?

Just because I was playing around with Trello a bit more this week, I think you don’t even have to link a google doc if you want a form for customer information. You can create checklists that would serve. Tagging also has some good potential to keep track of some things visually.

Skutt has a video here on making cup head bats. https://skutt.com/pottery-wheels/pottery-wheel-accessories/the-cuphead-system/ The principle is similar to the keyed bats that Pye linked to, just a different shape. It looks like the keyed ones are adapted to a standard wheel head instead of a cup.

A few questions to help us troubleshoot: Is what you’re referring to as scumming pinholes/blisters, or is it some kind of solid crystal in the glaze? The image isn’t super clear. If you experienced it in an entire kiln load previously, do you know what caused it in that instance? Also, can you tell us if the firing may have been cooler/hotter on that shelf for any reason? And what is the glaze recipe if you have it? If you don’t, please provide the brand name and we can look up details.

I pack my pots from my basement to my outdoor kiln. It’s not my favourite pastime, but I feel better about having my kiln outside than in my basement. It’s in a tin garden shed with no door, and the only things I keep in that shed are a folding table for loading, and a shelf for my kiln furniture and a lantern for loading in the dark. Going on 6 years, and so far, so good. My area is dry and cold, not humid at all. In the summer I wind up glazing outside, and that saves a LOT of work! I find wind is an issue. Even in a sheltered area, leaves, dirt and debris collect under the kiln. You have to clean the area around the outlet pretty regularly if you don’t want to create fire hazards. I would check into code about kiln sized outlets on external walls. I believe hot tubs that require a 240v service and a 40-60 amp breaker will have similar requirements. Or at least that’s what we went by. If any of those windows are transoms that swing out, you’ll probably want to make sure the gasket seals aren’t letting any fumes back into the house. And keep an eye on them, because I can confirm what Neil says about the corrosion. I don’t have a vent fan, and the area around the peeps are getting a little rusty. If you have concerns about neighbours sight lines, a metal privacy screen could be a good option.

I think it’s important to understand why you’re doing a soak at a given point in the firing. Why does the work need the heat, or the chance to even out the kiln’s temperature at the point you’re soaking at? Are you even having a problem with something and adding a soak will fix that problem, or are you just going by guidelines that someone else wrote down because it seems like a likely starting place? There’s nothing wrong with the latter, just understand that like the pirate code, they’re more like guidelines than actual rules. Yes, and there are loads of how-to threads on changing your kiln from a manual to a digitally controlled one in the equipment use and repair threads. Neil is also a kiln tech, so he can advise you on how-to. It’s a bit of a project, and it depends on how comfortable you are with doing work with electronic components.

Things like lots of pet dander, pollen, heavy pollution or wildfire smoke can also cause this. It’s not necessarily allergies, just particulate.