Pres

Coning the clay wedges it on the wheel somewhat. Pressure from the left hand at the base of the wheel is greater than the pressure on the right hand pushing down on the clay. When coning up, be careful to keep pressure even across the clay with the palm of the hands. It takes practice not to rip the cone in half, but is a good exercise for centering. Do the cone up and down about 3 times and you should end up with a pretty homogenous well centered cone of clay, almost like a bucket hat with sloped side inward. You are right not to go any further until you have mastered the centering on your new wheel. best, Pres

@Finn EwinsDo I assume that you learned on a wheel at a center or a friend/mentor? If so you may have problems adjusting to the height of wheel head on your second problem; not centering well. As to the wedging, and throwing, you are working in a new area, at home I assume. If so is the height of your wedging area the same height as where you are used to working? Sometimes a lower or higher table height effects how you are wedging. For myself when I set up my wedging table, I measured the height of the table with a ball of clay around 10#s on it and the length of my arms to reach that ball of clay. Then I built my table to those dimensions maybe an inch or so higher. You arms should be relaxed and resting on the clay with just a slight bend in the elbows. Most of the motion for wedging comes from the body movement, not the arms. A properly setup table height will allow you to use your body most efficiently. Hope this helps. best, Pres

As I have had hearing problems much longer than the Brent, I don't worry. I was more interested in the torque, and ability to help me center larger pieces of clay. . . those days have passed also. I also drive an econobox as my car leaving the v-8's and V-6s. in my youth. best, Pres

Ceramics by Nelson was our text at Mansfield State College. A small school near my parents home in north central PA. I was taking ceramics as part of an undergraduate program for my Art Education BS. The school had several good, albeit lesser known professors. My ceramics professor was Stanley Zuchowski, a graduate of Alfred. He threw large, and was a big man often hefting barrels of slip from one end of the room to the other when making clay. In order to keep anything in the class from the wheel he had to see a 9 inch cylinder out of 3lb of clay. After that we were allowed to throw almost anything. I believe I got some of my prejudices from him: There are only 3 forms off the wheel, the cylinder, the bowl, and the plate. A bowl always has a round bottom, if the bottom is flat it is a lowly dish. My true introduction to ceramics books came when perusing the office of the ceramics department at Penn State University where I began graduate classes. I took them within the Fine Arts department as non degree. There were several texts i there that I knew I would one day own: Clay and Glazes for the Potter, by Daniel Rhodes; The Potters Dictionary of Materials and Techniques, by Frank and Janet Hamer; to name a few. To be honest, I first looked at these books for the pictures of pots, I had been interested in art all my life, but had very little experience with ceramics until that first class in college. It wasn't until I started reading beyond the pictures that I understood the art, craft and science beyond the pretty pictures. So my library has grown to fill much of a room. best, Pres

@NovicePotter, I think I can shed a little light on your question, and others I am sure will add to it. Let me welcome you to the forum first off, hope you find the answers you need here. I have mostly fired my pieces with a lower bisque than the glaze temperature. My first reason for doing so is the obvious one, and the one you spoke of . . . it was what I was advised/taught to do. Not that your advice is necessarily wrong, but let me explain. Bisque firing to a lower temperature than the glaze will remove organic elements from the clay, dry the clay and harden it, and have some effect on the total shrinkage of the clay body. This clay body will not be as dense as the higher temp used for the glaze firing, thus the clay will absorb some of the glaze into the surface of the clay. This absorption promotes a better bond between the clay body and the glaze in the firing. You could say that the particles get locked into the clay body with the further shrinkage that goes on in the glaze firing. So is what you were advised wrong? No not really, but with provisions. Commercial ware is often fired to a higher temp in the bisque for a few reasons: Higher bisque firing means the ware is fully vitrified and less fragile to handle in the glazing than lower fired bisque temps Glazes are often machine sprayed on to the ware, and absorption is not needed for the glaze to stick to the body as much and often the glazes used have a binder to help glue them to the ware Firing the ware at higher temps for bisque means tighter stacking, more ware in the firing, and thus more cost efficient. Finally, if you are not having problems with your ware, and are using the clay body and the glazes your local pottery is using you are probably doing fine. If however, you want to go your own road in the future, you may need to investigate clay bodies, home mixed glazes, and other firing alternatives. Many of us do not like to glaze ware that is fired to the glaze temp because it is hard to get the glaze to stick to the surface without additives, and it limits much of the decoration techniques many of us use. All IMHO, best, Pres

Always kept a container of water saturated with Epsom salts in the HS, when mixing glaze would add 3-3 tablespoons full of the solution to the wet glaze when mixing new glaze. This does major good in keeping from glaze hard panning in the bottom of the bucket, and is stayed in suspension longer also. best, Pres

You may find this strand on the forum of use: @Mark C.has been helpful in identifying these wheels. I would say you have an A or B model when looking at the size of the motor. As in Marks post your controller looks to be original and no parts exist. Best of luck with this. I have had my CXC for many years and it still runs great with very little maintenance. Welcome to the forum! best, Pres

The caulk gun conversion is on my blog site: https://picworkspottery.blogspot.com/ Sorry so late in noticing the wish for the handheld extruder. best, Pres

@Babs, I used to used to use the heel of my hand to flatten large platters and patens, but now I use a rib. I have three ribs that are about 8'' long maybe 2-3" wide. Each has a slightly different shallow curve. I flatten a 5-7 lb ball of clay with my fist and arm as a rib, then use the wooden ribs held at a 30-45 degree angle to flatten and compress the slab more. These ribs have taken a major amount of stress off of me when compressing large pieces. I have even used them inside of large bird baths and succulent planters. best, Pres

Seems like my spoon does much the same, but reversing the spoon gives me a wide flat dish,, whereas the other direction gives me a deeper rounder bowl form. best, Pres

I love my magic water, and the power extruder of course. Looks like a great little hack for having 3 hands. best, Pres

Necessity is often the mother of invention, but then there may be some obscure reference in a book or other resource somewhere of something made of bamboo, wood or other material. Who knows! best, Pres

Denise, I use throwing sticks often for chalice bowls and the stems. As to the opening tool @Bam2015, you will find the video here: https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&ei=UTF-8&p=clay+opening+tools&type=E214US714G0#id=2&vid=7aadabeead3955026ce8618b0ce04609&action=click best, Pres

@Callie Beller Diesel I think I've seen a utube video of this a few years back. Made sense to me, especially for some larger forms where one is using the fist to open up. I have found the fist to work well for me with a follow up of a few compression runs on the bottom to even it up. If I were throwing a ton of storage jars, it may make all of the difference. best, Pres

Hi folks, nothing new in the QotW pool so I will pose another question. Lately there have been questions about folks dealing with arthritis as do I. This has led me to wonder if people that throw use some aids in their throwing because of physical difficulties, arthritis or otherwise. We have all seen those centering jigs with the board on a lever to aid in centering clay. I have seen someone center using a wrist brace similar to what I use for bowling when centering. I am sure others have work arounds when throwing that I don't know of. Some people may scoff at these saying they are crutches to get something done that some one should learn to do without them. . .I was once in that school, but now I wonder?? QotW: Do you use or ever used a throwing aid of any sort due to a physical weakness/ailment? best, Pres

Toilet brushes are pretty easy to keep clean, and I have used them. However, you have to be careful of when the bristles start to fall out. . .throw it out! best, Pres

I wonder if making it more convex would meet your needs. Seems like the piece is shrinking more at the top, thus seeming to slump, but if you give more surface to the top by making it more convex then you may meet your needs without the extra weight of the thicker top. Just a thought. best, Pres

I use a drill and paint and paint stirrer with plastic blades on freshly made glaze before sieving twice. Glaze that has sat I use the same set up, without the sieving unless the glaze has frozen. Then I sieve twice also. When mixing up smaller amounts of premixed glaze in a spray gun bottle I use a stick blender. I also use the stick blender to mix smooth slips for brushing, or other application to freshly thrown pots. I used to see folks mix glaze in college dry, then add water. Never for me, too much dust. At the same time over the years I have become much more cognizant of dust and try to do everything I can to cut it when mixing glazes, when filling dray material containers and such. best, Pres

Years ago, I left about 100 raku pots on the back porch that faced an alley. We lived in a 3 room apartment back then, and the first two nights with the grad work pots from a summer course with Dontigny kept us up at night with the pinging! By the end of the second year the pots were gone. Some times later I would be in someone's house looking at a corner, or a fireplace mantle to see on of those old raku pots. Disconcerting in a way, but you always had to smile at one persons trash another's treasure. I hated those raku pots, as I was told to loosen up my throwing, and the pots all turned out looking like Dontigny seconds. Raku for me had been a bad experience all summer long. worn knuckles of my right hand with open sores the entire summer from the sandy clay body, frustration with the throwing, but enthralled with the fire and the smoke and the surfaces from copper to greens and whites with crackling. They spoke a part of me that loves surface. best, Pres

I should also clarify that my pieces are often highly textured with stamping and incising that leaves room for bubbles in the glazes. The techniques I talked about helps with that especially when the piece is flat as in a paten. Slide dipping had also helped here also. best, Pres

This topic or something vey close to it was discussed recently in this strand: I hope this will help you with your problem. If not, please review your glazing process here so that folks might be able to help you more accurately. Please include things like thickness of the glaze you are using, you glazing technique (dipping, pouring etc), type of clay glazing and the bisquefire temp of you clay. best, Pres

I think the wet dip also requires a certain glaze consistency. I like my glaze cuticle thin where a dipped hand has the cuticles still visible even though covered with glaze. I use a 3 count dip on most items. I also use a 6" deep storage bin to dip plates in while using claw type staple removers to hold the plates for a dip through the glaze. Large pieces I brush, dip or pour depending on the size and if streaking glaze is problematic for the form. Everyone has their own methods of glazing and those of us that have been doing it for years become set in our tried and true. Teaching taught me more about ceramic problems than any classroom as a student would have. When you have to solve 10-20 or so different problems a day involving clay you do a lot of research, try a lot of solutions and find a few that work. Too bad it wasn't easier! best, Pres

I understand the situation with the student, especially with adults. I used to teach an adult class on Saturdays at the HS where I taught. My lead in to glazing would always stress that even though glazes were basically not poisonous, if inhaled they could lead to respiratory problems just as sanding bisque or green ware would. I would also stress as you just mentioned that the glazed unfired surface was fragile and fingers could rub off glaze or leave a mark that would show after the firing. Good time to also talk about the use of glaze tongs to dip or hold when pouring. best, Pres

I saw this today while perusing a google page. I wonder how interaction of the recipients is going, also wonder if it is generating any sales? https://mymodernmet.com/kim-press-sailing-adrift-studios-free-pottery/ best, Pres

My first question about such a phenomenon is whether the pot was washed before glazing. Washing a piece with a damp sponge puts some moisture into the pot that allows for a smoother application of the glaze, often taking care of some pin hole bubbles that get in underneath the glaze rising to surface. I always wash the pot with a damp sponge, or dip the pot in clean water before glazing. How I determine which method to use depends on the number of pots I am glazing. The dip wash is fast, and works well if glazing a lot of pots as the first dipped ones will dry enough to glaze as evenly as a few fresh sponge washed pots. best, Pres