Rae Reich

Finally got the side bowls on, I'm pleased with myself.
Now to see if it survives drying and firing ha
 
I also made myself a new wedging table today, my old setup was a little too high for me and was making my back hurt.
 

i gave up using red clay because of the mess.   i could not get it out of my many wrinkles without bleach.   white clay is so much neater,   (unless you put the throwing water on top of the wheelhead and accidentally hit the pedal.)   do not ask how i know this.

My goodness it's so easy, lift up the wheelhead and pick up the pan like a bucket and dump straight into the reclaim.  Before I had to haul a bucket over and scoop everything out one handful at a time.  
Now I'm self conscious about my splash pan hygiene haha, I thought everyone's looked that bad after a session! 

Well I only finished 15 bowls, but I got distracted.  A co-workers wife wanted to know if I could make a strawberry planter so I am giving it a shot.  I think I should have used more clay, I used 15lbs but it seems small to me, I'm gonna be throwing the bowls for the side tonight and attaching them and see how it goes.  Might be able to get some of that Microsoft money I've heard so much about around here! Hah
 
I will say, I wouldn't have been able to do this on my old wheel, I had to stand up to pull on this one, it was 2 feet tall at one point!  Loving my new wheel

Welp, I've been on the lookout for a decent deal on a wheel and I found a brand new Skutt prodigy for 650.  Couldn't pass it up.  Got it set up tonight and wow what a difference.  Anyway, threw another 9 bowls, I think I've got it now!  I think I'll have enough for a kiln load by the weekend haha.

Round 1
 

Annotating pictures? Making videos? You are getting to be quite proficient with this digital stuff!

Work bench is now empty after packing two kiln loads-packed up my small toyota bed full with pots in boxes and dolly and took a dozed boxes in to two outlets (both consignments)
Also finished  up packing a Large whole sale order which I droop off in Santa Rosa. on way south to SF to take my wife to her 6 week doctor check up after hip surgery.
I'm also taking down 1bout 1200 # of scrap metal sorted into 17 different sorts-red brass-yellow brass-100 # lead ingot -400#s of wire -clean to insulated-all sorted well
dirty brass clean and dirty copper-you get the idea no steel all higher qualities -wire is from 30 years ago working as a sparky.
Lots of the brass is from shipwrecks over the past decades-all scrap no nice items.
I did this sort last summer and my electrician friend has yet to take it so I'm making this a multi pot's .metal, doctor run, also bringing back a copper dive helmet and some fish prints.
 
Liam said (I mixed up a couple new glazes and sacrificed a few pots to see what they'll look like.)
test tiles are easier than pots especial for 1st tests
I lost a good friend about over a year ago and yesterday I finally started to empty his pottery shop. He was my salt kiln partner.
I am cleaning it out for his widow. mush of whats there came thru me to begin with. I worked on his glazes for many hours and brought home what I can use and we poured the water off the rest to dry them out. I am going to take the whole lot so she can have a two car space back in a ship building.
I processed a large truck bed full today at my studio.This is a huge job and since he once was doing raku and low fire it complicates the mix. I am going to try to donate all the low fire to a school and will give some clays away as well. I found him the Geil kiln and we will deal with that later-I also brought him a small electric from one of my AZ show trips 10 years ago and he has a 3 zone new skutt electric which  will also sell in the future  year after the shop gets cleared out and some time goes by.All the kilns are in a new connected large kiln room-finished out with painted sheet rock.He fired the gas kiln twice.
This is familiar as I have bought out 2-3 living potters in my past but this is good friend and much of what I'm moving I have handled before. It sad but I promised when she was ready I would do this for her.
The clay and glaze and material alone will be 4-5 truck fulls.I will take a month  or more to work thru this.
My work bench today had all his stuff on it but now its found a new spot in my stuff.

Today I mixed up a couple new glazes and sacrificed a few pots to see what they'll look like.  Doing a glaze firing now, it should be cool enough to open up and take a look tomorrow night!
This week I will go back to trying to throw repeat bowls.  I need to step up my bowl game, I'm pretty decent at mugs now. I just need to finish putting handles on all of last week's mugs and then it's bowls bowls bowls.  Gonna force myself to figure out getting them to the gauge every time.
Oh yeah, and I have to finish editing my latest YouTube video.  Hah.  I don't think people realize how difficult editing video is until they're neck deep in it.  Kudos to any YouTubers out there

Good thing you're a philosopher, Hulk. Can't wait to see those next pots!!
Drastic/Tragic Learning Experiences - good topic 

Actually, @Mark C.just gave us one with his "quick cooling" story in "temp for opening the kiln?" 

So I know this is my kitchen counter, but the light on my workbench turns most photos very yellow. This medicine set will be my own entry to the mug portion of the “Bonspiel: Canadians and Their Love of Winter Sport” show at NCECA this year. After some adventures I had with my kids and ear infections last month, I feel like avoiding illness is a winter sport!
If you’re coming this year, check out the show. We’re on the Minneapolis Picks bus tour and shuttle route on Wednesday.
 

Did a glaze firing over the weekend, here's some of the doggie bowls and a few of the more interesting mugs.  Loving my new digital controller.

Ahh, yeah that's the stock yellow sponge, it was also very soft when I attached the handles, gonna clean them both up once they're not quite so floppy.  I will try using a cut up grout sponge, thanks for the tip

Silly* studio details/thing(s) overlooked - how did I not see't?
...bought a cheap-ish 2000g digi scale last July, just noticed that it was miscalibrated to display 1/2 grams! Either I never calibrated it, or (more likely) used one of the two 200g weights to calibrate it last July.
It does what it's told to do.
For test batches of glaze, it's proportions that count, so no harm there. What jumped out at me this week: at first, thought the cheap-ish 100 ml graduated cylinder I bought was wrong, haha, as 100 ml of water weighs 200g? No matter, weight of glaze/weight of water for same volume yields specific gravity, but why is scale "wrong," hmm?
The good news bein' all them balls of clay weighed out these last eight months were half the weight me "thought" - hence why my pots so small for the weight of clay concerns evaporated like morning mists ...hrmm, mebbe the foot tall three poun' cylinder club me can join sooner over (much much) later?
 
*Silly as in obvious and outcome mostly harmless; that said, should members wish to recount drastic/tragic scenarios, go to it - if any tragedy could be averted, it'd be worth't

^ good question dh
Thinkin' 'bout Mark's question raises (for me):
  What type of mentor/mentee (wow, "mentee" actually dictionary word*) experiences have you had in wheel?
From how long to learn to how.
Wheel instruction in the two classes I've had consisted of brief demonstrations, then go to it. Students who had questions or were obviously struggling got one on one and/or small group instruction. I'm not complainin' - I'd rather toodle and stumble along than get instruction that don't fit me; that said, perhaps timely and appropriate mentorship may have helped? May help in future?
Any road, my mentor is a motley of visual (realtime and video), print, stills. In the other direction - I'm no one's mentor in wheel!
*a manatee learning from another would be a manatee mentee, and same who'd ordered tea would be a manatee mentee who meant tea, and... 

Callie Beller Diesel recently posted the following in the QotW pool: how often do you introduce new forms, and does that change throughout your career? 
How many new designs do you come up with in a year, and what's that work cycle like?
As a functional potter, of late, I have not come up with a whole lot of new designs. However, as a teacher 10 yrs ago, every month was a new piece, handbuilt or wheel thrown, or as a combination piece. Projects for students were often "tested" out by some sort of piece in the beginning. A theme like "crazy plumbing" or "crooked houses" for something like an extrusion piece would be planned out and assembled by me before ever introducing it to the kids. Then there was the demonstration piece, and when starting a demonstration, I usually would carry that to completion also. So every year there would be as many as 10 or 15 new forms. 
When working in the studio, I am not as much concerned with new forms as refining or modifying existing forms. An example of this may be Berry bowls that came about as I found myself using a lot of fresh berries for dessert in the Summer, and decided to do a berry bowl with a shallow plate underneath for drainage of the rinse water. That ended up as a Christmas gift that year for some relatives, and then the following year for others. Teapots may be done with tilted galleries one year, and another with regular galleries, one year rounded forms, next wide kettle type forms. None of these are really new forms just morphs from previous thoughts and ideas.
 
best,
Pres

Mark that glaze brought back some college memories from the 70's.   I still collect glaze formula's but usually don't get around to testing them.  Once in a while I will need something new so while I am testing a particular glaze I might as well test them all.   Denice

Had a dream last night that there was some kind of potluck or something and I was eating off of one of your wamo mamo plates.  So weird.

Thank you guys so much, that's a lots of info. I will try the tap method and get some alumina hydrate for future teapot.

The lips and stripes are temaku over the top

The wax is just an adhesive to hold the alumina in place.  The wax burns away. 
LT

hello, allen, and welcome to the forums.   it almost looks as though your question may have been overlooked but it was not.   the original series of posts discussed what to do with the alumina hydrate once you have some but your question seems to be centered on getting some in the first place.  you do not say where in the world you are so we guess in the USA and so our replies are based on an assumption.  sometimes that is wrong.
liam has told you where to get the alumina hydrate and since that is what you were looking for, his answer should be enough.   but nobody has said where to get the wax.   that is also at ceramic supply houses wherever you might be.    it is a liquid in this case, not some solid wax that needs heating up to liquify. 
if you need more information on your particular situation, just ask until you have everything you need.

If it really stuck after you try all the tapping you may need to move up a step.
That being hot water on the pot (not the lid) so pot expands and lid does not-try this in sink with really hot water running while holding kid-plan for the pot to pot off so get some water or padding under it.
If this does not work I can tell you about plan C which can work if the 1st 2 do not.

Sit, and hold the pot over your lap. Tap evenly around the pot near to the lid. Do not tap on the thinnest parts of the pot. If you're not successful, leave the pot for a few days and try again. Sometimes pouring hot water over it can help. Sometimes it lets go itself after a few years....