Callie Beller Diesel
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Posts posted by Callie Beller Diesel
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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.
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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.
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10 hours ago, helzb3th said:
who'd have guessed they'd be asking such weird questions l
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.
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@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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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22 hours ago, TunnleBricks said:
If I could use the clay as is that would be fantastic
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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On 5/12/2023 at 4:48 PM, cbjensen said:
What is the going rate or considered fair? I charged a flat fee which no were near covered the expenses.
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.
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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.
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At least $600 in:
- Rents.
- Prizes and awards.
- Other income payments.
- Medical and health care payments.
- Crop insurance proceeds.
- etc
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@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.
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13 hours ago, Kelly in AK said:
One of these days I’m going to learn to tap center
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.
Honey Flux glaze firing blue
in Clay and Glaze Chemistry
Posted
I think an important question is what other glaze is the Honey Flux being used with? It’s not supposed to be used alone.