yappystudent

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. 

The recent greenware. 

The recent greenware. 

All 21 lbs of cat, left footprints in the slab under the plastic he's laying on, maybe I'll finally make a mug for myself out of it. BTW the vet had to shave him down after a particularly bad fight hence the weird look to his coat is not my doing I swear. 

I'm glad this thread is here, thanks to those who contributed to it. 

As I mentioned before somewhere I have leukemia. When I was diagnosed I promised myself a few things. One, I would do what I wanted the way I wanted as much as possible from then on with the time I have left. Working with clay to some extent gives me a focus and relieves my depression to a large extent, helps me to handle my fear, and though I don't really believe in 'legacies' it's sort of nice to know that a few things I made will be around a long time after I'm gone. Right now I actually feel physically pretty good and thought I was doing well in remission. A visit about a week ago with my oncologist cleared my hopes up when he said it's time for me to get in line for a bone marrow transplant. Hm, yes, well.
Anyway, on the bright side I got to quit my job (after not being able to finish a shift at work due to having pain from a swollen spleen, a health care provider with no health care, thanks to the heartless health care system in the US) three years ago when I finally walked into an ER and got diagnosed. I'd been managing and working through horrible symptoms undiagnosed for at least two years not knowing what I had. The ER doc suddenly got excited saying my white cell counts were off the scale and I was rushed over to another hospital in the middle of the night, put into all sorts of contraptions, IV's inserted, etc. The oncologist assured me I didn't have long if it was one type, about 25 yrs if another. My only thought was "Christ I can finally quit my job!" -that's how much I hated it. After recovering and getting social security and medicaid worked out, I sold my wee house in Idaho, (also hated Idaho, I'm from CA originally, seriously a fish out of water) and used the money to move to a place I love on the Oregon coast. Anyway I'm cramming as much of what I want, that I can afford on next to nothing, into what's left. Not everyone gets the news they better get their affairs in order and have such and such time left to do it. Most of the time, I'm grateful, not always. 

Maybe two questions can be squeezed out of this: 
What was your lowest moment with your pottery? 
What was your best moment with your pottery? 

Apologies if this has been suggested before but I'm curious if anyone else uses "Kiln Gods" or Gremlins when firing their kiln. 
My first experience with clay was as a laborer trimming cups in a small production factory. (back in the early 80's, called Shapiro's Ceramic and Design, they took over from the slightly more well-known Overland Stoneware) They had two car kilns there and the owner who did the firing had a couple hideous little figures that looked kind of like what you see stuck on face jugs. According to him these were his "kiln gods" who watched over the firing process, and we weren't allowed to place them. 
My father was a Mason and a master welder for the air force. My mother told me that whenever they were having problems with a plane repeatedly, during the fix they made a gremlin out of scrap metal and welded it somewhere inside the body of the aircraft where it wouldn't be seen. 

A few thoughts on Apple Baker
 


 
The throwing skills here are similar to a  bowl as it is a wide flared cylinder with a second interior cone wall. This form will expand your throwing skills. 

Glazing today as the weather is clear and sunny. These have been base glazed, and there are 7 more boards like this one, some with honey jars, and teapots.
 
 
best,
Pres

Every time I make a little mosaic tile shape I like, I make a bisque press-mold of it. I have dozens of these now and don't have to worry about losing forms that may have arose spontaneously. They give me a strange sense of satisfaction. 

Every time I make a little mosaic tile shape I like, I make a bisque press-mold of it. I have dozens of these now and don't have to worry about losing forms that may have arose spontaneously. They give me a strange sense of satisfaction. 

Update: So I've been pretty upset the past two weeks waiting to hear back about a test for a mutation in my blood cells that renders the known forms of drug treatment useless. They did the wrong test twice...anyway apparently third time is the charm and the test came back negative, I'm just responding slower than most, which is very very good news. Thanks for all the nice comments and getting to hear folk's sharing. I wish everyone else a bit of good news in their struggles also. 

As I mentioned before somewhere I have leukemia. When I was diagnosed I promised myself a few things. One, I would do what I wanted the way I wanted as much as possible from then on with the time I have left. Working with clay to some extent gives me a focus and relieves my depression to a large extent, helps me to handle my fear, and though I don't really believe in 'legacies' it's sort of nice to know that a few things I made will be around a long time after I'm gone. Right now I actually feel physically pretty good and thought I was doing well in remission. A visit about a week ago with my oncologist cleared my hopes up when he said it's time for me to get in line for a bone marrow transplant. Hm, yes, well.
Anyway, on the bright side I got to quit my job (after not being able to finish a shift at work due to having pain from a swollen spleen, a health care provider with no health care, thanks to the heartless health care system in the US) three years ago when I finally walked into an ER and got diagnosed. I'd been managing and working through horrible symptoms undiagnosed for at least two years not knowing what I had. The ER doc suddenly got excited saying my white cell counts were off the scale and I was rushed over to another hospital in the middle of the night, put into all sorts of contraptions, IV's inserted, etc. The oncologist assured me I didn't have long if it was one type, about 25 yrs if another. My only thought was "Christ I can finally quit my job!" -that's how much I hated it. After recovering and getting social security and medicaid worked out, I sold my wee house in Idaho, (also hated Idaho, I'm from CA originally, seriously a fish out of water) and used the money to move to a place I love on the Oregon coast. Anyway I'm cramming as much of what I want, that I can afford on next to nothing, into what's left. Not everyone gets the news they better get their affairs in order and have such and such time left to do it. Most of the time, I'm grateful, not always. 

When I first was learning to load my electric kiln (vs. the wonderfully huge gas kiln at college) I realized it wasn't as easy to plan the space as I thought.  All it took was one time of getting the thing almost loaded and then finding I had to disassemble it and redo it becasue there were some time sensitive pieces to be fired, which of course were the last ones and wouldn't fit. So I made myself mock shelves out of foam core. I was able to quickly plan out the load on the work table, accounting for height, and after a couple of times doing that, I pretty much get it done w/o the assist. The missing corner on the foam core is courtesy of the rat that moved in while I was on vacation. He ate my good woodfire gloves, the trim  on my best boots, chewed a hole in the wall to/from the outside , and would not leave until I took drastic measures.   For stuffers, I use the smallest of the smalls (incense cone holders/spoons) to fill the little spaces. No baked rodent, tempting as it was.

Tests, mosaic tiles, bisque molds, beads, bonsai pots, xmus ornaments. 

Update: So I've been pretty upset the past two weeks waiting to hear back about a test for a mutation in my blood cells that renders the known forms of drug treatment useless. They did the wrong test twice...anyway apparently third time is the charm and the test came back negative, I'm just responding slower than most, which is very very good news. Thanks for all the nice comments and getting to hear folk's sharing. I wish everyone else a bit of good news in their struggles also. 

Apologies if this has been suggested before but I'm curious if anyone else uses "Kiln Gods" or Gremlins when firing their kiln. 
My first experience with clay was as a laborer trimming cups in a small production factory. (back in the early 80's, called Shapiro's Ceramic and Design, they took over from the slightly more well-known Overland Stoneware) They had two car kilns there and the owner who did the firing had a couple hideous little figures that looked kind of like what you see stuck on face jugs. According to him these were his "kiln gods" who watched over the firing process, and we weren't allowed to place them. 
My father was a Mason and a master welder for the air force. My mother told me that whenever they were having problems with a plane repeatedly, during the fix they made a gremlin out of scrap metal and welded it somewhere inside the body of the aircraft where it wouldn't be seen. 

Love the pic.  Maybe your cat wants you to make a cat bowl.....he/she has already stamped it.

Ear. The only way I like my handles. Although I want to try the kind where its an ear with a finger pulled up at the top. 
Like this, by Ayumi Horie:

I DID...I swear it WAS NOT THERE last night!!!!!!!!! I looked there and in Aesthetics & even Studio (tho I knew it wasn't there.) Thanks---It's a little crazy-making but it's definately there now! 
ANYWAY....here are some handles from when I used to do mugs. They're more like a capital C , maybe, than the other types. I like my mugs on the hefty side, with the handles in balance. 

Pumpkins. Not something I've made before, they are for a raku fundraiser next month.

All 21 lbs of cat, left footprints in the slab under the plastic he's laying on, maybe I'll finally make a mug for myself out of it. BTW the vet had to shave him down after a particularly bad fight hence the weird look to his coat is not my doing I swear. 

All 21 lbs of cat, left footprints in the slab under the plastic he's laying on, maybe I'll finally make a mug for myself out of it. BTW the vet had to shave him down after a particularly bad fight hence the weird look to his coat is not my doing I swear. 

nataniajoy,  you are very fortunate to have such a nice manual kiln as a gift.  i thought by now you would have received an answer that addresses your problem as a totally new kiln user.
couple of things might help you understand the manual fred has so helpfully found for you.  you need to realize that the kiln is a very old one as far as its manufacturing date is concerned and there was a slightly different vocabulary used then.  "Automatic"  back then meant your kiln was equipped with a Kiln Sitter that would mechanically turn off the kiln when a particular temperature was reached.  the manual keeps referring to it as the ASD, automatic shutoff device (or sitter. prior to the use of a sitter, the potter had to watch the firing and turn it off at the end by looking into the kiln peep holes and judging the temperature at which to turn off the electricity. ) cones have been use for over a hundred years to help do that.
the temperature you select for each firing is commonly referred to by a cone number.   that means the same kiln can be used by potters who fire earthenware or stoneware which is usually fired to a higher temperature.  so you need to select the cone number for the clay and/or glazes you are using.
the number on the cone indicates a temperature but the firing can take a little longer as the elements wear out over time.  so the cone ,which you place HORIZONTALLY across the two little arms, will determine the time and temperature of your firing.  the arms hold up the cone and the rod end of the "claw" of the sitter sits over the cone resting on it.   SINCE THE INVENTION OF CONE BARS MANY PEOPLE USE THEM IN THE SITTER.  bars are of a uniform size end to end.  cones are tapered and some people have trouble putting them onto the arms and getting the claw rod in the middle of the cone.
when the cone gets hot enough for a long enough time, it will melt.  that means it sinks down and allows the rod end of the claw to sink as well.  the other end of the claw, the part outside the kiln, is really the claw looking end and it is holding a weight that will be released by the rising of the claw.  the weight will snap down and activate a round electrical shut off button that is located on the outside of the sitter.   (if you find you cannot start your kiln at any time, check that the claw is holding the weight and the button is close to the kiln, not sticking out.) 
i hope this is enough to help you read the manual and that will explain your particular kiln.  
the most important thing you need to learn is that it is CRITICALLY IMPORTANT that you understand the cone numbers of your clay and glazes.  look at a CONE CHART and read the numbers and the temperatures carefully.   there are some essential facts that are commonly glossed over when experienced potters are talking to each other.   
09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 AND THEN CONE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ETC.  are each a little hotter running from left to right.  check the chart!  and check your clay.  write the cone # on the bag of clay so you  DO NOT make the mistake of thinking that cone 6 is the same as cone 06.  that is a completely different temperature and if you use cone 06 clay and use a #6 cone in your sitter, you will probably melt everything and ruin the kiln.
see the recent post by benzine for what can happen.
hope you bothered to read this long post and understand it.