terrim8

Mold making for me is not as immediate as wheel throwing. I make lots of mugs, each a little different even thought they start with same amount of clay. Making all the same would be boring on the wheel, but mold making not so much if I could get through the first part to the second part. However, I am not really interested in going with all the slip casting process.
 
best,
Pres

it's definitely a long grieving process - glad the bear helped a bit- maybe for both of them   Going thru this myself now with my Mom.  We bring Italian cold cuts, cheeses & olives  & sourdough bread - stuff they don't serve at her care home. 

ouch! hopes it's minor! 

When you are dealing with temperatures around 2000 F, for a ceramic firing, you are ready for anything.
A couple hundred degrees, in the kitchen, autopilot is engaged...

Next time throw the dinner in the raku on the down fire. Funny how life works sometimes.

In other words...Zombie Apocalypse!

HOORAY FOR MEA!!!!!

Terri:
given your background: study ulexite.

Back in the day, one issue with Gerstley was its variable chemical content. Natural materials are always variable over time , depending on what part of mine it came from, etc., but Gerstley was variable from batch to batch, and some even gave it the nickname Ghastley Borate. When Laguna bought the whole mineyard (but not the mine, nothing new coming out of the ground anymore), they processed it all at once and thoroughly mixed it all. So now the many years worth stock in the warehouse is all pretty much the same. But also slightly different than what it was 20 years ago. The published analysis of the current stock compared to ~1999 show somewhat less silica than before, but other fluxes are about the same +/-. So get some Gerstley and make a test batch of your glaze recipe to see if it needs any tweaking.

Its still very available . I bought #1000 when they thought it was going away.
Now Laguna still have many tons-just find a Laguna outlet.No need to substitute at this time

@dhPotter  Boraq has been discontinued by Plainsman, the company that mixed it. Seems we have gone full circle here 

Boraq is what I use. Have used it from the beginning. 95% of the time it is an even swap gram for gram with GB, using InSight Glaze software. 

It was for a while but it's been available again since around 2011.

Is your avatar an after raku self portrait? 

What Johnny said.

You're supposed to use HORSEHAIR...not YOUR hair!

some people get too close to their work.  back off a little.

I told you your kiln likes you now!

Wow---sounds like you are lucky it wasn't worse than that! You might have needed a fryte wig! 

That's not a burner, that is a flame thrower. Cooker deluxe!

maybe we should have a raku fest at my place before my husband retires and comes home permanently!
 

i had 2 rolls from Texas and didn't bring my old pulley kiln from Texas. A few years before  I left Texas I built 2 new oil drum kilns, one for me and one for a friend. That is still in good shape. And my little demo 19 lb kiln that I built for my online course to demo firings is still fine. I used that in the park in July to demo Obvara. 
I needed to build a new pulley (top hat) kiln to fire larger saggers and horse slabs. After all the snow last Fall, Winter and Spring, I decided to build an indoor raku facility. While building the top hat, I figured there was enough left over fencing for a frame for a cylinder kiln a little larger than an oil drum diameter plus just enough fiber. I ended up using all but 2 feet of the 2 12.5 ft. rolls and about 3 ft of fencing now around a tomato plant protecting it from deer and magpies. I now have 4 raku kilns and 3 electrics that will be housed in my new kiln shed extension. The 3 electrics are in the wooden part, the extension will be all steel with 2 barn doors, clear story windows and exhaust fans.
I may start offering workshops!!! The top hat is upside down in this photo and the cylinder is sitting on cinder blocks. I will permanently locate them in the shed on fire brick bases.My oil drum kiln I bought from Texas is under the bucket in one photo and under plastic behind the new cylinder kiln below.. I fired it yesterday and will fire more today. 
 
 

Pinecones are better than the slugs and snails that my neighbour keeps sending over to my garden. 

The drought is in Kansas and probably Oklahoma,  yesterday I watched a rain storm get closer and closer and by the time it got to us it was just spit.  Unless we get some rain soon we are going to have a bad wheat crop.  I am going to water trees and shrubs tomorrow just to keep them alive.    Denice

it was a good meeting. Very professional and positive about promoting artists.