Mark C.

Workbeanch had two glaze fires on it today (been glazing all day) now they are loaded and will fire tommorrow-thursday bench will have two glaze fires on it.The beat goes on-big fall orders getting filled.

Mondays bench (actually 3 areas)-glaze wares from two fires priced and packed-lots of mugs
Pots been flying out of here lately-shipped to Vermont-So-Cal gallery-all local outlets-
All stocked to the gills for Mothers day and our Collage Graduation weekend-usually a large sales event for all shops locally
today bench is empty -off to a show in am for 5 days
 

Last Wedesday It looked like a wheel repair shop on my bench-really my outside tables next to kilns under large metal roof
I bought a new old stock model A new in the box. These have not been made for 15 -20 years or more. I took it apart and sealed the deck edge and bottom with 6 coats of clear sealer (pressboard with a plastic top )
I also replaced the top deck hardware with stainless steel fasteners and replaced the belt since the original belt had a flat spot from sitting 20 years.I had all the parts as I have a model A already for trimming. This is my 6th Brent wheel now.Not sure what I'm doing with the two extras wheel yet as I use  only 4 of them now.
Thursday my bench was filled with bisque ware -Friday it all got glazed and loaded into two kilns and today Saturday the bench is empty.
Monday the bench will be covered with two glaze fires unloading-pricing and packing-some to my outlet a few (one box) to mothers day show at UC Davis next weekend and most summer back stock .Monday night bench will be again empty. Its about every week-pots on bench pots gone pots on bench pots gone. 
 

Bench is covered with orders for shipping out. mailbox (extra large box) is full with 5 boxes going out today. Packing UpS boxes today
going to Colorada-Washinton and Arizona states also SF in Ca.. 
Made deliveries yesterday to 4 Organic super markets.
another bisque on Sunday and glaze on Monday-business is off the charts for pre xmas
I can feel already that I will get redlined  on shipping this fall and may have to slow or shut it down so I can get work done.
I knew this business was recession proof now I know its pandamic proof as well.You just have to get your stuff in front of the customers. My local gallery who can only let in 3 customers is selling more pottery than last year at this time. The markets are doing the same as well.
I'm back to full time reluctantly .

Bench is covered with orders for shipping out. mailbox (extra large box) is full with 5 boxes going out today. Packing UpS boxes today
going to Colorada-Washinton and Arizona states also SF in Ca.. 
Made deliveries yesterday to 4 Organic super markets.
another bisque on Sunday and glaze on Monday-business is off the charts for pre xmas
I can feel already that I will get redlined  on shipping this fall and may have to slow or shut it down so I can get work done.
I knew this business was recession proof now I know its pandamic proof as well.You just have to get your stuff in front of the customers. My local gallery who can only let in 3 customers is selling more pottery than last year at this time. The markets are doing the same as well.
I'm back to full time reluctantly .

Bench is covered with orders for shipping out. mailbox (extra large box) is full with 5 boxes going out today. Packing UpS boxes today
going to Colorada-Washinton and Arizona states also SF in Ca.. 
Made deliveries yesterday to 4 Organic super markets.
another bisque on Sunday and glaze on Monday-business is off the charts for pre xmas
I can feel already that I will get redlined  on shipping this fall and may have to slow or shut it down so I can get work done.
I knew this business was recession proof now I know its pandamic proof as well.You just have to get your stuff in front of the customers. My local gallery who can only let in 3 customers is selling more pottery than last year at this time. The markets are doing the same as well.
I'm back to full time reluctantly .

Makes the best fresh coffee. let steep 3 minutes and drip-walla

Back to clay work this week-usual items-summer sales at outlets are on a terror with all the tourists in the area. This year we have seen way more tourists trying to have a get away and exit from the heat inland and now its get away from the smoke.

I have done slip work over the decades. Its not what I like so Itend to avoid it now. In school I learned how and disd art to old antique bottles (I posted thiose photos before here.) I did things like a truck froma bread loaf with donut wheels to dog poop.
In the early 90s
I went into business to make slip cast aroma therapy lamps for Aura Cacia. We cut the deal at  my kitchen table with them.Made so many thousands of them I forgot how many. Maybe 10,000 or more? I think I have a few left. No photos
They used to be located a few hours from us (Aura Cacia ) Frontier bought them out for 5 million during our production deal with them. Within a few years moved the whole deal to Ohio. We palletized them by the 1,000s and truck shipped them for a few years. We put them in inner cardboard boxes and outer boxes then shrink wraped to wood pallet at truck dock. We did all this with two employees and did it off site. We both (full time potters) took turns glaze firing them to cone 10 in our car kilns. on site.I know enough about slip casting  to not want to make the same thing over and over exactly the same.I learned all aboutbthe right way to make molds as we had  friend whio was am amster mold maker in SF area. He is gone now but He did do lots of mold work from building architecture to casting pots to whatever. I still have all the mold masters-if anyone wants to get into lamp making.All free but you have to come get it all -its a start up deal for zero $$ send a pm-everything need to start. We had our own high fire formula made by Laguna and  bought it by the ton dry bagged-still have some.Send a Pm-mixers included. You will need a pickup truck .I would like the shed back to empty really.
I bought out my partner and within two two years they shifted to china for low fire pots (they started with low fire ) before we came along but they came apart with flame, you can still find these low quaility lamps in stores as they are all low fire one again and will come apart with flame (uneven heating)I think they (the lamps) are now all electric as well.
Working with Corporate is no fun. I suggest avoiding at all cost been there done that.
I'll take some photos when I can get to i f the slip cast forms

I have done slip work over the decades. Its not what I like so Itend to avoid it now. In school I learned how and disd art to old antique bottles (I posted thiose photos before here.) I did things like a truck froma bread loaf with donut wheels to dog poop.
In the early 90s
I went into business to make slip cast aroma therapy lamps for Aura Cacia. We cut the deal at  my kitchen table with them.Made so many thousands of them I forgot how many. Maybe 10,000 or more? I think I have a few left. No photos
They used to be located a few hours from us (Aura Cacia ) Frontier bought them out for 5 million during our production deal with them. Within a few years moved the whole deal to Ohio. We palletized them by the 1,000s and truck shipped them for a few years. We put them in inner cardboard boxes and outer boxes then shrink wraped to wood pallet at truck dock. We did all this with two employees and did it off site. We both (full time potters) took turns glaze firing them to cone 10 in our car kilns. on site.I know enough about slip casting  to not want to make the same thing over and over exactly the same.I learned all aboutbthe right way to make molds as we had  friend whio was am amster mold maker in SF area. He is gone now but He did do lots of mold work from building architecture to casting pots to whatever. I still have all the mold masters-if anyone wants to get into lamp making.All free but you have to come get it all -its a start up deal for zero $$ send a pm-everything need to start. We had our own high fire formula made by Laguna and  bought it by the ton dry bagged-still have some.Send a Pm-mixers included. You will need a pickup truck .I would like the shed back to empty really.
I bought out my partner and within two two years they shifted to china for low fire pots (they started with low fire ) before we came along but they came apart with flame, you can still find these low quaility lamps in stores as they are all low fire one again and will come apart with flame (uneven heating)I think they (the lamps) are now all electric as well.
Working with Corporate is no fun. I suggest avoiding at all cost been there done that.
I'll take some photos when I can get to i f the slip cast forms

People trying to get away from the smoke in your area? Isn't that why they usually hit NorCal? 

Low fire handbuilding in school was the dar side for me.At that time i had many years of high fire and kiln building under my belt and low fire was just of zero interest until I realized I nned to know as much about clay in all temps and bodies (my clay and glaze class opened my eyes on this).  My low fire work was far from stellar but I did learn how and why.Its all good knowledge in the long run and at that time little did I know it would be my entire life.

In art school for sure-thats what it was all about learning it all whether I liked it or not.My yard still has all my dark side ceramic sculpture in it.No market for it 45 years later-still yard art

Min I used to like those drippers ,but the clever dripper in my mind works so much better-its ceramic made by Bonavita-you pour the water in the grounds with a paper filter inside like yours but it has a silicone stopper in a lever so you steep it for 3 minutes then let it drain out-coffee a bit like a french press only better as it drips into your cup. I have been using them for many years now and gave up on other drippers. I have a plastic one for travel as well.
I should add I'm very much a coffee person
 

In art school for sure-thats what it was all about learning it all whether I liked it or not.My yard still has all my dark side ceramic sculpture in it.No market for it 45 years later-still yard art

In art school for sure-thats what it was all about learning it all whether I liked it or not.My yard still has all my dark side ceramic sculpture in it.No market for it 45 years later-still yard art

I figure I have saved about 3-6 months time over that past 35 years with a GG in trimming bowls alone maybe more.
I know I have saved at least 5000-1,000 pairs of shoes since buying a car
I have saved about  2,000 skinned knuckles sice first buy a socket set

Learning to tap center is a skill I have used for 45 years -still use it every month even though I own 3 griffen grips
Having more skills is better than less skills
If you want to  really get it here is one 
driving a stick shift and an auto-you might say well all my cars are auto and I do not need to know that stick shift stuff but wait you are in a small third world contry and all the rentals are stick shift -maybe it even in a new world country .

So I have always said learning to trim comes 1st as its a skill I use weekly -that saids my giffins save me time as a production potter. U still trim pots teh old ways as well depending on the form.That said triming 40 cereal bowls the giffin save about 1/2 the time.
so here are some suggestions take your grip apart and clean it-I lube mine with silcon spray once a year as it gets sticky and does not slide-spray the bottom piece not the top.
Make sure the setup is spot on and  set the grip up directly on the wheel head if you can. Spend the time getting it set up right so its dead on true and has no play.
Then it should slide  easy and the grips will work well.
I think its all in the setup (your issue)

I make french butter pots and fire them together as one in a glaze fire-zero issues. They are a pain to make  and weigh a ton when you have 30 in a box.
 
Callie I usually flip or edit them on my computer as I load all photos from there-I got lazy as I was sending lots of photos to customers and then quickly did the crab one without much thought. I never send from phone directly.Mac has a good edit program thanks
mark

A diver friend gave us some fresh live Dungeness crab yesterday-From a safe 20 feet away. I backed it and steamed it with fresh baguette and hot butter with salad and milk.
Yum- we may be isolated but are eating well
sorry image is flipped

Its a bar to sand your feet callous off in the shower-Could be a hit at the super markets
Maybe a little more R&D as it does not look rough enough

It will always be mugs -mugs and more mugs followed by tumblers and sponge holders
been that way for decades and  is that way now in until I stop making them

My draini g ones are extruded and i have a slight banana bend to them with 3/8 inch drain holes in them-they work in a shower well soap stays put.

Silly or stupid-its a toss up
lets see back in art school early 70s -well lets call him Ed (to protect the stupid) stacked the 36 cubic Alpine with bisque ware one late afternoon and started a candle falme on kiln and left-I was throwing late after after a few hours we all heard a huge Kabam sound and dust shot out of kiln room in huge clouds. What the heck we all slowly went it to see what that cpould have been???
Seems Ed did not know about lining up all the posts on top of each other on shelves-he just put them where he felt like and the whole load collapsed to the floor taking out all the greenware-all 26 cubic feet of it.Many people where not happy with Ed after that.
Lets move forward about 5 years and Ed was firing his 1st homemade catanary  arch kiln-it was propane-he had trouble lighting it-has the gas on and then turned it off and went for more matches-started the burners again and Kabam as the kiln had lots of heavy propane still trapped in foor area it went off like a bomb. The arch went up -he was crouched to the side  and was knocked away of front wall as both front and rear walls blew out and arch came down in pieces-a complete loss of wares and kiln. He was ok but shaken.I was about 25 feet away at the time.
Fast forward about two more years 
Ed called me to see if I was interested in buying all his stuff which I did at that time.I figure I saved many many  a pots from destruction getting Ed out of clay .
Never heard from Ed again but if you hear a huge Kabam sound he may  around still.