Rae Reich

Hi folks, no new posts for the QotW so I will resurrect one from a while back: What is your latest environmental companion in the studio?
I stated this question with the addendum of latest, because just today I used my phone streaming Pandora via bluetooth to my hearing aids! Really cool, but I found that it used the batteries to the Comm Pilot that makes the connection. Only could use it for about 5 hrs. Maybe have to pick up a battery pack to plug into as it is rechargeable from USB.
 
best,
Pres

@Rae Reich type an @ and then begin typing the person's screen name. A drop down menu will appear, and you can just click on the right one.

I got some mugs out of the kiln last Monday. I am making more mugs this week. Because mugs. 

My glazing table is down to a few pieces of bisqued  mid-fire items. I need to fill one more shelf with new greenware (they'll go in as a single fire) and then I am ready to fill my kiln again.  
 
 

My workbench is empty! Well besides all the non pottery related junk on it. I just pulled out some of the best yunomi I have ever made in my entire life. So that was epic. I am going to make 6 bowls to donate to the Patsiliga kiln in south Georgia, its a big woodfired kiln. I have never been a part of the wood firing, but I would like to be one day. I like supporting stuff like that anyways. I am going to go to the bowl event and deliver my bowls and maybe even buy someone else's work. I might post the bowls after I have slipped them with black crackle slip, and maybe after the kiln as well, since this seems like a progress type of thread! 
I am glad everyone is still here rocking away. Good to be back even if its only for a few weeks.
 

Yappy, I always like seeing your experiments.
I have never seen a nude on a baking dish.
Maybe a year ago I did a sculpture of my deceased bulldog which looked so cute after bisque firing, perfectly red/white/black (her authentic colors) and then disappointed me after glaze firing. Somehow I missed that the terracotta underglaze would no longer be terracotta colored once fired at cone 5. Live and learn.
Tomorrow on my workbench will be the first piece I will have done with many colors of underglaze.  Usually I just do black ad white or dark blue and white or green. The clay is red, so I expect to be surprised but hope not to be too surprised. 

stuff in progress or about to be. Trying to finish up the smaller bits, still have a lot. Vase needs glaze, as yet no clue what it wants. the thing stuffed w/ paper towels is my first attempt at a drawer sachet for personal use, but I'd like to make an optionally hanging version to sell and I'm planting some lavender, old roses and scented geraniums partly for this purpose. the rest are mainly impression makers. Note the one with cassius slip over it, stroke of inspiration, now I can see what my rollers are without picking them up and examining them. I'd like to sell some of those also as I enjoy the carving and inventing designs. 
The results of the mermaid plate. She looks like she forgot to wear her waterproof mascara...also the rock was supposed to be mossy layers of green, turned to mud instead. Her tail came out beautifully, my drawing is quite nice if I do say so, and I love my idea of using king kelp as a border even though the underglaze colors didn't quite work. "...by sea-girls wreathed in seaweed red and brown..." -I like enough about this I might try it again using the same drawing. Low fire white clay w/ sifted unwashed sand from the dunes nearby. seemed to work well except for an unfortunate iron spot too close to her face, anywhere else it would have been fine. Half of this idea was to come up with some cooking safe serving ware, so I thought I'd photo it before I did a bake test. 

Pres those teapots look like they would be fun to make,  I love making teapots.  I hope I can retrain my brain and arm connection so I can throw them on electric wheel I just bought.   I just had the foot pedal adjusted so that made a huge difference.  Losing the ability to throw was the first thing I lost to MS ,  I am slowly retraining my brain , I can throw small bows and cups now.  Mark C found me the wheel on E-bay so I sold my kick wheel  and forging forward with my quest.   Denice

Typical day starts at 9 am in studio throwing until 12 to 1 pm -putting wares in sunshine (may-oct)break for lunch and expresso. Depending on drying conditions-start to trim/handle wares- after lunch.The idea is to finish all the work that day. sometimes get to throw some for am trimming as well. Try to finish up by 6-630pm
In winter pots are forced dry in shop with natural gas heater or if coastal fog come in for days -Like past few days -I light up heater and dry work inside.
This cycle repeat's until bisque day which usually has some throwing or trimming in am and firing goes into the evening hours. Load and fire bisque car kiln- while making glaze that day.
Glaze day starts at 9-ish and runs long (7-8pm) I load two kilns most of the time and fire them the next day.I have an assistant for glaze day and putting on handles the past 25 plus years as well.I usually do all the kiln loading and she helps with most of the unloading.I usually cool  one and 1/2 to two days and we unload the next and pack and price all the wares in one long afternoon.That we glaze on Fridays and I fire on Saturdays-unload on Monday afternoons orGlaze on Mondays I fire Tuesdays and we unload Friday afternoons.(glaze days usually are Mondays or Fridays occasionally  Wens) Then the cycle repeats itself.-Been this way for many decades -maybe more-
Sundays is usually a day off as the kilns are cooling and I am trying to do less in clay.Sometimes a Market  pottery drop off happens on Sundays.
Thursdays are also a slower day usually with pottery deliveries to  wholesale accounts and loading a bisque and glaze making .
Things that affect this schedule are fishing /camping /trips away/diving/off season break/ Vacations/etc.

Forgot to mention, that the professorship was for something completely out of art area, but related. Seems because of my computer animation background that the college thought I would be a good fit to teach teachers how to transition into using their computers to prepare classroom materials. So it was about creating good legible organized slide shows, overhead transparencies and handouts for the classroom. .  . pre white board.
 
best,
Pres

I use terry cloth towels. Mostly hand towels while throwing. I wash my hands in the throwing water bucket, dry off with a throwing towel. Then finish washing my hands in the sink, drying off on a “clean” towel next to the sink.
When glazing, I wrap a bath towel around my waist. Because like @LeeU I cannot resist wiping my hands on my pants. Glazing seems to require much more hand wiping than anything else.
When pulling handles, I wear a terry cloth wrist band to stop water dripping down to my elbow. I tried @Callie Beller Diesel‘s method but it didn’t help. For me, the water doesn’t drip down my arm during the pulling phase. It drips during the phase when I shape the handle and attach the bottom end. Because for that move I hold the mug up at eye level > arms now angled upward > water runs down arm rather than off the hands into bucket.
All of my studio towels and wristbands get taken down to a neighborhood laundromat, rather than my home laundry machines. It’s one of those big ones that is open 24/7. I figure their drains can handle a lot more than my house can. 

I have dedicated studio towels that just get thrown in the washer.  I have bath sheets that get draped over my knees while I'm throwing or doing certain finishing tasks, and some medium sized ones for general purpose hand wiping. Just got them all from the thrift store.  They go into the regular wash in their own seperate load, but I wash them pretty frequently in the name of keeping the dust down and not putting a lot of clay through my top loader.
I tend to clean 98% of the clay on my hands off into a bucket (also wiping with a grout sponge) that later gets decanted into my reclaim. At that point, my hands are safe enough just to wash with soap and water in the bathroom sink. 
When pulling handles, I pull separately and let them set up before attaching, so I'm really only having to clean up from that job once, and not constantly wiping my hands. Fun hint: you keep your elbow dry if you dip the clay slug in the water bucket instead of getting your whole hand wet. 
I don't buy paper towels for the rest of the house, never mind my studio. 

I have older cotton towels for shop use-one hangs on a hook near the door. I have a stack of clean folded ones in studio. They only get used for clay.They vary from hand to bath size.I was them in a. shop cold water only(no soap) washer-its a front loader I bought new a few years ago -I get about 10 years on machines before clay kills them.The last machine wash a hand me down from friend. The water is used as grey water on berry patch in summer from washer.In winter is piped into shop underground rainwater pipes (from hitters) that take it long away from house onto more bamboo. Towels and shop clay cloths are washed in they system removed from house laundry system.No clay in house on cloths or towels.I wash once a week during weekend cheap power.
I sponge off surfaces with large sponges.
I have a dedicated clay sink with facet on a pipe about 18 inch from sink bottom.Water from sing goes into a two tub settling system outside.That water is hosed via gravity feed to timber bamboo patch year around.
since this is a full Time gig all this make sense. For most it makes little sense

"So the pool.." aaah, got exited there for a few seconds! Hulk was a swimmer (still hittin' the pool two or three times a week) back in th'day.
Ahem, I'm with you Pres; water, and cleaner water, then cloth rag/towel when dry hand is necessary. I do use the cute little round sponge, however, the Hulk size sponge gets a lot more use, for cleaning hands, wheel, tools, bats, etc., and pieces cut from Hulk size sponge (search "grout sponge") see more use on pots (thanks Bill VG for purpose cut shape idea). The towel comes in handy when something needs dry right now - typically hands or  bat, most else can take its time drying up.
From there, I'm pouring off the clear water and settling the clay for reclaim. The clay-y clothes, rags, apron, etc. get two soak and rinse cycles before laundry, also with you there Pres.
I use paper towels to clean my bike, blot water drops off my glasses after soap and water wash, then re-use them to wipe up bird crap.
That's Jack, admiring brand new wheel (last Fall).
Years in the trades almost cured me o'wipin'me hands on trouser legs ...almost.

So the pool does not have any recent contributions so I will ask:Do you use cloth towels, paper towels or other when in the shop to dry your hands, and clean things off?
I have a tendency of using cloth towels in the shop, mostly the size of hand towels. I use an apron with clips on the front to hang the towel to. I used to use towels over my legs when throwing, but then when I got the new apron. . .  this works much better. Cleaning hands etc, I usually clean off in throwing bucket first and then in a clean bucket of water to finish and then dry off with a towel. Dirty towels go into a 5gal. bucket of water to soak, then another to rinse a few days later. Then laundry.
 
How do you handle cleaning hands, especially when pulling and making handles and applying them. I am always wiping my hands when working that way.
 
best,
Pres

Working in the brick garage in Summer is an advantage as it stays cooler. This is yesterdays completion, as more were thrown. still need to rub off nubbies.
 
best,
Pres
 

Wedding Jar, the one posted earlier after glazing.

Workbench results this week: tea strainers, tea cups and dishies. 
 

A finished piece from this week.

I am stuck a little on what counts as a toy.  Is a clay bulldog or clay hippo a toy? I have made those.
Another project that has long  interested me that I have not yet executed is "not paper dolls." Anyone who played with paper dolls knows how flimsy they are. One could make a flat clay figure directly for dressing. Alternatively, I have some glass bottles in my basement to be embellished as "outfits" and plan eventually to make actual character heads on dowels to change up among them.
Again not quite a toy, but do you know those zen gardens that typically consist of a pan of sand, a little rake, and a bunch of pebbles.? I have seen those with textured clay balls in place of pebbles. How does one finish a ball all over that doesn't disturb a kiln shelf, please?
For that matter, any game played with tokens could be made up with clay tokens- checkers, a game where one moves tokens forward, tic tac toe... 
I have long ago try to make a top out of clay. Most Jewish kids have tried that, probaly, inspired by the song:" I had a little dreidl, I made it out of clay..."

Lee U recently stated: sparked by my intention to make a clay toy for an event, how about a question about making clay toys? And for those  who have made them, pics please and some comments about their construction. 
 
I don't know as I have ever made anything that would be considered to be a clay toy, but then I have to think about it a bit, because I actually have made a few things that would be considered toys while I was teaching.  The first of these was small musical instruments, whistles, ocarinas and flutes. I started doing the whistles for my Ceramics classes as a smaller pinch pot project. I used a paper back book that described the process, and taught myself until I was able to not fail. I made 20 sets of tools to make them from chop sticks(first time I had used them for pottery tools), and started it as a project with my Ceramics 1's. Then I showed them to a Music teacher that taught Theory and Harmony(very tough music writing course). She thought her students would enjoy it at the end of the year, and there after every year we made them, experimenting over the years with decorated whistles, ocarinas and flutes.  Had fun.
 
Earlier, than this though, I had a student that brought in an old antique top point. The top had been made of ceramic, and had a metal point. Over the years the top had worn and cracked. The student wondered if we could make one to replace it. I cheated, as we used the wheel like lathe with the clay forming the outside, then digging out the inside when leather hard with the top held in a rubber sleeve on the GG. Fired, glazed, glaze fired,  and then epoxy puttied the metal point into the top. Kid through it on the composite floor in the hallway, after wrapping the string. Did fine. I saw him 10 years later, and he said his grandpa could still use it, and they would throw it at times when they got together. The kid was a Lt in the army at the time.
 
best,
Pres

A lesson learned...
The last weekend in February was the last time I touched a kiln load of pots ready for single-fire glazing. Around June 6th is when I started to glaze. I pour the liners on mugs and pitchers. Then begin to spray the exteriors. 2 days after pouring a thin crack appeared in 2 pieces. I looked in the Hamer book and found out the crack is from readsorption. We had a very rainy spring with periods of extreme dry weather. The pottery shop had the windows open during this time. I took me about 2 weeks to glaze the pieces and 29 test glazes. Kiln was fired June 17.
I have always d processed the pottery this way. Throw a kiln load, then when all pieces dry, begin to pour and spray. I have never waited this long between the making and the glazing. Lost 5 pieces due to this readsorption. 
Never in my wildest dreams, in order to make decent pots, did I consider being a physicist, chemist, geologist, and any other ...ist I may have left out.
Picture of the hairline crack and a picture of the survivors. At least all were not lost. Also, I finally figured out how to properly load the kiln. This firing had the most even firing across the whole kiln. All cone 6 were bent exactly the same. 
  

Only working in my studio  for a couple of hours a day recently.   My husband has been using up some vacation time so we have been on the go.     When I am out there I am working on intricate stain designs,  coiling a pot or trying to throw on my new wheel.   It is hard to teach a old dog new tricks.    Denice

I've always hated that name 'clotted cream'. I don't want to eat anything that's clotted. Sour cream, however, sounds delicious! Go figure.

Ah, I have many. Each holds a memory for me, from beginning fellow students, trades with other potters, admired artists and teachers. Most are cups and mugs, some larger serving pieces, some sculpture  
I've been wondering what the best way to catalog/document The Permanent Collection. A note inside or bottom? Photo album with notes? Video tour?
What do you guys do or recommend?