Pres

When firing my thrown plates for Communion sets, I have the best luck if the pieces are packed tight in the middle, next shelf just above the top of the plates below. I also have a tendency to leave them until completely cool. Not good to get in a rush with plates or platters. best, Pres

Going through the clay charts at Standard Ceramics lately, and thinking back to all of the interesting thoughts and discussions I have heard over the years. Wife says: Oooh! that's a pretty color why not that one? Hubby: stains everything, absorption is too high. . . glazes wont fit it. Wife: Aww you could do it. Hubby, Not interested! Wife: Oh. So how do you decide on a clay body, is it price, or fired characteristics, or working characteristics, or even just because you always use it, or is it word from others passed along? QotW: When buying clay bodies, what characteristics do you look for in the clay? Especially when buying a new body you have never used before. best, Pres

What cone/firing range are you aiming for with these? best, Pres

I used to have a Bailey extruder at the HS. It was mounted on a tripod mount with two wheels, used it with students for years. Later on I found out that Bailey had only designed that for the power extruder, as the manual extruder was deemed to be dangerous to use, falling over on the operator. We continued to use it until I retired. best, Pres

Hi folks, getting ready to mix up some more glazes for a glaze load. While doing this it occurred to me that some people don't weigh out their glazes, but use a volume method. I have never used a volume method for glazes, but know of some potters who do. However, I have some formulas that are by volume as in Magic Water, and some stain recipes. QotW: Weight or volume, which is your preference when mixing glazes? best, Pres

Years ago when I started up an adult class at the HS, I went through trying to figure the cost of a student's pieces. I started by weighing one of my pieces that was a demo glaze fired. Figured in the shrinkage of the clay, then the amount of wet clay that would be. Priced that then added a price for glazes and a price for firing. Broke this down to a price per pound. Price went up over the years, only the tuition price remained the same. 6 Saturdays, 9-12, $60. In the last year I ran two classes on Saturday as everyone knew I was retiring. We bought a lot of equipment with that tuition money over the years. 4 wheels, Griffin Grip, Bailey wall extruder, narrow standing work benches for glazing, potters stools for the wheels, and much more. Helped al lot with my budget restraints. best, Pres

As a Moderator, I am letting the Forum community know that there is an App out there for doing much of the organizational work for arranging classes, firing the kiln and measuring what is fired. Just do a google search and it may be yours at a price. Listing such is against the Terms of Use for the forum. Thank you for your patience. best, Pres

If I remember correctly there is a video somewhere of making a Vertical slab roller also, best, Pres

I have always tried to limit my number of clays so that I don't have to deal with mixed bodies. One clay is dark another white and that makes it easier. However sometimes trimmings do mix when I get lazy. However, both clays fire the same, and have the same characteristics but different colors. Occasionally you will see a dark streak or light one running in the body as I only hand wedge reclaim. When teaching, I had the Walker for pugging, but we never had more than one clay at a time in the studio . . . good old SC 200, or SC 112. They played well together, but I only bought one or the other each year. best, Pres

Lately I have been using the stencils, stamps and branches etc directly on the slab after rolling, actually embedding into the slab a design. In the slab piece here, I used a large slab, decorated completely then cut to slabs for use so the design went around the piece. After bisque, cobalt and iron stains were used under the glaze, Glazing was completed using dipping, pouring and atomizing layers of opaque, and transparent glazes to build up the surface. best, Pres

I have used stencils, and weeds, flowers, branches, artificial plastic greens and stems for spraying with the atomizer in the beginning and then the air gun. I don't worry about over spray as it is about building an image slowly. then I use the same stains and glazes with a brush to bring in more detail to select areas to bring up images that were not there before. Then I use the same to add movement lines and such on the pieces. best, Pres

Suppose for a minute that I am wishing to contract you to make a specific line of ware for me. I am offering a decent piece price or wage, that will allow you to really get ahead financially. At the same time you, being a skeptical intelligent person, have reservations and decide you had better investigate. QotW: How would you make certain a deal is straight forward and the real deal before going into business with another entity? Food for thought is all it is. A few years back, I got into a good deal, but it fell through when my contact in the deal divorced from my nephew. . . . way things go! best, Pres

@Joe from Chagrin Falls, A google search turns up several sites for custom ceramic plates. Heck, even Amazon lists custom ceramic plates. As others have said, they are printed. IMHO you want an artist to paint the images, and then send the images to a custom ceramic printer for the finished product. Your choice of artist style is probably the biggest factor especially for a personal gift. The other option would be to research antique landscape art for the area to see if there are any images of open source. Welcome to the forum, and good luck with your wonderfully thoughtful project. best, Pres

I have been looking at some digital scales and other tools lately, and wondered what others would buy if they had some extra bucks. QotW: If I gave you $150 to spend on a tool/tools, what would you buy? Myself, I figure I'll go for the digital scale. Only have to figure which one! best, Pres

Do you have the manual, have you searched for other sources on the controller. I checked quickly, and 3 sources showed up: https://staffordinstruments.co.uk/st215c-controller

Sheila, Welcome to the forum. I have edited your title for the post so that you will get more responses and so that searches in the future will recognize the question. I have also moved your post to the Equipment Use and Repair category for more traffic. I would ask what type of controller do you have on your kiln, and if there are any preset firing programs on it. I have a Genesis controller that I have been happy to use the preset firings with a few easy adjustments for firings. In most cases the preset schedules are sufficient as they allow ramp times and hold times that most would use. So the only changes I do on my firings is to set the cone that I am firing to, in my case ^6. I make the most adjustments to my bisque firings as the slow start for larger or damper pieces is important to their survival. Hopefully you will get some traffic on this, especially after you tell us your controller type. best, Pres

Good selection of washes, but we should be aware that some of them will not play the same in Ox as they do in Redux. One in particular would be the Glick Purple Red or any Red that uses copper for the color red. In OX invariably they will be green. best, Pres

With all of the consideration about supplies and material costs along with the past of Covid effects on business. . . I have wondered how your go to supplier is surviving. I was at SC in Pittsburgh last year and noticed how much they seemed at the time to be down on stock. I also have noticed that a supplier I had seen out east of me has not seemed to be open when I have been by. QotW: Have you found a tightening of suppliers in your area or a shortage of supplies at your GO-TO Ceramic supplier? I have been interested in making a trip to Bailey up in NY, but don't look forward to the drive. Used to swing by there on the way back from a vacation years ago. The new kiln came with 6 half shelves, but I would like at least another pair for firing patens, even two more pair would give me a decent glaze load pack. However, with NCECA coming to Richmond next year, I can take a hold til then. best, Pres

Ahmad, I edited your title for better response from the community. Hopefully others will horn in on this one. best, Pres

All too often a school kiln bargain ends up a bit of a headache as most are 208. However, it looks to be in good shape, and the change of elements even though time consuming and requires care is not difficult. best, Pres

As for decoration, have you ever thrown a cylinder, then decorated it by either stamping, or incising then shaping the cylinder into the shape you want? I find this a very satisfying way to work, and if you have letter stamps, or a decent script hand you can work wonders with phrases in the clay. Then after bisquefire before glazing you can use a stain/underglaze to work color into the script and wash off the high areas. This will allow the decoration to show up under glaze layers if the glaze layers are thin enough and not too dark in color. Check out some of the posts on my blog site. . . listed in my profile. best, Pres

In the day, a Geil was my dream. Then reality living in the small town. . . downtown just did not pan out. best, Pres

Have you explored the Digitalfire web site for information on your problem, or even downloaded their glaze calculator? Altering a glaze is a tough situation and takes lots of understanding. If you are just getting into glaze mixing I would try finding a glaze that meets your needs without making changes. Try Glazy or Digitalfire. best, Pres

I have been putting books into the library of late, all coming down from storage in the attic after a long redo of the library that used to have mixed shelving and piles everywhere. However, as I started placing on Ceramics books, I wondered is it all for naught? After all, much of my search for answers is here, or elsewhere like Glazy or DigitalFire. Yet, as I empty boxes and look at titles and then at pages, I realize that these are old friends. They provided answers in the early days, inspiration by viewing famous works by potters, insights into techniques and good reading in general. So brings me to ask. . . QotW: How do you rate as your resources. .. .coms, magazines, utubes, and books or other sources? I personally, put books and magazines first and second. I like holding them and referring to them when working. Then I would place .coms, and finally utubes or other videos. Guess I am old school, but I have learned several throwing tricks that helped me solve problems for throwing off the hump, or throwing larger from videos. best, Pres

@Carol L, I renamed your question so that it would get better traffic, and so that future searches would find it. My apologies if I cause you any angst. best, Pres