Pres
-
Posts
5,633 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Posts posted by Pres
-
-
Hi folks, and once again no new question in the QotW pool. I have been doing this thing with tool kits as far as aspects of pottery production, so I thought why not the final work on the pots, that time after glaze firing that might need a little TLC. So my QotW is: What tool set would you have post glazing?
I just finished a couple of loads and packed them away for delivery to Savannah Bee in GA. When pieces came out of the kiln, there were places where there was a roughness on the base, there were some spots not quite right in the glaze surface, a little rough or so, and some of the lids did not fit quite as well as I wanted. My basic finishing kit requires a few things: diamond disc mounted on a masonite bat for grinding bases and edge of base, water bucket, a dremel tool with a diamond bit and a rubber polishing bit, buffing wheel and toothpaste, dust mask, griffin grip, 3 small diamond sponge pads and another bucket of clean water with a sponge, and a towel for drying. Most of these are self explanatory as I do my bottom grinding on the wheel dipping the pot in water, and also use the GG and the dremel tool with diamond bit to clean rims and grind lids to fit. I also use the dremel with the diamond bit to clean rough spots and polish these into the surface with the rubber polisher. Finish this with toothpaste on the buffing wheel. Rinse everything clean, and check for leaks, in the water, then dry and pack. I could include packing materials, but then they vary with mode of transport.For this trip a bunch of wine/whiskey boxes and bubble wrap worked fine. Mugs got stacked 3 deep, cardboard in between, 18 to a box. Honey jars were tougher, but often second layer above mugs with cardboard between and bubble wrap sheets 1/4 ered and spoons forced through a small slit, and lids on pots with bubble wrap between. In most cases honey jars could be stacked 2-3 deep.
So once again, when they come out of the glaze kiln: What tool set would you have post glazing?
best,
Pres
-
-
-
Hi folks, again no new QotW in the pool so. . . .after last weeks QotW about handbuilding and throwing tool kits lets extend to Glazing. What would your basic tool kit for glazing be?
I have been doing a lot of spray glazing of late, and will start off with a pair of dip tongs(for base coat dip glazing), compressor and spray gun. I use a simple one that uses standard quart jars that works really well for my purposes. I would also add a banding wheel, a bucket of water to clean out the sprayer between colors, and a small brush for brush work over glaze. Glazing for me also includes cleanup before loading into the kiln. Include here a potters sponge, a bunch of 1" sponge brushes, a bucket of clean water. I also wax bases of all of my pots before glazing so that would be with an electric skillet and paraffin.
What would your glazing kit include?
best,
Pres
-
-
On 6/12/2019 at 11:29 AM, Mark C. said:
screwdriver to pry plaster bats off of clay pad
I rarely use a cutoff wire unless the pot is over 10 #s as its thrown then on a plastic bat and need one vs not using one on plaster bats.
Yeah, I use a trimjin to lift my bats, as years ago made a happy mistake and cut some of the aluminum wheel head edge. . . so bats lift easily that way.
I also used to throw on plaster bats in college and love them but my present situation does not do well for the storage of the old thick bats, and I really like larger area, not tile size.
best.
Pres
-
Okay, Okay, I did forget the cut off wire, and the chamois even though I often use a the web between fingers, and a japanese style throwing rib for bellying out the mug and jar forms.
best,
Pres
- Up in Smoke Pottery and Babs
-
2
-
There was not a recent QotW question in the question pool, so I will pose one that I have been thinking of lately. What would your basic tool set be for handbuilding, or throwing? I have been throwing a lot lately, simple things, mugs and honey jars. I find that I use only a short list of tools: water bucket, sponge, needle tool, a bamboo spatula blade(handle cut off) with a pointed edge with a notch for foot establishment, and a pair of calipers for the jars. This short list is supplemented by a bunch of odd stamps and textured surfaces for pressed in pre-shaping decoration. A rather short list I believe, but all I really need to do to throw @1# mugs or honey jars.
For handbuilding, there is another short list: slab sticks, rolling pin, fettling knife, a bevel wire( used to do this with fettling knife angled on table edge), and some magic water with tooth brushes and regular bristle brushes and a round wooden rib to work edges. Again, I would supplement this with the texture tools, and often decorate before final stretching of the slabs.
So I will post the same question to you: What would your basic tool set be for handbuilding, or throwing?
best, Pres
-
Glazenerd is one of the few who has posted a question lately in the QotW, so here it is: What name would you ascribe to the current period of art history that began in 2000? That is a tough one for me, and I really wonder how to describe what I perceive to be happening.
My personal observation and discussion with others brings to mind much of what I believe would be seen in art circles during the 19th and 20th centuries with the reaction to Industrialization. I also believe that we are in the early stages of a new manufacturing revolution along with some great changes in the way we view consumables and all sorts of everyday appliances. As 3D printers and the technology become more able, less will be manufactured by hand, less will be shipped, and planned obsolescence may be a term of the late 20th and early 21 century. We cannot continue on the way we do now. When any idea, could be printed in 3 dimensions, cheaply, easily with no skill involved other than the thought process and being able to use a 3D interface of some sort to construct the object, the value of the object will become less important. I believe that people even now are returning to human made/performed arts and crafts. The idea of the human touch, warms the object or performance. It appeals to the individual looking for value, relevance and a human aesthetic in their environment. Just as the Industrial Revolution brought about a number of movements, Fauvism, Impressionism, Expressionism, Cubism, to name a few, we will be looking at several movements in the first part of the 21st century that will either hug new technologies, or ignore them, or react with direct opposition to them just as the arts reacted to photography or the Industrial Revolution. I have no idea what to call them, but I do believe we will see a new resurgence in the arts.
So for you I ask, Qotw : what name would you ascribe to the current period of art history that began in 2000? Also if you believe differently than I Please let me know.
best,
Pres
-
While spoons are setting up in this warmer weather, I use a small bucket with a lid, sponge in the bottom with a plate on top. They last for weeks in that.
Everything else gets a used garbage bag.
best,
Pres
-
Right now 40 jars sitting in the shop waiting for honey/spoon lids, 26 in the kiln, Mug throwing next week 75 for the order, probably get them thrown on Tues & Thursday. Recycling thawed out clay is rougher this year, but doable. Now use a heavy wiggle wire to cut bread slabs, spray and slam. Used to put finger holes in the slab, this is quicker and easier. Wiggle grooves hold water well.
best,
Pres
-
Folks,as Callie has said This entire conversation at its heart is meant to be about showing each other compassion and respect. When I posted this my best intention was to open up a discussion about diversity of culture within the arts. In a mature society, where images, sounds, speech, and feelings are often identified by cultural differences, I would hope that those of us within the arts can have shared feelings and empathy for those that are different from us and yet have much to contribute. I would hope with so much chaos in the world that we can find a common ground and get along.
Please keep this civil, and be aware of using your own cultural expressions to explain, not hurt. Language can cut as easy as a sword, but often the damage is not as sudden as the sword, but lasts along time.
best,
Pres
-
All too often, the college courses for teachers, and non Ceramics majors was negligent on glaze chemistry. Possibly for the lack of appropriate teachers, lack in belief that students needed or even cared about it, and as budget required efficiency, was left out of the curriculum for lack of enrollment. I never had one on glaze chemistry, only a general that told us to read Nelson's chapter on glaze chemistry and be ready for a quiz that never occurred. Oh well!
best,
Pres
-
Hi folks, I am sorry that I did not get a question of the week out last week as I really didn't know what to ask. However, I thought why not ask the opposite of the week before. However, when I go to thinking of it, it would really be two questions. So this QotW is: What ceramic skill do you wish you had more training in, and what skill do you feel very confident with?
This is one that I have thought often about, as I was trained in college, never having had much more than simple pinch pot experience before even though my parents did a stint with painting cast ceramics at an on base ceramics shop in Hawaii. In college, I had a professor with an MA from Alfred, who was into large forms, but would demonstrate a few forms for us, the plate, the bowl, and the cylinder. Most of what we learned we picked up by doing, but he did cover things like lids and spouts and throwing off the hump. He was very adamant that nothing thrown could be fired until we had thrown a 3# cylinder 9" tall. Most of my time in Ceramics 1 was focused on that. Ceramics 2 saw me with mostly lidded forms, pitchers and casseroles, and a teapot. It was when I began teaching that I really refined my work. Much as doing production work will make a potter, teaching will do much the same. To be able to go into a group of HS students and demonstrate without fail day in and out was tough, and mad me more aware of my flaws than anything else. So I practiced after school, investigated new forms, mad larger forms pushing the amount of clay I could handle and the height of the form. In the end the challenge to the student was to find a form that I could not throw. Hmmm no problem as I had pretty much done all from double walled to large to lidded, rings, multiple piece, combined handbuilding and throwing and more. Not bragging just saying if they wanted a demo, they got one.
Now where do I wish I had more experience? Two areas actually mold making, and glaze chemistry. I am not the best with glaze chemistry, but have come to inherently know what chemicals will do what for me in a glaze, but really don' understand the balancing of amounts. However the good new here is that glaze formulation programs are available so easily now with things like Digi Fire giving the potter the tools to make their own based on what they understand. Of course this does mean testing, testing and more testing before use. As I get involved with the wholesale orders lately I have wondered whether making a few different molds from thrown forms and casting would be better. . . Naw, but it is something I haven' t done and probably if I had knowledge of it might say Ya!
best,
Pres
-
Moved from the QotW pool:
Benzine
- Socratic Potter
-
- Members
- 957
- 2,903 posts
- LocationThe Hawkeye State
I've got a suggestion for a QOTW. It's a subject I've been thinking about a lot lately.
In terms of your pottery work, where do you seen yourself five years from now?
I'd like to finally be selling my work. I've been working with clay for over fifteen years, but just as part of my teaching, and as more of a hobby. I have sold a few pieces here and there, but most that I make has been gifts and such.
So I would like to dive more into it, as a business. I will still continue to teach, it will just be something extra, kind of like an additional retirement fund, that I will continue to invest in, when I retire... Which according to my math, is still many years off...
Great question, by the way Mea.
-
GEP, just yesterday queried in the QotW pool: In terms of your pottery work, where do you seen yourself five years from now?
I think this is an appropriate question for many of us, and especially for those at the beginning or at the end of their careers. I have had a long enjoyable time with clay, from college til now totals over 50 years. I taught ceramics in HS for over 34 years, and have been working in my own shop as a dedicated hobbyist for the last 30 years. I say hobbyist, as I really don't make enough on pots to even begin to consider it as a profession, just enough to keep the hobby from disrupting the household budget, and buy me a few ceramic related toys over the years.
Five years away, I hope to be doing what I am doing now, maybe more or less. I have orders from places that carry into next year, and commitments that will probably last for the next five. So what could change? Visits by old arthur have been more frequent and severe, latest wrist assessment was severe of the left wrist. Thing is, it hurts less if I'm using it, especially after throwing. Use it or Lose it becomes more true the older we get. I hope not to have it or anything else get the best of me, my Dad is 92, so there is hope!
best,
Pres
-
-
I do some large pieces, some fully thrown, some with wheel thrown and slab elements combined. Check my albums. Combining forms takes considerably less energy, but design becomes even more important as proportion, texture, and details become more important when combining in that manner.
best,
Pres
-
-
Oh well, once again, we seem to be lacking suggestions for the QotW. I will humbly submit another of my own, with the catchy tongue in cheek phrase. . . Does size matter? Now that we have your attention, I will clarify. Recently I saw one of the most derided (by potters) movie representations . . . from Ghost , In the scene Demi Moore is throwing a large vase. . . sensuously. Whoa, but wait. . . is that piece being thrown off the hump? Why would they do that? Size!
So that got me to thinking, about my own use of the hump, and throwing and how I use throwing off the hump. Most times I would never throw a vase of size off the hump unless there were something special about the trimming, or the some other structural thing involving the form. Most of my throwing off the hump would be smaller items like cups, mugs, chalice stems, lids, and other things that I can reasonably repeat the shape and size by using my hands and relative ball sizes to repeat the same form over an over.
That got me to thinking about size in slabs also. . . especially when using a slab roller. I usually would roll out the largest slab I could, and cut pieces from that slab to build with. Often using a template, but many times using multiple smaller pieces to assemble without a template, only a sketch or mental idea of what I wanted to do, like a castle on a rugged mountaintop all out of slabs. The size of the slab did matter, as I often used edges, and other areas when needed, then used large pieces for base and interior supports.
So in you work, Does size matter? Why, How, When!
best,
Pres
-
-
Liambesaw recently posted a question in the question pool: Is there some piece of equipment or tool that made such a huge difference to the quality of work, and quality of time, that you wished you had found out earlier? Nice question, that I am sure will generate some traffic here. I'll get my bite in first, with something of a listing, and let folks comment.
Listing away, I have found that much of my work depends on the Griffin Grip, for trimming, and throwing. I use the GG to throw handles on lids quite often, just by centering up a ball of clay on a lid held in the GG, and then throwing a hollow ball or flared bell for the handle. I also have found when working with the GG, that parts from plumbing supply/hardware store come in really handy as chucks for trimming. These allow me to trim, and assemble pieces like chalices and honey jars with spoons really quickly and efficiently.
Next would be a good spray gun for applying glazes, a curved throwing stick I bought at a conference years ago as it works well for shaping my mugs, small jars and pitchers, magic water (not a tool, but so much better than slip), A good adjustable stool, a trimming bed I have made to fit over the Brent CXC that allows much more space for trimming scraps and controls the mess, kitchen tools (modified for ribs to throw bowls, trim/shape bases, and as straight edges), diamond sanding plate (attached to a bat that is used on the wheel) makes bottoms smooth as glass and nicer on table tops, diamond pads also work well for foot rings as the pot may be held in the GG while grinding, and never forget the good heavy banding wheel with the 14" head. The list could go on and on, but I'll let the rest of you fill in the spaces.
best,
Pres
-
-
Plate space is relative. . . in that they do take up W and L, but little in the way of D. So I throw plates, and smaller low pots to go with them, put a lot of pieces in a kiln with a lot of layers. Bad thing is it is better to fire slowly as with so many layers of shelf it is easy to get one shelf faster or slower than the others. In the end long slow bisque, and proper cool down, with careful glaze firing to 1100F. then speed up to ^6.
best,
Pres
Oh well, once again, we seem to be lacking suggestions for the QotW. I will humbly submit another of my own, with the catchy tongue in cheek phrase. . . Does size matter? Now that we have your attention, I will clarify. Recently I saw one of the most derided (by potters) movie representations . . . from Ghost , In the scene Demi Moore is throwing a large vase. . . sensuously. Whoa, but wait. . . is that piece being thrown off the hump? Why would they do that? Size!
QotW: What would your tool kit for doing shows include?
in Int'l Ceramic Artists Network (ICAN) Operations and Benefits
Posted
Hi folks, and once again no new questions in the Question of the Week pool, so I will take another stab! We have been doing tool kits for different activities that we as potters may need to do a task. This is my way to allow beginners to look at possible needs to do pottery, glaze pots, and to clean up after a kiln load. So taking one more step forward. . . .toward doing shows. QotW: What would your tool kit for doing shows include?
It has been many years since I have done shows, but in the 90's I did the Penn State Festival of the Arts for about 7 years. I found that having a few organized boxes of items needed to set up, and be ready for the show was very important. Back then, I had one metal box, call it the Cash box that was lockable, had needed change, business cards and stand, PA sales license, sales stickers, sharpies and pencils, scratch paper pad, string tags, and a leatherman. The next box was the tool box, where I kept a 2 socket wrenches and sockets needed to set up the booth, a Phillips and straight screwdriver, duct tape, and large paper clamps(used for tablecloths, awnings etc.), mallet, tent stakes. rechargeable dremel tool with assorted grinding/polishing bits. large water container for water, and another drinking container of water. Most of this is self explanatory, but some things may not be. Dremel tool was to clean up anything rough I found in handling pots that I may have missed. . . you never know. Water container helped selling teapots and pitchers as folks wanted to know how they poured. My booth was assembled with long bolts that attached areas together, needing ratchets.
So what would you include in your tool kit for doing shows?
best,
Pres