Rae Reich

I do like water.
A few years ago I tried for a fountain, driven by a small pond pump.
Credit the FDR Memorial (Washington, DC) fountains, in part, for positive inspiration, a neighbor's drop-in pool kit for negative inspiration.
The former, a variety of water sounds, each fountain different, each pleasing; the latter, a solid stream, not so pleasing.
I wanted a soft drip, hence, the water flows over the inverted cone shape, falls a short distance (.8 to 1.2") to the tower base, then another inch or so to the reservoir, producing a gentle gurgling murmur.
The pump is concealed between the base and tower, wrapped in foam to dull the humming.

I wish I could remember where this piece was installed, or who made it, but an artist made a whole bunch of thinly trimmed porcelain bowls, and floated them in a pool of water with a gentle current running through it. The bowls rang and sounded like wind chimes when they bumped into each other. It was incredibly soothing. 
My initial inclination for question three is to say that I’d prefer to interact with a piece rather than have a constant sound, but I think that subtle environmental interactions could count towards that. 

A few questions here:
Are all of the pots in the firing blistered as the one the picture shows all of? Is the pink glaze one that you have been using before? Is the blistering limited to the top third of the pot? Do you use a manual hold of any sort toward the end of your firing? Presently my best estimation is gassing, as the pots do not seem to have allowed glaze gasses to escape. wiring the setter up, but cutting back on the power a bit to hold the temp may allow for the glaze to smooth up. I also wonder about the number of coats of glaze as the bottom of the piece looks normal for a gunmetal.
Others may have other ideas that may help you out, but this is . .  IMHO
 
best,
Pres
 

No.  Not exhibitions.  Even donations do not "generate great marketing"  (that's what the people asking will say)  If I donate, it's because I believe in the cause.  Not because it will be a marketing tool for me.  
Juried shows are a different situation for me.  A show versus an exhibition.  
Roberta

Never in my 50 years in business has it helped with the business sales wise. Donations same deal only give to my causes.

For me, no... however, other things have happened for me locally. I have submitted my horsehair Raku pottery to my local PBS station's annual art auction, which is a juried event, and have been accepted all 3 times and all my entries had garnered at least 3 times my valued prices. The last time around I had won a Juror's award which got me an interview and article in a local news outlet but did not generate new business. I plan on continuing my donations to the art auction because each entry gets me a little more notoriety since the work gives me 6 minutes of TV exposure during the auction and it is good enough to be accepted for the auction. Someday it may lead to greater things!

Just heard this -The owner of Kemper Tools has sold the business. New owner has to move the factory as the property has sold as well. Not sure if this will stay  as a domestic business and what will be made  in terms of the tool line. They made so many I would not be surprized that that line is trimmed down . Pricing may change as well.. It's funny as I noticed Bailey has a sale going on Kemper now which is odd. My guess is there will be a time period that these tools will not be in production as well. The good news is Kemper will be around in some sense in the future. 

My clay is indoors. It's a low production home hobby studio (I'm no longer doing retail in stores). It's tight at first, but I can fit two 25 lb sleeves in a 5 gal. painters bucket. Those sit on plant dollies. Works great! 

I use rubbermaid trash cans. I first pug my clay and then put a layer of clay then plastic then another layer of clay so forth and so on. Then several layers of plastic film on the top and then the lid. Occasionally I will pour a cup or two of water inside to prevent too rapid of evaporation as we have quite a dry environment here. The trash cans are put on mover dollies for ease of storage.

New clay in their bags, in their boxes, wrapped in moving film*

stacked on cardboard, under a heavy tarp, in the Studio.
Changes in temperature seems to accelerate the drying out process.
To be reclaimed clay, in bins or buckets. I'm setting the clay portion out in the sun to thoroughly dry afore starting the reclaim process. The slop portion, if it's dried to a disc it gets set out as well, else just slop it in there at the re-wetting stage.
Reclaimed clay, in clay bags (washed, dried, checked for holes); wrapped in the same moving film, if the clay is being stored for "a while" - where a while is a few months in the damp/cool part of the year, a few weeks otherwise.
 
*Some vendors' clay bags seem to breathe more water than others.
Wrapping the box with moving film equalizes that, in my experience.
We have two partial rolls of the moving film left over from last year's moving, enough to last several years...

I second Peter's suggestions on this one.  I bisque fire all of my porcelains and bone china before I glaze (if I didn't acquire it already bisqued).  But then I also tend to use airbrushed underglazes with clear glazes over top so getting the glaze to stick has never been an issue for me.  It's not brush applied.  As said though, that presents other issues like a ventilated and filtered spray booth and suitable P100 type mask due to spraying silica, etc.    But with this form I think you are going to get the distortion without proper supports even in your bisque fire without glaze.  I'm not as knowledgeable about pottery though.  I work with sculpture so it's a slightly different beast.

Are you firing a electric kiln?  A lot of kilns won't make it to cone 10  if it does it will shorten the life of your elements.   I had a friend who thought she made some dishes out of a  Cone 10 porcelain.  she put them in the last firing of the year at the university.    When they unbricked the kiln they found out her dishes had melted all over the kiln and  the rest of the work.  I don't have any low fire clay in my studio or fire another persons work,  this type of accident happens a lot.   Denice

Most hobby porcelains fire to mature bisque at cone 6.  But I'm with the rest of you - if she doesn't KNOW for absolute certain, I probably wouldn't put it in /my/ kilns.   If she's going to be producing several of these maybe she should just get herself a small kiln.  A used one if need be, and just learn how to do it herself.   She is also going to need to figure out how she's going to support them with props (settles) and they should be made out of the very same porcelain clay if she has enough left.  So yeah, maybe more complicated than she realized.  A lower soft fire may be wise but it won't make them as nice.  

So much care and thought has come from long experience and patience. Porthos are sculptures to be proud of and that mane is really impressive! Thanks for sharing more details. 

Do you have photos of the Akita or the mold by chance?  I don't do the ball and socket thing but nice idea.  If I want to move a leg around I'm just going to resculpt it (and possibly make a mold of the leg to cast it for reuse later) and then sculpt the new attachment as needed as well.  I've already sculpted and molded some alternate pieces for another neck and leg, and I'm going to do an alternate body that's not so bent so I can do the head and neck in other positions.  Just for fun variations!  I get bored easily so it is very tedious for me to do the same thing over and over again...

Noted.  And sometimes I use IPA - depends which one is handier.  I've never had an issue with either one since I literally only use a drop or so in my water spray bottle of the bleach.  The generic bleach I buy only lists one ingredient and nothing added for scent.  (I also incidentally use it for phytosanitary applications like tissue culture of plant materials.)
Yes!  This method of cutting up the piece is typical for casting porcelain and bone china in the UK and Europe.  Indeed it was a few photos shared here with me from another member (who may or may not wish to be named) that helped me figure out this problem.  I also worked with porcelain sometimes and I've been working on perfecting and testing English bone china slip I've made here in my studio.  So I went ahead and produced this multi-part mold for that purpose.  It works just as well for earthenware. 
As I knock some rust off I'll be pushing to try and make more complex molds that would allow me to cast Porthos as whole and as close to one piece as possible.  Body with three legs attached most likely, with the head and neck separate and that cocked back leg.  That would take less assembly and thus less time.  And problem solving with mold making is an excellent challenge to practice if you want to get better anyway.
One of my new sculptures I have started is the 'Spider foal' that is rolling.   I'm jokingly calling it my 'spider' sculpture for now because it looks hideous!  But it's in the early 'skeleton' stage where I flesh out the proportions of the bones and set the joints as points of reference from which I will build up tendons, muscle, skin, etc over top.  Anyway, you can see that I do not like to sculpt with molding limitations in mind.  So being able to mold them in pieces and assemble ANY kind of pose or complex arrangement really frees me up to do anything I want.  

Thank you!  Speaking of Fabio tails... With a really complex tail such as my hairy Pasture Porthos sports I may well need to cut the tail into at least two pieces and have quite a few mold pieces /and/ still have to flood, then redetail, some of the undercuts.  Oh well!  This boy will be my most challenging piece to mold to date (this is a 3D print that is mirrored to face the other direction and a different size).  For now I am cheating.  I sent this boy and his larger version off to England to be molded and cast in bone china bisque for me.  But I will be playing with cutting one up here in studio and trying to mold that tail myself just for the challenge.  BUT at least I know he'll be in production in time for Breyerfest in July even if it takes me a while to mold and cast this version on my side of the pond.
For scale I can do pretty much anything I want within the limits of my 3D printers and the quality of my scans.  Or in the case of the spider foal - larger than 'traditional' scale because I'm doing that one BIGGER than usual.  But 'traditional' scale is what most equine bronzes are normally produced in - 1/9th scale to the real horse.  Larger than traditional is usually about 1/6th scale.  Classic is about 1/12th, etc on down or on up!  Some of these scales are used so often for equine art that they have names (though often more than one name for any given size).  Porthos is considered 1/9th scale, which usually is about 7 inches tall.  But as he's a draft horse who's taller and larger his scaling down to 1/9th came to 8 inches tall.  Of course he'll shrink a bit in each ceramic media, that's just his resin size.    If you do internet searches you can find various 'model scales' or 'model horse scales' to compare.
'Venti' scale Pasture Porthos is a little smaller than 'classic' scale at 1/15th is shown with the larger roto cast white resin that is 1/9th 'traditional' scale.  Then micros are about 1/40th scale (around 1.5" tall).  Curio falls in around 1/20th scale for comparison (not pictured here).

I also posted this photo of first version 1/9th traditional scale Porthos with the docked tail.  This is a roto cast hollow white resin I have cut up for mold making.  I'm in the process of using colored oil clays to 'clay up' for pouring those molds in plaster.  Once the molds are poured, I test them to make a single casting like the curio bisque at the top of this thread.  This allows me to see where the mold is skimming or tearing clay off as I demold so I can trim those edges clean.  Tiny undercuts can be skimmed off the plaster mold pieces easily.  If there are air bubbles, I fill them with plaster paste or epoxy.  If there are details that are too soft, I can go back in and recut them much more sharply in my plaster master mold.
Then, rather than continue to use that first mold, I seal it with mold soap and then pour a silicone rubber mold of each plaster piece.  This will then allow me to cast as many plaster production molds as I want!  As the mold detail wears very rapidly (especially if I am casting porcelains) then I may need to be able to reproduce the mold several times over to keep every piece of my edition super crisp.
As usual, this probably belongs in the mold making and slip casting thread...

If you look in the Community Marketplace someone posted looking for a used slab roller. (In Boulder no less.) 

Absolutely beautiful, @Hyn Patty!! I really appreciate the look behind the scenes into the mystery of assembling that challenging pose. Thank you for sharing and inspiring.
(giggle) Fabio tail!
How do you scale your creations?

Very minor point.
Domestic bleaches often contain a variety of substances in addition to sodium hypochlorite (generally known as bleach).  While baby products for sterilising nappies, bottles, etc tend to just contain sodium hypochlorite. UK brands include  Milton, which I use for purely sterilising purposes.

I find it best to thin the underglaze to a heavy cream consistency. (or slightly thinner)
When I open most underglaze jars they have a pudding like consistency. Even though the mixture is incredibly smooth I find it goes on incredibly thick. (Hence brush marks.)
As well, I apply coats 5-10 minutes apart. (That way the surface is still slightly damp.) If I wait until the previous coat is completely dry I find it hard to prevent brush marks.
 

Years ago I found a book about Belleek porcelain. (I had never heard of the company before finding the book. Apparently, it's an old Irish pottery.)
In the book they showed beautiful porcelain figurines. To allow for variety each appendage, arms and legs, were made with a ball end. The ball end fit into a socket on the main torso form. That way the arms and legs could be arranged in different ways. A huge pain to mold but I did this for the Akita mold. Each leg had a ball like end that fit into sockets on the main torso. As the piece was small there wasn't much room, to move each appendage, but it did allow the artist to play with it as he saw fit. 
 
 

Yes!  I've gone off and on to Breyerfest since the mid 90's and that is indeed the event I am attending this year in July.  So I want to have a few of these in both sizes and both main versions produced in time to take with me.  I'm also flying out to California to judge a show of equine art and of course want to take some there too.   I also do a number of fine art shows once in a long while but shipping can be VERY costly and I have moved away from paying gallery and show commissions on my sales.  I get plenty of people willing to fight over the pieces I post to public auctions online.
Thank you both for your kind words.  I would love to see your dog pieces, Denise!  I used to sculpt a few dogs as well so if I ever have time I plan to get back to doing that once in a while in between equine pieces.
You are right Jeff that molding a piece like Porthos /can/ be crazy - if I was determined to cast him entirely in one piece, whole.  The issue of his sharply turned head and neck, and the close proximity of his back cocked leg that actually crosses over partly in front of his other back leg, would be ... very challenging to say the least.   So I cut up my 'master' I was molding and I actually cast Porthos in a few pieces.  With practice, assembly and clean up of such a sculpture goes pretty quickly.  I can demold the pieces into a wet box, allow them to firm up a bit, then do the old score and slip-stick routine.  Since I'm the sculptor it is no trouble whatsoever for me then to clean up and redetail those areas I had to attach.  That way it's actually not that difficult to mold such a sculpture as long as you don't mind some assembly.  I can easily put a piece like this together and do all the initial clean up and resculpting in about an hour or less.  Then back into the wet box for slow drying to prevent cracking as he has some uneven thickness in some areas.
To facilitate easier molding I can also flood some minor undercuts such as the tail bow, and simply go back and hand detail those pieces again after casting and assembly.  It does mean I spend a lot of time with post casting but on the other hand I get thousands of dollars per piece once completed so it's well worth my time to make them the highest possible quality I can. 

I am so happy that you are able to spend so much time in your studio.   I hope you are able to get some big bucks for your works of art.  It is always nice to know that someone appreciates your work and are willing to pay for it.  I think I will make a sculpture of my dog when I finish making some repair tiles for a mural.  He is a Chiweenie  so he is on the small size,  I could fit a life size sculpture of him in the kiln.  My last dog would go crazy when I was working on a portraiture sculpture.  I'd better start taking some photos,  he looks like the dog in the old RCA ads.   I think I will try that pose.   Denice