[QotW: Either generally or specifically, what do you think, feel, and/or do when confronted with moderate to serious/severe limitations of some aspect of health that alters how you work in clay?]

Pres,
Recipe for wadding box:

Start with a big C-clamp, or 
a  big Double Anvil C-Clamp, or 
something like IRWIN QUICK-GRIP 0.75-in Clamp, 
some scraps of 1x4 and 1x6 planks,
some nails, glue, etc., 
your own creativity, and 
you can make one of those wadding boxes your self.  

LT

 

 

[QotW: Do you use cloth towels, paper towels or other when in the shop to dry your hands, and clean things off?]

cloth towels (dish towels or bath towels) for cleaning hands while throwing or using clay slips;
paper towels after washing hands, 
sponge to clean tables and shelves,
don't pull handles (my mugs have built-in handles)
 

 

[QotW: Have you ever made a clay toy?]

 

Clay toys
 
The ceramic I class has frequently required a ceramic toy (~90% ceramic) as one of the final assignments.  Students have made dolls, pinewood block derby type cars, checkers and chess sets of all sizes (one chess set used Raku pieces about 6-8 inches tall), jigsaw puzzles, dice, rattles, dominoes, blocks, and some other toys I don't remember.  Some were glazed, others were finished with acrylic paints, and some were left unglazed.  Many were just fired to bisque and then finished with paints and stains.  The assignment was especially challenging to the students that thought only traditional function ware was pottery. 
 
The Ceramics II class had a similar assignment, usually early in the semester, called the trompe l'oeil assignment, which in my mind is a sophisticated version of the toy assignment.
 
I had a classmate sometime back that worked with miniature cups, saucers, tea pots, bowls, bottles, etc. all less than 1 inch in size, all wheel thrown.  She sold them at festivals for dollhouse ware.  
 
I have made fortune cookies, apple popovers, dice, puzzles, tic-tat-toe boards and a bowl of grits; some were fired to only bisque, others fired to cone 10, with either oxide staining, burnished clay, or raw clay as surfaces.  The aesthetically successful ones were gobbled up at the club sales, the not-so ones become road rocks.  
 
I'll look around the storage cupboard and see if I have any pieces left for photos - don't hold your breath. 
 
Making toys requires an additional set of skills besides those of just manipulating clay.  Toys are expected to be "toyed with", not just become decorations on a desk or in a cabinet.  Therefore, the toy must also be functional and robust enough to be used as a toy.  The ceramic pinewood derby car required several tries before the student got the weight balanced and the wheels and axles aligned in three dimensions.  He learned a lot about making stuff from the assignment. 
 
LT

[QotW: Do you back fill handles at the attachment point?]

  
Backfill is an aesthetic detail and is used to avoid an abrupt "end" of a line.
  
However, I always compress and round the transition from the handle material and the object material using the side of a 3mm diameter skewer so that there is smooth curved transition from the handle to the mug.   Sharp (acute angle) corners are stress risers (in mechanical engineering jargon) that often lead to the origin of cracks in drying and firing.  Rounding these joins reduces the likelihood of cracks.    When examined up close, both of the illustration cups in Callie's post have this rounded transition at all of the joins;   yet the blue cup handle seems to lack the general flowing lines of the handle on the white cup.  
  
LT
 

[QotW: What are the rituals you follow when the creative juices dry up, or the joys of making pottery becomes tedious because of deadline demands?]

I follow the concept in this quote from Chuck Close: 

“Amateurs look for inspiration; the rest of us just get up and go to work.” 
Chuck Close 
( https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/166434.Chuck_Close ) 
 

[What’s on your workbench?]

13 minutes ago, neilestrick said:

Definitely on a waster. Otherwise that foot's gonna warp.

The warping of a particular ceramic object should be related to the gravitational forces of the object and the thermal effects on material strength (aka softening), so how will adding a "waster" (which I understand is just a slab of clay between the ware and the kiln shelf) prevent warping?

LT
 

[Qotw: Participants Question Pool For Future Qotw's]

Several recent posts got me thinking about how to search for information on a topic of interest, therefore: 

 

Where do you go to obtain more information (and/or background) on ceramic related topics, ideas, suggestions, insights, or questions you pick up from colleagues, general reading, online forums, in casual discussion, or your own pondering? 
       How do you approach searching for information?
       Where and how do you start?
       What do you do when your first internet search turns up essentially nothing?
       How do you evaluate the "correctness" or "reliability" of the sources you use?  Are certain sources more reliable that others? 
       Does the reliability of a source depend on the nature of the information you are seeking? 
       Are older sources more reliable than younger sources?
How do you resolve conflicting information in your search for answers to your questions?

 

LT

[PKQotW #42]

2,3,3,4

tentative, until the library delivers the book.

lt

[Cone 6 Reduction Electric Kiln Firing in Saggars]

3 hours ago, Callie Beller Diesel said:

Im curious why the iron oxide?

Callie,

I'll take a stab on why this procedure works to produce copper reds in an oxidation kiln:

The iron oxides and powdered charcoal provides a oxygen fugacity buffer where the dominant carbon gas form is carbon monoxide (CO).  The CO reacts with the copper ions in the glaze to reduce the copper to the copper specie that produces the red colour.   I haven't done the calcs, so consider this as an SWAG.   Your question would make a good exercise for a Geo-PChem exam.

LT

 

[PQotW: Week 41]

1: 3
2: 2
3: 1
4: 2,3
 

[Qotw: Participants Question Pool For Future Qotw's]

You know you are not meant to be a potter if ......

         You are more excited by the details of a process or technique than the pots you make using these skills.

         See Tony Clennell's posts over the last month:
         http://smokieclennell.blogspot.com/2018/02/confession-im-not-potter.html
 
LT

[Beginning wheel throwing projects]

nerd,

Based on your statement:

            "Even when I slow down, pay very close attention, still pull the top of the cylinder slightly off and open,"

and my observations of many students (including myself) I am guessing that you are pulling your hands of horizontally from the top and you are moving them rapidly while the wheel speed is slow.

If so, the most likely cause is the surface tension between the clay and your hand - usually the fingers. 

The corrective action is: move your hand away from the clay surface slowly to allow the wheel to rotate several times as you move your hands off the clay.  

LT

[Qotw: Participants Question Pool For Future Qotw's]

Yes!

No.