Mark C.

40 soap dishes 200 sponge holders a few hundred mugs-20 small miso bowls 4 oval platters and A partridge in a pear tree.

I am on a midsummer break and the bench is empty-just returned form my really big show and a few days of diving.No clay for another week.

Typical day starts at 9 am in studio throwing until 12 to 1 pm -putting wares in sunshine (may-oct)break for lunch and expresso. Depending on drying conditions-start to trim/handle wares- after lunch.The idea is to finish all the work that day. sometimes get to throw some for am trimming as well. Try to finish up by 6-630pm In winter pots are forced dry in shop with natural gas heater or if coastal fog come in for days -Like past few days -I light up heater and dry work inside. This cycle repeat's until bisque day which usually has some throwing or trimming in am and firing goes into the evening hours. Load and fire bisque car kiln- while making glaze that day. Glaze day starts at 9-ish and runs long (7-8pm) I load two kilns most of the time and fire them the next day.I have an assistant for glaze day and putting on handles the past 25 plus years as well.I usually do all the kiln loading and she helps with most of the unloading.I usually cool one and 1/2 to two days and we unload the next and pack and price all the wares in one long afternoon.That we glaze on Fridays and I fire on Saturdays-unload on Monday afternoons orGlaze on Mondays I fire Tuesdays and we unload Friday afternoons.(glaze days usually are Mondays or Fridays occasionally Wens) Then the cycle repeats itself.-Been this way for many decades -maybe more- Sundays is usually a day off as the kilns are cooling and I am trying to do less in clay.Sometimes a Market pottery drop off happens on Sundays. Thursdays are also a slower day usually with pottery deliveries to wholesale accounts and loading a bisque and glaze making . Things that affect this schedule are fishing /camping /trips away/diving/off season break/ Vacations/etc.

Moat of you know my story-in fact its the reason I came to this site in the 1st place-to ask the question can you still throw pots after having a PRC wrist surgery. Which for me was unknown at that time. That was my 1st post on this board back in 2012 if I recall I had some trama to my right wrist sometime in past 30 years and hurt that wrist and the wrist became to painful to do much with.The scaphoid bone drifted into the lunate after that injury (unknown to me) and arthritis ate it all up. Had this procedure done http://www.sonjacerovac.com/procedures/hand-wrist/proximak-row-carpectomy/ They cut out the 3 of the 9 bones we all have in our wrist.I have 6 bones now-you all have 9. I found the best surgeon specialist on the west coast and got several opinions first as I really wanted to stay in clay. I ended up 6 hours south in San Fransisco at UCSF . It was a 6 month recovery-(5 clay free) Now I have a limited range of motion and only have 105#s of grip (once was 130) in that hand. Its slowing degrading from use and my next option will be full wrist fusion when I cannot stand the pain my Docs says. If I baby it It may last my lifetime but I have found that clay work is not babying it enough and its slowly getting more painful. Thank goodness I have a high pain threshold. The timing is such that hopefully I can slow down in time ( less pottery making)not to have full wrist fusion. (no wrist movement at all) I could throw even with full fusion but I'm not keen on that idea. Now at 65 my hands get cramps and get sore but I generally work thru it.My wrist is a bigger issue than finger arthritis for me. On the economic notes I can hang it up anytime but I really like my job at times and would prefer to just slowly do less. I built this business over 45 years ago and Its not something I look forward on closing the door on.I know at some point in the next years I'll stop with shows -thats a given with age but I like the idea of still suppling some choice local markets I have delved over the past 45 years. Its a gamble either way. I did get a power pugged right after wrist surgery and should have gotten one a decade sooner-all the labor saving devices really help in the long run. advancer shelves -power wheels electric slab rollers-Peter Puggers-all very worth it if you do this for a living. Another issue for me is all my other hobbies are heavy stuff-like diving with tanks and lead and heavy underwater cameras or shipwreck salvage. My fun is all heavy stuff.

There has been lots of questions on belts and foot pedal adjustment on Brent/Amaco equipment lately. I have answered most of them. This page I posted below answers most of them. I'm hoping this will help those in the future with questions-a moderator could pin it in at the top. https://www.amaco.com/equipment_how_tos

Yes many of my glazes run and a good foot ring catches them.Its also my signature style of foot. A solid strong foot is something most pots need. learning to make a good strong solid non chip foot is a key deal. I spent a year working with a mentee on her foot style.Most just ignore the foot or half -a--one or do not have one.Good feet are part of good pots.All that said I have a few forms that I do not have feet on. I used to 40 years ago foot everything . In my temp range of cone 11 porcelain many glazes are moving and they fill that foot space above the foot. My pie plates for example are flat bottomed but still have the side edge foot that catches glazes. If you are working in cone 06 runny glazes will not be an issue but a good foot on a pot will always look better.

I have older cotton towels for shop use-one hangs on a hook near the door. I have a stack of clean folded ones in studio. They only get used for clay.They vary from hand to bath size.I was them in a. shop cold water only(no soap) washer-its a front loader I bought new a few years ago -I get about 10 years on machines before clay kills them.The last machine wash a hand me down from friend. The water is used as grey water on berry patch in summer from washer.In winter is piped into shop underground rainwater pipes (from hitters) that take it long away from house onto more bamboo. Towels and shop clay cloths are washed in they system removed from house laundry system.No clay in house on cloths or towels.I wash once a week during weekend cheap power. I sponge off surfaces with large sponges. I have a dedicated clay sink with facet on a pipe about 18 inch from sink bottom.Water from sing goes into a two tub settling system outside.That water is hosed via gravity feed to timber bamboo patch year around. since this is a full Time gig all this make sense. For most it makes little sense

The same is true for me-but it may be the technology vs the fact that we wore off our fingerprints-or at least parts of them.

Ok today was sponge the load day as well as throwing and trimming. I had my wife shoot these for me just before loading the kiln with them This is what 45 years of hard clay work will do to your hands

Well lets see the past two days has been high production-These pots which I'm sponging on the white table and in the far distance (not the ones that need handles or trimming on plaster bats) where loaded today at noon and are now at 8pm about 1200 degrees. I sponged them today in sun dried them a few hours -still wet and slow fired them about 10 hours in gas car kiln today/night That load was about 150 spoon rests and 60 sponge holders and a lot of mugs and bowls some where serving size. Glaze day is friday

Forms come and some go-its the sales that drives this change to some degree. For example if I get 100 requests for a form I will start working thru the design and fine tune it to the finish stages. French butterdishes started this way for me in Arizona sales.Then offer it to customers. If an item is slow in sales like soup Tureens are now I stop making them. The other side is I like a form and produce it and see if others do to. Sponge holder came to be this way for me. Ga;sea are always a change and I like to add new ones. Forms change over time as do glazes with material changes-you may not see this change unless you make your own glazes for decades. As I age I'm getting more picky about what and where I want to sell and how much I want to produce.I have zero tolerance for bad business these days. I like happy connections and trust. I also need more time away from the production side these days.Seeing my work over the sat 40 plus years has shown a lot of refinements -in form and glazing and what works everyday.

I'm not a big spend time in the office guy. As it is I have to bookkeep more than I would like and I try to limit this to winter hours as much as I can. I try to spend time outside more in outside season and less office time. If the weather is crappy then its office time. Also now that I'm only doing 6 shows and more wholesale /and some consignment then planning is less hard. I have always done the same shows so I do not have to think much about when as they are always about the same times yearly. I used to calendar up as Mea does now but it no longer like that for me. I used to work backward from the show to calculate the fires and times. But now for example I have a show next week on the 4th of July-I packed 95% of van last week. All the pots are in that load. There is some what I call loose ends left to add but its not pottery. I'm working towards my Big summer show in Anacortes Wa and most of that work is also done and just needs to be unloaded from two kilns priced and packed. I still need to make some wall fish art and some more spoon rests (just threw 200 in last two days) I tend to glaze on Mondays or Fridays-Glaze fire on Saturdays or Tuesdays. Throw Heavy on Tuesdays and Wednesdays -deliver pots on Thursdays to markets-Unload and price on Fridays-this is General schedule not fixed in stone and it varies.Things like fishing diving or shows change this basic schedule At a certain point you just know what needs doing without much thought and an office/computer is not needed. I make a list at the show of whats needed to fill in the stock and work from this list-same with general Market stock(wholesale and consignment) I also make another list of that shows Best sellers-I alway pull this list out at least a month before show and make sure that all those items I'm well stocked in. They seem to always be about the same with some yearly variances.On this list It may say bring 350 spooniest or two boxed of sponge holders or one plates sold well,or 8 boxes of mugs. I try to never run out of stock and get ahead as much as I can so I can do what I want when the weather/Ocean cooperates -especially in summer. I know come late December I will spend days accounting in the office-right now the sun is out and pots are drying and need trimming or handling.

Lets see, I do not think ceramic dog poop counts-I made some in collage with the high maganesse dark brown clay -its out in the yard still. How about a truck with donut tires-and a SLA license plate from the early 70's?More political sculpture than a toy. I do not think I have made a toy yet?