Mark C.

Speaking of Books there is one being made now that is all about the place I learned the most in Ceramics. I wrote a piece for that books which is in the editing stages now.
It was called the Laundry 
In the 50's-60s it was a commercial Laundry. In the late 60s it was bought by the Humboldt State University and turned into a pot shop. It has floor drains (wood covered cement troughs that drain out). They added a kiln room off the back. The builing is one huge barrel arch roof. A really great pottery setup for teaching.
Back then my mentor Reese Bullen  (who started the Art Dept there) hired a new instructor to help him teach ceramics from Alfreds as a recent gradute Lou Marak -it was 1969. I came a few years later to that program.
They hired another Alfred grad the year I came as well  (1972). It was the heyday of ceramics for this school. It was after the war and it was ahuge open learningtyransition time in ceramics-from Volkus to Arneson clay was expanding. Thes e recenty Alfreds guys where on fire from leaning from the greats who taught and wrote at Alfreds. Rhodes and the like passed what they knew down to my teachers who passed that to us. It was a solid 5 years in immersion in all things clay and kilns for me.Many a teacher and potter came out the other side of that Laundry .
In my time I learned slip casting, low fire ,high fire , kiln firing, hand building ,slab work,clay and glaze formulation just to name a few. I Worked in work study program for years as kiln and glaze room tec.( Back then tec was not used) loading and firing kilns of all types.Salt to low fire electrics-with redution cone 10 gas as the standard .
The program slowly after many deacdes switched as did many programs to  around the country  in schools to sculture and making art-mostly low fire. This slowy in my view turned the ceramics program into a lesser one than the one I was in at that time. I have heard lots of feedback on this from students over the past 30 years
Now the University recently became Cal Poly Humboldt and humanities is at the botton of the pile now. They now have funding to build in massive science expansion 3 new parking structures and you gues it the Laundry will be scraped to put in a parking lot as Joni Mitchell once said in a song. The last 10 yeared ceramics professor retires this year (JUNE) and no one is fighting this stupid mistake. For me the university long ago lost the community support as they do not care about that.
Two of the old ceramic teachers is compiling this book on 50 years of the Laundry-its history and students. I am just one of those and one of the few that choose the production pottery route over teaching and also stayed local and am still producing . In my. time we once had over 20 full timers in this small area making funtional wares now its me. Last man standing full time. The laundry is a special place for me in my brain  as well as the people who shared what they knew way back in the early 70s with me. When folks  are buying and using my pottery they really are using pottery that came from my years at the Laundry and those who taught there at that time.
Ps this book is being complied and underwritten by a gallery In Davis Ca called the John Natsoulas Gallery. John is footing the bill
He has a press at gallery and has had a 30 year ceramic realationship with HSU ceramics and did a book on the UC Davis ceramics lab already
its a great thing he is doing for our local clay history-if you are ever in Davis Ca stop by that gallery its worth the trip-just look for the 15 foot  high ceramic cat you walk to enter the gallery. You cannot miss it.
https://www.natsoulas.com
 

Its also the weight of the load along with temp
The ones that failed where in a 5 foot high stack in gas kiln near the floor-so they had the whole weight of all the load on them. 

I have had arthritis in my hands beyond memory at this point. Using your hands is whay I consider a key element to life and hands. My guess is you are not a professional with clay so you will not be using.8- 10 tons a year which. puts a hurt on the hands . I would  not worry about clay and your hands. Mild Artritis is in all us old timers who use our hands in life. 
I am 100% a believer that clay can help  strengthen and exercise the muscles . As you age no matter what your artritis will continue
Clay has kept my hands strong . They do not like cold but thats also an aging issue.Heck I do not like cold-never have liked heat either-I like it just right.

I have had arthritis in my hands beyond memory at this point. Using your hands is whay I consider a key element to life and hands. My guess is you are not a professional with clay so you will not be using.8- 10 tons a year which. puts a hurt on the hands . I would  not worry about clay and your hands. Mild Artritis is in all us old timers who use our hands in life. 
I am 100% a believer that clay can help  strengthen and exercise the muscles . As you age no matter what your artritis will continue
Clay has kept my hands strong . They do not like cold but thats also an aging issue.Heck I do not like cold-never have liked heat either-I like it just right.

A piece of cardboard between them will work fine (thats how they ship most of them) . You need to keep them from slipping apart(tape the bundle as one) blankets can work  Or bubble wrap. They can be shipped flat or on edge but on edge they should be held tight so not to fall over.

Speaking of Books there is one being made now that is all about the place I learned the most in Ceramics. I wrote a piece for that books which is in the editing stages now.
It was called the Laundry 
In the 50's-60s it was a commercial Laundry. In the late 60s it was bought by the Humboldt State University and turned into a pot shop. It has floor drains (wood covered cement troughs that drain out). They added a kiln room off the back. The builing is one huge barrel arch roof. A really great pottery setup for teaching.
Back then my mentor Reese Bullen  (who started the Art Dept there) hired a new instructor to help him teach ceramics from Alfreds as a recent gradute Lou Marak -it was 1969. I came a few years later to that program.
They hired another Alfred grad the year I came as well  (1972). It was the heyday of ceramics for this school. It was after the war and it was ahuge open learningtyransition time in ceramics-from Volkus to Arneson clay was expanding. Thes e recenty Alfreds guys where on fire from leaning from the greats who taught and wrote at Alfreds. Rhodes and the like passed what they knew down to my teachers who passed that to us. It was a solid 5 years in immersion in all things clay and kilns for me.Many a teacher and potter came out the other side of that Laundry .
In my time I learned slip casting, low fire ,high fire , kiln firing, hand building ,slab work,clay and glaze formulation just to name a few. I Worked in work study program for years as kiln and glaze room tec.( Back then tec was not used) loading and firing kilns of all types.Salt to low fire electrics-with redution cone 10 gas as the standard .
The program slowly after many deacdes switched as did many programs to  around the country  in schools to sculture and making art-mostly low fire. This slowy in my view turned the ceramics program into a lesser one than the one I was in at that time. I have heard lots of feedback on this from students over the past 30 years
Now the University recently became Cal Poly Humboldt and humanities is at the botton of the pile now. They now have funding to build in massive science expansion 3 new parking structures and you gues it the Laundry will be scraped to put in a parking lot as Joni Mitchell once said in a song. The last 10 year ceramics professor retire this year and no one is fighting this stupid mistake. For me the university long ago lost the community support as they do not care about that.
Two of the old ceramic teachers is compiling this book on 50 years of the Laundry-its history and students. I am just one of those and one of the few that choose the production pottery route over teaching and also stayed local and am still producing . In my. time we once had over 20 full timers in this small area making funtional wares now its me. Last man standing full time. The laundry is a special place for me in my brain  as well as the people who shared what they knew way back in the early 70s with me. When folks  are buying and using my pottery they really are using pottery that came from my years at the Laundry and those who taught there at that time.
Ps this book is being complied and underwritten by a gallery In Davis Ca called the John Natsoulas Gallery. John is footing the bill
He has a press at gallery and has had a 30 year ceramic realationship with HSU ceramics and did a book on the UC Davis ceramics lab already
its a great thing he is doing for our local clay history-if you are ever in Davis Ca stop by that gallery its worth the trip-just look for the 15 foot  high ceramic cat you walk thru to enter the gallery. You cannot miss it.
https://www.natsoulas.com
 
 

Speaking of Books there is one being made now that is all about the place I learned the most in Ceramics. I wrote a piece for that books which is in the editing stages now.
It was called the Laundry 
In the 50's-60s it was a commercial Laundry. In the late 60s it was bought by the Humboldt State University and turned into a pot shop. It has floor drains (wood covered cement troughs that drain out). They added a kiln room off the back. The builing is one huge barrel arch roof. A really great pottery setup for teaching.
Back then my mentor Reese Bullen  (who started the Art Dept there) hired a new instructor to help him teach ceramics from Alfreds as a recent gradute Lou Marak -it was 1969. I came a few years later to that program.
They hired another Alfred grad the year I came as well  (1972). It was the heyday of ceramics for this school. It was after the war and it was ahuge open learningtyransition time in ceramics-from Volkus to Arneson clay was expanding. Thes e recenty Alfreds guys where on fire from leaning from the greats who taught and wrote at Alfreds. Rhodes and the like passed what they knew down to my teachers who passed that to us. It was a solid 5 years in immersion in all things clay and kilns for me.Many a teacher and potter came out the other side of that Laundry .
In my time I learned slip casting, low fire ,high fire , kiln firing, hand building ,slab work,clay and glaze formulation just to name a few. I Worked in work study program for years as kiln and glaze room tec.( Back then tec was not used) loading and firing kilns of all types.Salt to low fire electrics-with redution cone 10 gas as the standard .
The program slowly after many deacdes switched as did many programs to  around the country  in schools to sculture and making art-mostly low fire. This slowy in my view turned the ceramics program into a lesser one than the one I was in at that time. I have heard lots of feedback on this from students over the past 30 years
Now the University recently became Cal Poly Humboldt and humanities is at the botton of the pile now. They now have funding to build in massive science expansion 3 new parking structures and you gues it the Laundry will be scraped to put in a parking lot as Joni Mitchell once said in a song. The last 10 year ceramics professor retire this year and no one is fighting this stupid mistake. For me the university long ago lost the community support as they do not care about that.
Two of the old ceramic teachers is compiling this book on 50 years of the Laundry-its history and students. I am just one of those and one of the few that choose the production pottery route over teaching and also stayed local and am still producing . In my. time we once had over 20 full timers in this small area making funtional wares now its me. Last man standing full time. The laundry is a special place for me in my brain  as well as the people who shared what they knew way back in the early 70s with me. When folks  are buying and using my pottery they really are using pottery that came from my years at the Laundry and those who taught there at that time.
Ps this book is being complied and underwritten by a gallery In Davis Ca called the John Natsoulas Gallery. John is footing the bill
He has a press at gallery and has had a 30 year ceramic realationship with HSU ceramics and did a book on the UC Davis ceramics lab already
its a great thing he is doing for our local clay history-if you are ever in Davis Ca stop by that gallery its worth the trip-just look for the 15 foot  high ceramic cat you walk thru to enter the gallery. You cannot miss it.
https://www.natsoulas.com
 
 

Speaking of Books there is one being made now that is all about the place I learned the most in Ceramics. I wrote a piece for that books which is in the editing stages now.
It was called the Laundry 
In the 50's-60s it was a commercial Laundry. In the late 60s it was bought by the Humboldt State University and turned into a pot shop. It has floor drains (wood covered cement troughs that drain out). They added a kiln room off the back. The builing is one huge barrel arch roof. A really great pottery setup for teaching.
Back then my mentor Reese Bullen  (who started the Art Dept there) hired a new instructor to help him teach ceramics from Alfreds as a recent gradute Lou Marak -it was 1969. I came a few years later to that program.
They hired another Alfred grad the year I came as well  (1972). It was the heyday of ceramics for this school. It was after the war and it was ahuge open learningtyransition time in ceramics-from Volkus to Arneson clay was expanding. Thes e recenty Alfreds guys where on fire from leaning from the greats who taught and wrote at Alfreds. Rhodes and the like passed what they knew down to my teachers who passed that to us. It was a solid 5 years in immersion in all things clay and kilns for me.Many a teacher and potter came out the other side of that Laundry .
In my time I learned slip casting, low fire ,high fire , kiln firing, hand building ,slab work,clay and glaze formulation just to name a few. I Worked in work study program for years as kiln and glaze room tec.( Back then tec was not used) loading and firing kilns of all types.Salt to low fire electrics-with redution cone 10 gas as the standard .
The program slowly after many deacdes switched as did many programs to  around the country  in schools to sculture and making art-mostly low fire. This slowy in my view turned the ceramics program into a lesser one than the one I was in at that time. I have heard lots of feedback on this from students over the past 30 years
Now the University recently became Cal Poly Humboldt and humanities is at the botton of the pile now. They now have funding to build in massive science expansion 3 new parking structures and you gues it the Laundry will be scraped to put in a parking lot as Joni Mitchell once said in a song. The last 10 yeared ceramics professor retires this year (JUNE) and no one is fighting this stupid mistake. For me the university long ago lost the community support as they do not care about that.
Two of the old ceramic teachers is compiling this book on 50 years of the Laundry-its history and students. I am just one of those and one of the few that choose the production pottery route over teaching and also stayed local and am still producing . In my. time we once had over 20 full timers in this small area making funtional wares now its me. Last man standing full time. The laundry is a special place for me in my brain  as well as the people who shared what they knew way back in the early 70s with me. When folks  are buying and using my pottery they really are using pottery that came from my years at the Laundry and those who taught there at that time.
Ps this book is being complied and underwritten by a gallery In Davis Ca called the John Natsoulas Gallery. John is footing the bill
He has a press at gallery and has had a 30 year ceramic realationship with HSU ceramics and did a book on the UC Davis ceramics lab already
its a great thing he is doing for our local clay history-if you are ever in Davis Ca stop by that gallery its worth the trip-just look for the 15 foot  high ceramic cat you walk to enter the gallery. You cannot miss it.
https://www.natsoulas.com
 

Well I just billed my second quarter accounts that are on a quartly basis. Not all up but some
One is  the same as last years (a boom year for me last year) the others where down slightly .
Seems sales are getting back to a normal year in most outlets.
I am just now packing up my largest gallery order ever in my career . This gallery ordered twice a year. Thgis is the fall order as I do not have time thgis fall to produce it. So did it over past two months.
My fall is booked with show  and other orders and a 24 day dive trip to Indonesia . Been a few years now away from serious diving and need to get back under.
I have my largest show in 30 days and it most likely will be my last show there after 30 year run. I am not having to leave my area anymore for sales as I have all I need locally .This also will be my last out of state show after 40 years of them . I'm a little sad about it-,I could keep the door open another year and am thinking that over. Show pots are more work as you need it all-teapots to cannister sets where local wholesale and consign is much easier form wise (less forms to make). I will still have two local sales this fall/xmas for at least this year or next.

Well I just billed my second quarter accounts that are on a quartly basis. Not all up but some
One is  the same as last years (a boom year for me last year) the others where down slightly .
Seems sales are getting back to a normal year in most outlets.
I am just now packing up my largest gallery order ever in my career . This gallery ordered twice a year. Thgis is the fall order as I do not have time thgis fall to produce it. So did it over past two months.
My fall is booked with show  and other orders and a 24 day dive trip to Indonesia . Been a few years now away from serious diving and need to get back under.
I have my largest show in 30 days and it most likely will be my last show there after 30 year run. I am not having to leave my area anymore for sales as I have all I need locally .This also will be my last out of state show after 40 years of them . I'm a little sad about it-,I could keep the door open another year and am thinking that over. Show pots are more work as you need it all-teapots to cannister sets where local wholesale and consign is much easier form wise (less forms to make). I will still have two local sales this fall/xmas for at least this year or next.

A piece of cardboard between them will work fine (thats how they ship most of them) . You need to keep them from slipping apart(tape the bundle as one) blankets can work  Or bubble wrap. They can be shipped flat or on edge but on edge they should be held tight so not to fall over.

I know of no base that works with all colorants for all the colors you are asking about-its just not that simple.I have 50 years in now experence wise  with cone 10 glazes in a production studio and I have no base that works in my 15 weekly glazes I use they are all different. No single base . If you find one let me know as that would simplify mixing all 15 each.
You can use a white base and add cobalt for blue  or try copper for green but its a try try try test test test deal. I would start with a simple 4 ingredient glaze base thats white. The white base  glaze will have zero colorants in it.I can post one if needed called honey white. Next time I'm in glaze area I'll jot it down-its very simple white-likes heat so not good in cold spots

I use this 
https://www.axner.com/pure-lube.aspx

I purchased a new kiln last year with the furniture kit, knowing that I would want to add more shelves in the future. I have always used cordierite shelves when teaching, and in the old kiln. I have not had issues with warping at cone 6, yet I have seen problems with other teachers that did not understand how to best place stilts. I have always used 3 stilts to support  a shelf as this seems to give the most balanced support for the work and health for the shelf. I also make certain to keep fresh kiln wash on the shelves to limit the amount of pucks from glaze drips. . . best way to eliminate them is to clean bottoms well, use bevel undercuts, and catch lips on  pots that will allow glaze run. even an engraved line on a foot area is often enough to stop a glaze run.
 
best,
Pres 

I sent you a PM
I'm a fellow Humboldter
welcome to the forum 

You can probably resell it for list price. Buy a new one when you are settled in your new location. 

I did custom work for about 35 years-it was alway a murphys law deal.all pots came out great except for custom order.Its just the nature of that custom. It takes to much time to many tries and never pays off.
I laid down the law of No about 15 years ago and it has been the best thing for me and for the business.
Custom work is for those who have yet to learn this lesson -thats also tru for me on small variations as Mea pointed out still happen now and then.

I know a potter who only does custom mugs-thats the whole business-mugs with names on them
That would kill me _ can't image the shard pile of uncle Joe and happy dad mugs in his studio

looks like bloating to me.-yes you can keep it (do not sell it) but  if you break it open you will know for sure thats it bloating as the inside will have a bubble in it.

Just a heads up if you use Tin buy some NOW
Distributor Tin cost has just doubled 
Most Tin is from Mymar and its a mess now politically
I'm not much of Tin user myself but if you are may want to double down on it now

As a Laguna distributor the NEW current price is $62 at the best wholesale price break
This high price will start when suppliers reorder-so just a heads up

Just a heads up if you use Tin buy some NOW
Distributor Tin cost has just doubled 
Most Tin is from Mymar and its a mess now politically
I'm not much of Tin user myself but if you are may want to double down on it now

Just a heads up if you use Tin buy some NOW
Distributor Tin cost has just doubled 
Most Tin is from Mymar and its a mess now politically
I'm not much of Tin user myself but if you are may want to double down on it now

Just a heads up if you use Tin buy some NOW
Distributor Tin cost has just doubled 
Most Tin is from Mymar and its a mess now politically
I'm not much of Tin user myself but if you are may want to double down on it now

I work hard on the functionality of the form 1st. This is a key part of my work-it has to perform as intended well. The glaze also needs to fit into that process. It needs to add to the  form in function then at the same time be spectacular . That will make it sell well work well and make for happy users
I like the forms to clean easy on fluids inside and look snappy on the outside which is the second process after the functionality of that form