Mark C.

People send me stuff via email and this was one of those things-I have never tried them but This person likes them. The idea is they are light and would be lighter than my paster. That said I love my paster as the bottoms dry at same speed as tops so production is fast. wiring off pots and filping they to dry is not a production tool for me. When My plaster gets to much I will consider it. I throw a lot of forms up to 80-100 a day on 6 inch small homemade plaster (mini pie tins are the form ) bats. They are 6 across on top and about 5 on bottom. I use them on wooden ware boards.With plaster we can process the pots all in same day-handles -trimming -everything. Plaster is what makes this work. Its works when I'm working on other forms no need to flip any forms to dry bottom. Its like rust it never sleeps Woodpecker crafts-looks to be in Florida-free shipping over $75-goggle discount code and you may save more They make these in all sizes 3-7-9-12 and larger and they are pretty cheap especailly if you by some (not one).You need to mouse around the site to see what other sizes and thinkness they sell. If you finished them with something they would last a long time https://woodpeckerscrafts.com/7-circle-wooden-cutout-1-4-thick/?_ga=2.61608876.1219828974.1678153090-1016357538.1678153090&_gac=1.94678766.1678153121.CjwKCAiAu5agBhBzEiwAdiR5tK7lqRyZj4fTw-oCLdl9mfwPoGiAC9QebcySGbjSJw-9e9l2a7EFWhoCBXMQAvD_BwE The bigger question is how the woodpeckers make them round?? May be a good question of the week?

Just for the record -I have been pretty successful in ceramics over a 50 year period. I do not use social medial for any advertising in fact I distain it on any of my own social sites I think in todays world starting up with clay some may help but its a maybe will help deal.

Shipping will be your biggest issue to Kauai. Is there a clay supplier again in Honolulu .?The last one retired and i have not heard aboud a new one.

Medium-density overlay board (MDO) has a similar, smooth surface about 1⁄ 16 " thick on each face, bonded to a plywood core. never used it but it looks good not to be confused with MDF I throw on plaster 90% medex (Northstar sent me these free to try when they where testing them long ago) and blue plastic northstar bats and some formica bats homemade about 10%.(plates platter larger forms which I'm getting out of slowly) I have some Masonite bats that I only use to dry forms on as they warp when wet so I keep them dry-not a Masonite bat fan Tip of the day. You can now buy from cheaper crafts outlets(online) those MDO circles precut-you just need to drill them

One note about frost at least in the high fire version is it glassifies . This may have been the southern frost from NZ where thius started from. (I hope i'm not mixing it up with another body?) So my guess is it really really tight. The other thing is that it does not mix with other bodies (as in the scraps wedged together or a slurry) It does not play well with others I like to say. All the potters I know in Hawaii use laguna products at least on Molokia and the Big Island due to better frieght rates.They are also all cone 10 potters One does cone 10 electric crystalline glazes only. You could also check on Clay Planet bodies in the SF Bay area as thats a bit closer than east of the Mississippi .They make good bodies as well. Although mucjh smaller that Laguna Another option is Tacoma art center clays or Seattle Pottery clay bodies. Also much smaller than Laguna My guess is Laguna has something that will work for you

I agree on the fiber but 1st the mortar need to fill the holes (chinking the voids) then fiber then it need to be kept dry always (metal roof) Fiber should not get wet as well as the mortar .I always keep a few boxes of fiber on hand myself. Just in case

My throwing wheel and trimming wheel are all elevated a bit-I'm a taller person so 4-6 inches up is best for me. I have theBrent booties on one wheel and a small wood stand on my Brent model A model I use for trimming (that wheel was is the smallest well made wheel on the market when it was around years aga) The model A is long gone. Weighs 49#s

You learn more from your mistakes they say

That Amaco is a #15 and is ancient -I could not find out the drive mechanism -belt? cone ? gear? maybe you could flip it on its side and look. There are only thses 3 types of drives. That will say alot about why you like it. The small body size -yours and its also is a reason I'm sure it fits you so well. Tell us the drive story underneath I have not seen a used #15 amaco for sale in decades.

You may way to expand your sales beyond online to gain traction sooner.

Those old Shimpos to me are like dinosaurs -all modern wheels throw so much better. The reason is response time and ease of use. No presure to stomp on pedal or grab the knob handle to change speeds They work on a cone drive system . And the pressure to drive the cone up and down was for me a drawback-very stiff But I get that you like it maybe its the compact size? We all have our own likes

Put a ad on craogslist or Facebook for your area for old dead kiln

You can find alot on DPDT switchs on You Tube as well. Never bought into the lefty throwing direction myself as Neil said (Throwing direction is not a matter of being left or right handed. Western cultures typically throw counter-clockwise, and eastern cultures typically work clockwise. I recommend she learn to work counter-clockwise as she may encounter wheels that only go that direction if she attends workshops. Plus most instructional videos will be done that way.)

My customers stories run from great to sad.. Lets see I had a pedestal out front of booth with an small battery under it with an inverter powering a thrown fountain (bowl form full of beach glass) the water poured thru bamboo (home grown) and makes a sweet nosie of gurgling water as it recycled the same water over and over (pump is under glass and rocks in bowl) The student walks around and around the pedestal looking carefully and finally asks me where the new water is coming from??My takeaway is stay a few more years in school leaning the basics Lest see in the 80s at a sunny fair location I have a french butterdish as a demo and a sign saying its full of butter and water. My error was it was a black glaze in sun (got very hot) Woman grabs the lid and jecks it up and out and melted 1/2 pound of butter flies all over her and the booth. My take aways is no more demo butter pots Student buys a great teapot 1st day of show. I ask if he knows how to take care of it and he blows me off saying he knows it all. Same student shows up next day wondering how to reapair said teapot after putting it directly on stove burner. I was not happy with this customer as it was a fantastic teapot and its not always about money. He did learn about taking care of teapots at the expoencse of a great pot dieing Great things that do happen -people love the work and get excited or learn about new forms or learn about pottery and how to take care of it. The curious ones leatn about glazing and firing if I'm asked . I let the work sell itself and only answer questions if asked most of the time. I stoped selling forms that customers always ask WHATS THIS FOR?????-drives me nuts after the 2,000 time i hear it selling to the public you learn that its scary out there ,as in how do they function at all at times Lets see the bad - customers dog pees in booth on pots-customers dogs get in fight in booth. Customers are drunk in booth and you need to escort them out before they fall into booth People start yelling at each other at the show as they get in a tussle walking around show. Religious fanatics spewing crazy talk at art show-the list goes on-bar fight spills into show from bar. Customers get aggressive and cross the line-once I had a stately fellow put 4 mugs on my sales table and then announce that you will sell them to me for 1/2 off (he was serious ) I stood up from my chair and took the mugs and put them back on mug shelf and told him his money was not good here and asked him to leave my booth. He got upset and left . I have learned that men can be really really stubbornly stupid and womens purses are like black holes in space and can seem bottomless -no telling what may be in there. That someone can look thru 25 spoonrests for 2 hours before always buying the 1st one they liked I have had customers who where great as well-way more good than bad -you reacall the really bad ones for longer times I thought about a book on this subject but gave it up-50 years of shows you learn a lot about the public and really for me the takeway is I'm glad to be getting out of it.

Sorry I took Sydney to mean in Australia --Now my guess is England-as I have never heard of Sydney as a country If you are claying up the form and its to the 1/2 way point and then you pour the plaster and the line is less than 1/2 way the only way that can happen is the form floats up or gets pushed down depending on whats going on. What type of clay are you using for the claying up? and is the form moving in the process?I did read up on that plster and it looks fine for molds.. I have never seen this issue so go back to basics make sure you clay up to the 1/2 mark -use wet firm clay to clay up.Pour the plaster over a form and clay that has release on it. 3rd times a charm they say

Are you sealing the clay object? You need to. Never seen this. I am not familair with that plaster name but down under is different stuff.

I love my Mini van as well holds about 80 boxes and booth and payload is 2 tons Space case hold two canopies and custom top box hold full size Pro Panels-16 mpg no matter what you have in it. It snugs into a 20 foot parking place with inches to spare. It has a great turning radius -when you leave your driveway you start turning towards the state you wish to end up in and in a day or two you are there.It purrs on cruise control for 400 miles before needing to fill up. Loves to run on straight aways. It has a metal cage so if you are in wreck the load will not kill you (I know someone that that happened to once). It got all the safety features of a special order van in 2010.Rear has interior liner on walls and e-track wall system to hold stuff. Electric drivers seat.Most smaller electric cars will fit inside it as a bonus feature. Love the mini vans-this is my second one in 22 years and will be my last.

Keep the sprue hole down to keep out dust.

I have buildt at leaqst 3 of these out of hardbick like yours in the 70s. They consume massive amouts of BTU so waste oil is the right fuel choice. I stronly suggest adding anotherf homemade layer ver the arch to insulate . I made (from memory ) lots of vermiculite and you can add sawdust in a homemade mortar (wich will flake oiff if you take the kiln down . Use a mix of 3 parts silica 1 part to 2 parts fireclay and some epk as a binder-again lots of vermiculite. Some folks add small amount of portland cement but it will crack in fact no matter what it will crack so the trick is mix this as dry as you can still wetting the ingredients slightly-the dryer the less skrinkage. This extra insulation will fill the cracks and keep the heat in. keep the kiln covered from rain of course. Google homemade kiln coatings and see what others have done This will aid in kiln reaching temps. A forced air oil drip system will work fine for fuel Here is my old cat arch in the middle 70s during reduction-As you can see not very efficientt

Sent you a pm Callie

Tom find the house of your dreams and just have the service upgraded as part of the sale-or just after the sale. I cannot wrap around moving as I'm two months away from living in same place for 50 years That's also 50 years of improvements dialing it in for aging in place. 200 amps is the norm now for most homes and for me thats a bare minimum .

Panels very alot and the brands as well. This is where an electrician is needed in many cases. I outgrew a 100 panel in 1986 and went 200amps-looking back a 250 or 275 amp planel would have been a better choice. My studio feed is 90s amps and since my electric is only 48 amps that still fine. With a well (30amp) and two heat pumps (and another soon) 2 feezers (one for bait) and a solar system and another 100 amp outbuilding it gets complicated fast. Soon will need a 30 amp van outlet as well in parking area. When upsizing you should always plan to jump up more than you think

Well its the start of my firing season again . I loaded up two glaze kilns yesterday and am firing them today-I have been saying I'm slowing it down and this year it should really be way less than last years firings. Here are the totals for past two years 2022 - 35cubic car kiln downdraft-21 glaze fires 21 bisques 2021- 35 cubic car kiln-26 glaze fires 26 bisques 2022 -12 cubic foot updraft 26 glaze fires -zero bisques 2021 -12 cubic foot updraft 33 glaze fires -zero bisques 2022 -10 cubic foot Skutt electric bisques-2 2021 -10 cubic foot Skutt electric bisques-11 I'm working on my usual large spring wholesale order now and stock for local outlets-next art show is in September and thats my only Art show for 2023 My local two organic markets usually order about every 3 weeks this time of year. Galleries and gift shops are in the slow season now

My deep dive into taxs from a full timer Just had my 2 hours appointment with our tax man last week. He called me this past weekend with a few qestions as well. We have a complex tax situation -two business's and a retired wife from a state job (thats the easy one)and last year a ballon payment from my wifes house sale that closed after we carried the note for 4 years. I have 3 checkbooks-one for each business (a pottery bus and diving business and a personal one) I keep these current month to month with accounting /balancing I use a very old quicken for mac software thats tweeked heavly for all my categories (I would use quickbooks or excel but back in the day before Macs took off that where not going to support Macks for a spell )that all changed when macs took off. By then I was 10-15 years into quicken..I owned the discs forever and it was easy-my version is not at all like how it came after years of tweeks for a pottery and diving business At the end of the year I go thru 12 months of credit card statements and weed out what account each charge is for (this is already done on each statement every month so the checks from each business pay for those charges thta go with that business) and enter them in quicken. I also enter all cash expenses and intake in a cash account. In quicken I have that credit card account as well. I should add that on my refrigerator side I have a small sheet that I record all money taken in in pottery-its divided in lines to all shops/galleries and cash taken in in studio and misc etc . I have at least 10 years worth of a them clipped together-all pottery income is on this small cheat sheet except for art shows that I keep in a book that dates back to 1973-I total that in January and cross check my quicken reports with that art fair book. I also on that cheat sheet show ebay sales from my diving business (equipment sales) and the past 3 years I have a solar expense categorie for the solar system I put in as its a big tax credit . After my xmas sale (xmas eve) I start entering all the data for all the businesses -go thru the credit card statements and enter that data. by middle Jan I have it all in. I also get stock 1099s (I have my own stock small portfolio from TD ameritrade ) and I get a Vanguard 1099 as well. I start reviewing the data and print on stcatch paper my reports for each business. That always needs tweeking and mistakes show up and I forgotten expenses turn up in my tax file so after about 3 print outs I have the final and I have a copy and one for my tax man. I have to sort the utility and electrical expenes as I have.40% business write off on any home expenes as my pottery business takes up 40% of our buildings-Property tax and insurance etc (40%) so those need to be weeded out as well. lost of fun here preping all this for the tax guy. It takes us about 1.5 to 2 hours with our tax man (he is all a pottery customer) to go thru the reports within a few weks he tells me how much I can contribute to my SEP IRA and my Roth IRA . I have to say we have a good time with Ben our tax guy and I can talk about on or off the record with him and have some fun at same time. I go in and sign off the 3/4 inch tax report to state and feds and pay him about 525$-575$-I'll post how many pages as I go get it this week. Than I start writing checks to Feds and State-also 1/4ly checks for prepayment for self employment. Really all big fun. So that a full timers tax story-lots of data entry and record keeping. The 2021 year was biggest sales year ever with covid buying at a all time high. and just about no shows. I bailed out of two local venues and cut some shows so that would never happen again but the taxs where brutal . Sometimes I like paper work other times I hate it so its a love hate deal. I like to get it all behind me by March This is more detail that I would normal tell one but as you can see for self employed full timers it can be complex I just got my return back and its 73 pages, Time to write some BIG checks

I was given a raku mug from Mexico a few years ago and it was touted to be fluid holding. And also sold to restaurants in that village in mexico . It appeared to have a liner glaze as well. I filled it with water put on the counter within a few minutes the outside became wet looking up to the fluid level. Just think about a glass of milk seeping in those pores-yuk. Raku is not for funtional work. So if you want the good stuff on the inside raku is not the pathway forward.