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My local ceramic supply place is about 25 minutes away but what I save in driving time I more than pay for with their high prices. I buy clay locally plus all the less expensive dry materials like epk, talc, silica etc. Whenever possible I order from one of the US suppliers and have it shipped to a dropbox just into WA state then it's an hours drive from me. I go to Seattle or Tacoma a couple times a year to shop there for heavy expensive stuff like frits, usually tie it in with a camping trip. Driving thru Seattle, groan, that has to be one of the worst places that I've ever driven too! I get behind a big truck and use the expressway through to the exit for Seattle Pottery Supply and stay the heck away from the outer lanes or I land up doing some unplanned sightseeing.

Might want to think about your kiln wash too. If Bmix is plucking I'm thinking your kiln wash might need a re-coat. Do you make your own kiln wash (which recipe?) or use commercial stuff?

Hi Amanda and welcome to the forum Alumina hydrate is not known for being difficult to remove, it just dusts right off. I'm wondering if you're getting a bit of glaze on it, where are you using it, on lid galleries or ? Also, you're 100% sure it's alumina hydrate and not something else?

Slow bisque schedule probably isn't slow enough. With dark clays containing high amounts of carbons to burn out the firing really needs to slow down between 1290F through to 1650F, this is the range in which the inorganic carbons burn out. If you go through this range too quickly there will be pockets of carbons that haven't burned out; the clay walls will begin to seal over from the fluxes in the clay and the trapped gasses cannot escape therefore the clay bloats. Bloats might (probably) won't be visible after the bisque fire but the walls of the pot will be sufficiently sealed off to prevent gasses escaping during the final part of the bisque and then again during the glaze fire. Keep the peeps full open until you've passed through 1650F, don't bisque stacked pots inside each other, they need room around them to allow the gasses to fully escape. The other temperature range to not go too fast through is between 300-600F when the organic carbons burn off, 200F/hour through this range should be fine. If you have a digital kiln then program your own bisque schedule, if you use a manual kiln then have a look at the colour of the light inside the kiln to make a rough guesstimate as to what the temperature will be.

I'm not going for a realistic finish, I'll be spraying a flashing slip (not blue) and I hope to get some orange/rust colours on part of them. There are actually 3 clusters of shells in the picture above, I usually mount them on driftwood with some other porcelain shells, tube worms, urchins etc but for these I made the rocks big enough that they should be okay as stand alone little sculptures. 2 of my market venues are very close to the ocean, things like these tend to do okay there. @liambesaw, those molds for your coffee pots?

It's been quiet on this workbench thread so I thought I'ld show my mussels. ^10 porcelain, heading for a soda firing if they make it through drying without cracking.

Around the house or for ceramic equipment etc between my husband and myself we don’t ever hire anyone to do anything. It just goes against the grain to think of hiring someone to do work that we can do ourselves. I think it started when we lived in a very remote place where materials had to get either flown or barged in. if you needed something done you either did it yourself or chances were it didn’t get done. Same with making do with what you have, adapting scrap materials whenever possible to repurpose into something else.

Not that they are really difficult but they do take more time than they look. From last week (finally able to start throwing again after an injury). Absolutely!

My dad uses the expression "money for old rope" a fair bit. My QOTW would be do you make anything that is easy and quick to make but looks like it's more work than it is? If you sell your work this would include being able to charge about the same for a pot as what a more labour intensive pot would fetch. Money for old rope pots.

When looking for answers it’s very helpful for all of those who try and help or contribute to a post to have a rough idea of the original poster's experience or knowledge base in regards to their question. If a member has been posting here for a while we can get an idea of their experience and try and tailor our replies to reflect what we surmise to be their knowledge / experience level. This is really hard to do with new members or those who post infrequently! We all try to be as helpful as possible but the answers can, at times, be more confusing than the questions. Mentioning your experience should get you more relevant answers than us overloading information but we can’t do this without an idea of knowledge / experience. Including as many details as possible, photos if relevant, and knowledge / experience relevant to the question being asked will hopefully aid everyone is both giving and receiving their questions and comments. Thank you

Haha, I wish! Most of the stuff I order in is duty free already, it's the surcharge the private companies charge that is the killer. I had some stuff shipped from Bailey's, most of it came to the drop shipment place I use in Lynden WA except once they had to ship a splashpan separately and they shipped it to my home. The surcharge was more than the splashpan (around $40). Shipments under 20- CA have no duty or taxes added.

@Callie Beller Diesel, do you have Chit Chats in Calgary? I've got a family member who used them to ship books from Vancouver to places in the US. He would drop off the boxes in Burnaby (Vancouver suburb) then Chit Chats took them down across the line and shipped them via USPS. It cost him around $2- per box plus whatever the US shipping was. I don't know if they are still in business or not, this was going back a few months. From their website: @liambesaw, we do have UPS but it's silly expensive, as is Purolator or Fed Ex and Canada Post. The cross border fees that UPS, Purolator or Fed Ex charge are crazy, they bill whatever the duty is then tack on a huge surcharge. If there isn't any duty they still add a ridiculous surcharge. I NEVER get anything shipped from the US to here in Canada unless its via USPS.

Thanks for sharing this Karen! I was thinking that it would be easy to adapt syringes to make other sizes too.

Looks like cobalt will be mined in northern Ontario again. If our suppliers will have access to it that would be a positive. https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/industry-news/mining/engineers-go-to-work-on-cobalt-refinery-restart-1673295 I never heard back from the stain manufactures I contacted regarding Cd inclusion stains. I spent a fair bit of time trying to track down information to counter what Tony Hansen writes as to the processing practices of it but came up empty. I think this comes down to where you draw the line in the sand as to what we are okay with using. Cd inclusion stains are made for the ceramics industry; they are not made for a larger industry and ceramics gets a tiny portion of it like most of the minerals we use. I've made the decision to stop buying the underglazes that I was using that include them.

For holding flower stems? edit: another guess, something for running yarn through for weaving or looming?

@Hulk, don't know if this is something you might be interested in but there is a mentorship program available for free if you are current member of ICAN. Listing of current mentors. Mentors and mentees can get in touch via email, phone, skype or in person. I know of one lovely man who is a member of this forum who mentored a woman from my area. I know it meant the world to her before she passed away to have this connection.

Thank you Liam and Hulk! Ouch on the hornet sting Liam. There have been a couple Giant Asian Hornets found here recently, really nasty things with a wingspan of about 3". Those shelves are just odd boards and strips of ply with leftover laminate flooring on top of them so I can wipe them down without the sponge getting caught up on the rough boards. Batts are homemade plaster ones, no pins, stick to a Xiam Batemate.

Swirls firming up for trimming.

Frank Gaydos was generous enough to allow us to post his Frit Substitution Chart here on the forum. It contains a chart of some common frits with substitutions plus a lengthy list of frits with their composition. Included are Ferro, Hommel, Pemco, PotClays and PotteryCrafts. I've added a link to the DigitalFire reference list of frits to include Fusion and other frits not included in the Frank Gaydos pdf. (direct permission from the author, Frank Gaydos, obtained prior to posting here) Frank Gaydos Frit Substitution Chart Frits.pdf edit: posting pdf's is new here, it looks like you need to be signed in to open the pdf link

I have contacted both Mason and Ferro (includes Cerdac, Degussa and Drakenfeld stains) requesting info on their stewardship practices in regards to cadmium inclusion stain manufacturing. If I hear back from them I'll post their replies here. Does anybody have any literature on the processing practices of cadmium inclusion stains? From this link at Digitalfire: "... stain is further rendered safer-to-use by washing with water or weak acid to remove any soluble uncombined compounds (e.g. cadmium or soluble impurities). This washing process does produce toxic byproducts that can only be tolerated in certain countries (e.g. India, China)." Considering the toxicity of Cd this is an ethical issue for me, if Mason or Ferro do corroborate what Tony Hansen is saying on Digitalfire then I will no longer be buying underglazes that use Cd stains. I do hope you are correct Pres in that the mining practices will be changing and child labour will no longer be part of the equation. I will gladly pay more for it if I know it's ethically sourced. BTW @liambesaw, even at $50 lb that's still about 1/2 of what it costs if I buy it from my local ceramic supply place (which I don't). From my local place's catalogue "Cobalt Carbonate .................. 500 grams 92.10 Cobalt Oxide ...............500 grams 102.00 "

I've got a girlfriend who has signed up for a Dawn Candy workshop, on the materials list she said she uses Amaco Velvets but can use other brands. Sean O'Connel's website has the glaze recipe he uses from 2018 as Campana Clear. I've tested that glaze, it is fluid. (contains zinc so chrome green stains in green underglazes are going to go muddy)

Try some test tiles using the same glaze recipe but less of whatever type of clay is in it. I don't have the recipe for that glaze but if for example it has 25 epk in it then mix up the recipe but with 8 less epk then dip a test tile with the underglaze on it, then add 2 more epk and repeat, keep doing this until the total epk is 23 (for this example). The first test tile might craze with the epk reduced by approx 25% but there should be a tipping point where you get running from the glaze being more fluid yet not so overfluxed that it now crazes.

@preeta brought something up that I've been pondering for years. In this thread she asks "i wonder are potters now going to treat cobalt blue like blood diamonds? Whole ‘nother Subject." I realize as potters there's a strong probability that the cobalt we use is from the DRC and child labour plus health and safety concerns is a very valid concern in the mining practices there. We are not the reason for the mining, battery market seems to be the big driver now, but how do we feel about using cobalt or for that matter do we look into the mining practices of any of the materials we use? Cadmium inclusion stains to my knowledge are only being made in China and India, now why is that? (rhetorical question)