Callie Beller Diesel

Those witness cones will tell you a lot. If the firing went for the same amount of time, might not be a big deal at all.

It’s also helpful to learn on something that’s wider than it is tall. Shallow bowls or plates, or even regular bowls are easier than something like a cup or a mug.

Yep, that calculator. You’re right. I was using volume measurement of 10 in the first box, not weight. (Facepalm) You can neutralize muriatic acid with some bicarb or diluted ammonia, and might be good to keep some handy while working with it. For disposal, you’d have to check with whoever deals with household chemical disposal locally. Where would you drop off things like used paint thinner?

Mea makes a good point about there being better materials, and there is a reason those glass coffee tables went out of style. The only reason I’m not saying “don’t” outright is because this has the flavour of an AUA assignment. If that’s the case, talk to Martina, Zimra or the tech and let them advise you. If you are at any of the city run facilities, Workshop or MUD, they should be advising you against this. You can combine the materials safely, but the end result is going to be VERY heavy and not especially practical. The thickness of glass you’ll need is going to be stupid. We did occasionally get projects like this at Danziger. We would tell them yes, but. The “but” being they’d have to pay for it to be done properly, and fast wasn’t in the equation.

Joe at Old Forge does mention that his spreadsheet is meant to help with pricing/earning calculations. Using his “lazy” method of the assigned, and probably padded value in that instance will factor for things like the extra amount you need to be able to dip a piece, glaze waste, testing, etc. When I used the Brongniart calculator to figure out the dry weight of 10 ml of a glaze with sg 1.4, I got 4.6g. That value won’t be super accurate for you because your frit use means the calculator’s default dry weight value is off. But it all depends on how accurate you want/need to be. Joe’s weighing method is going to be the most straightforward tool for measuring exactly what’s used on a given piece.

Hey neighbour! I used to work at Danziger Glass before the owner died. Gluing the glass in place for a piece of furniture isn’t advisable because there’s not a lot of adhesives that will hold by themselves that aren’t also very visible/ugly. A mechanical connection like the threaded rod suggestions are best. BUT ALSO: To make a glass top coffee table safe for household use, you need to use tempered glass. A child or a pet crashing through something like that would result in serious injury. You can’t drill into or cut tempered glass after it’s been tempered, so you have to custom order it with info about hole placement. There are places here in town you can do that, but I’d have to check if they only deal within the industry or if you can walk in. When we were doing it, the tempering had to happen in Vancouver, so there is lead time on a piece like that, and it isn’t cheap.

Am making a post that links to discussions about wild clay, for easy reference purposes.

Pye, the only difference between someone who can throw a 3 minute cylinder and the place you’re at is practice. That’s it. Just. Repetition. It will come, I promise. Throwing is one of those 10,000 skills, like playing a musical instrument. Making cylinders is like learning scales, and you’ll be able to do it on sheer muscle memory in a matter of months. It’s really easy to brush off the small wins in your process because of this. Once you can do something without thinking about it, you stop thinking about it. It’s really, really important to take a moment to acknowledge your progress. I’m going to DM you about some video platform options. I’ll help you figure that end out.

PYE! Those are some extremely respectable starting cylinders! Don’t worry about the fact that they flopped when you cut them in half, they all do that. You’re showing a nice even cross section and there’s no extra weight in the corners. Height and evenness will come with practice. This is the point we tell you to go make a really obnoxious number more of them. If you’re making 3 in a session right now, aim for 10 next time. (I said AIM.) When you get to 10, aim for 20. If you get bored, add handles and call them mugs. 3 lbs is a common starting point for everyone’s first-ever throwing class hockey pucks. Starting too small can present issues because we all cut off tops, tear some away, and mush things. Also, trying to centre a too small amount can be as difficult to do as trying to centre too much at first. If you have more confidence about centring and aren’t discarding half the clay you started with, you can definitely drop down to 1 or 2 lbs.

In regards specifically to MOP, my husband has a unicorn statue from his mom that she made back in the 70’s that’s all done in MOP and gold lustre. It shows no surface degradation after 45 years of sitting on a shelf. She’s the one who gave me the application tips when I was playing with it. (Thanks Marilyn!) Archival discussions around pottery and ceramics are definitely different than in painting! Firing clay has prehistoric origins in function, and it’s the bulk of how ceramic is used as a material, so durability thresholds start at very different points. No one would dream of subjecting a painting to the abuse ceramic items take. We’re always talking about making things that hold up to freeze/thaw cycles, acid attack, thermal shock and cutlery marking. Half the discussions on this forum are some version of “if I do ___ will that break something and if so, how?” That said, there are a few categories of glazes that can and do react with oxygen if left unsealed, but they’re outliers and there’s all kinds of warnings and caveats about their suitable uses. Not everything we make is utilitarian after all, so there’s some room for these things. Think raku fired wares involving copper, and some glazes that are over saturated with some heavy metals, like Palladium having a lot of manganese. (Not magnesium. That’s different, but it’s easy to confuse.) Modern lustres are their own weird thing. They’re not technically a ceramic finish, and they’re not used exclusively on pots. They aren’t bonded with the glaze, or other substrates they're applied to. It’s just a really fine layer of metals sitting on the surface of something shiny. They’re made from metals that don’t oxidize, such as yellow or white gold, but they are subject to mechanical and some chemical degradation. That’s why you usually only see lustres on the rims of china pieces where they get less wear, and you’re not supposed to put grandma’s china in the dishwasher. They don’t recommend you put mother of pearl on food surfaces, because it can wear off. You can sand lustres off with elbow grease and some 220 grit wet/dry sandpaper.

Most of our hazards involve dust or fumes, and are easily mitigated with simple good housekeeping, outdoor glaze mixing whenever possible, and wearing a properly fitted respirator when handling dry materials. Many oxides, including manganese, are perfectly fine to use regularly as long as you know to take a few simple precautions about keeping dust down.

I agree entirely with Min about the pinholing issues in this glaze so definitely do the troubleshooting and testing she recommends. But you also mention having struggles with pinholes with more than one clay body and multiple glazes, and you’re using a fast speed on your bisque. Consider slowing your next bisque speed to medium or even slow, and do your glaze cycles as usual. See if that helps anything.

I used this seller because she’s in my province, but she ships to the US. If you want to use someone closer to home for you, there were lots of custom stamp makers. I just went to etsy and used 3d printed stamp as my search terms. Lots of folks making custom cookie cutters/polymer clay stamps/pottery stamps in all kinds of materials, including brass.

However long you’ve been at it, there’s always new things to learn. That step five hold might not be accidental, or if it was, it’s handily placed. Just because someone else was asking about black coring and wild clay recently, I remembered that this is about the temperature you’d want to hold a bisque at if your clay body has a bunch of carbon you’re trying to burn off to avoid some glaze issues. Your clay may or may not have an actual problem with this, but it shouldn’t hurt it either. If you decide to remove that hold later, take note of whether or not you have any pinholing or micro bubbles in the pieces from the different bisque batches.

I got a pile of something similar to these for my kids’ assorted drawing implements. Check the third picture to get a clear (heh) image of them. They’re a nice size that you could either build individual kits in each drawer, or they’ll fit the equivalent of 24 Sharpie markers, with room at the back (front?)of the drawer. A great size for most pottery hand tools. You’d probably want something bigger for sponges. Dollar Tree apparently sells them by the case.

Mother of pearl is a lustre and fires to cone 016, but that’s from memory, so double check the label for specifics. Ibelieve the Amaco and Mayco ones are both pretty similar. Definitely use a vapour respirator and apply outdoors! The stuff is pretty stinky, and very not good for you. You want to apply it evenly and not too heavily, or it will go hazy instead of pretty. Use brushstrokes that go against each other in a hashtag motion, or in a swirling pattern. If you apply it all in the same direction, the iridescence doesn’t show as well, or only from one angle.

Interestingly enough, the hand positioning you describe is almost identical to the way I do it, but my wheel turns counterclockwise. I open differently though. I have a relative who thinks I should have been left handed too, but I don’t remember anyone trying to make me switch. Lots of neurodiverse folks can be fully or partially ambidextrous and/or have poor proprioreception (perception of your body in space). It runs in my family, so we have some sense of how to navigate that. I’m going to keep my descriptions to inside hand and outside hand in the sense you’ve already described, because I think that’s a good method. My outside hand is my dominant hand (right), and my inside is my left hand. People can fill in what applies to them. I use a 3 middle finger method to open. I use my left/inside hand anchored into my left hip to centre, same as you. My inside hand is set against the wheelhead, or just a hair above, to centre. The outside hand is braced on top of the inside doing that karate chop pose to create the flat spot, as in the most recently posted video. Keeping the inside hand in place, I then use the middle finger of my outside hand to run slowly from the outside edge inwards until I find the exact middle spot. It’s quite noticeable, and taking an extra breath to find it lets you open in the right place. I then stack my pointer and ring fingers on top of that middle finger and press down to create that v shape, staying well braced the whole time. If needed, you can switch your braced elbow to your outside hand side, and use your inside hand fingers to add more downward pressure. To scale this move to larger amounts of clay (>5lbs) you can use the side of your fist instead of fingertips, but the bracing stays the same. To create the flat base, rather than pulling to the side like with the 1 or 2 thumb methods, lock your joints on all 3 fingers and pull that well braced outside hand straight towards yourself at the 6 o’clock position. If necessary, steady that wrist with the inside hand by grasping it from above. The person who taught me to do this had some background in kinesiology, and said that this was a more joint friendly method, and incorporates body weight movements rather than brute strength. -That same person advised keeping your hands in contact with each other on the clay, unless physically not possible. It offers a lot more support and stability. Play with what works. Other thoughts about getting a cylinder vs a bowl: -make sure you start your pull only after you’ve allowed a full revolution of the wheel with your fingers at the base. Make sure you’ve made a full donut to pull up, not a spiral. When you get to the top of the cylinder, allow at least a full revolution before you take your fingers away. -the direction your form moves in will be in the direction the last point of contact pushed it towards. If you want your piece’s rim to move inwards, stagger your finger position slightly. When pulling, place the fingertips of your outside hand just below the fingertips of your inside hand so your outside hand can push in to correct any hint of flaring caused by your inside hand. That should get you your volcano. If you want the piece to flare on purpose, inside fingertips should be at or below outside fingertips, mostly just supporting it so things don’t happen too fast.

Do you want the metal for the feel of the tool, or would you be happy with something 3D printed? I got a set of letter stamps from an Etsy seller in the font of my choosing, and I think she did other images too.

How much do they have to hold, and do you know what size space they have to fit in? Do you have a price point you want to stay within?

Ok, so Canadian tax law is a bit different, but Mark, they make apps for all that! You don’t have to manually enter all the data. Check into downloading CSV files from your statements and Square. Most up to date tax software should accept them. I file and remit/claim GST (federal sales tax) quarterly, so by the time I hit income tax time as a sole prop, all my work is already done. Our holdup is waiting for my husband’s employer to file his T4’s and relevant investment documents, plus some paperwork for the kids so we can file jointly. I use a robo advisor, so my investment paperwork is a quick download. I automate as much of my banking as I can, and try to do little amounts of book keeping/money management more often so I don’t wind up with a giant fearful job at tax time. Also key to this is Mike Michalowicz’s Profit First method to manage cash flow. 10/10 recommend it, especially if you like jar/envelope money management systems, or like to see/hold your money to understand it. I have a separate credit card and bank account for all business expenses, so I can separate everything out easily. Because I record all my sales in Square including the cash ones, I can download a CSV file from both Square and my credit card and import everything into a bookkeeping Excel spreadsheet my accountant made for me. The only thing I have to manually enter are things like Square fees for individual months, and any purchases made by e-transfer. She takes the info and files for me. Profit First method gets you to set aside a pro rated percent of your sales for taxes that varies based on your gross income. If you do a quick little online money shuffle once a week based on that week’s sales, at tax time you have enough to pay your tax bill already set aside in an account. For GST, the amount you have to remit to the government is offset by the GST you paid while buying goods and services for your business. So for me it winds up that the account also holds enough to pay my accountant. If I have anything after that, I take it as a small bonus.

@Min It definitely reminds me of that banana taped to the wall that another performance artist came along and ate!

So there’s a few points here I think. First, safety, and next practicality. All of the below assumes you have your heart set on a black and white marbling combo at cone 6 (1200 C) in an electric kiln. Safety:Most of the risks involved in pottery are to the potter, not the end user. Your exposure to any of those materials is going to be greater than anyone who’s using the end product, because the materials aren’t bonded to anything the way they are in fired ceramic. That’s not to say that there are no risks, or that you don’t have to mind your chemistry so you have a stable glaze. But your safety is the most at risk in this scenario. Worry a little about your customer, but worry more about your own health. Because the example is Manganese, most of that oxide’s dangers come from inhalation. Humans only absorb about 5% of the manganese they swallow, and it’s not absorbed through the skin. (Source cited here). So if you are not working next to a kiln full of manganese glazed wares while it’s firing, and you’re using good housekeeping practices that reduce airborne dry clay that uses manganese as a colourant, your chances of injury are lowered. That said, if you’re firing in reduction, using iron in any form as a colourant would be a much safer option if you don’t mind a very dark brown/warm black colour (disclaimer to come). If you’re firing in oxidation, a stain is safer than manganese. Stains are designed to be more stable/less harmful than certain colouring oxides, and they create colours that are harder to get with oxides alone. They’re not soluble in their unfired form, so you don’t absorb them through your skin or anything like that. Some still contain spinel, so breathing the dust is still bad for your lungs, but only in the same way dry clay is. From a practical standpoint, If you’re making marbled clay by adding a colourant to a white clay body, this is the best method to ensure pieces don’t crack apart along the marbling lines. So what are the pros and cons of manganese, iron and black stain? Iron and manganese are both pretty inexpensive. Iron is a lot safer to use for the potter than manganese, but doesn’t give a true black by itself. Both however, will off gas a lot more than a stain will. Black clay has been very popular the last few years, but all of them that use manganese or umber are prone to bloating if fired to cone 6 (roughly 1200 C). Manganese dioxide begins to break down into manganese oxide at 1080 C. This turns it into a more active flux, leading to bloating. The release of extra oxygen bubbles all creates a lot of pinholing or glaze blistering that is pretty difficult to resolve in an opaque glaze, and will make a clear glaze cloudy with micro bubbles. The few clays that I’ve seen that use iron or iron containing minerals don’t bloat any more than a normal red clay body would if overfired. But you’ll still have issues if you’re using a clear glaze because of that clouding. You can get a clear glaze to go *mostly* clear over an iron bearing clay, but it’s a lot of work and testing. If you use a black mason stain in particular, they’re pretty refractory and don’t have any Loss On Ignition values, so that means they’re not loosing gasses. Solves all of those above problems, but they do cost a bit more.

I’ve never done it personally, but I’ve seen tutorials about painting parts (or all) of the plaster mould with a layer of coloured slip and letting it set up a little before pouring the “main” casting slip. It allows you to just use a coloured version of the slipcasting body of your choice to decorate, and it’s thoroughly integrated into the piece.

You could do it a couple of ways. Start with a flexible form like a pool noodle and form it into a circle. Drape clay over this to create 2 circular pieces that you can connect into a hollow shape. Think about how you cut a bagel in half, but instead of cutting it apart, you’re attaching the pieces at a firm leather hard stage. Another approach would be if you have an extruder and have a die that will create a hollow tube. Extrude your tube longer than you’d want the circumference of your doughnut to be. Seal the ends, trapping air inside. Curve the tube into a circular shape, and allow to stiffen enough that the tube won’t collapse when opened. Cut the ends on a diagonal to give you more attaching surface, and slip and score away. You could also try dowel rolling a tube, but that gets a lot tricker the bigger the piece is.

Believe me, I get the minivan cringe factor! I purchased my first one under duress, and liked it against my will, and I was in my 30’s. Keep it in mind for your next purchase though.