Pres

3-D printing is already an accepted manufacturing technique. Parts for equipment currently in use may be printed to replace old parts. The idea that someday you will pay a price for a piece of software to enter into your printer to make a new home decoration, machine part or such is not that far off. As with photography taking someone like Ansel Adams to raise the craft to an art form, it may take someone to raise 3D printing to an art form.
 
best,
Pres

As far as I'm concerned, anything goes if the technology will help., but you also have to consider that "technology" does not just mean computers or electronics. It could also mean advancements in materials, metals, etc...

Seat of your pants firing Pres-its what many of us old timers  do. I fire all bisque without cones in gas kilns.Color is key.
One needs to know what the real process is and not take for granted all the time modern convinces .

@Pres  I actually do (read your stuff) and you are probably the last person I can think of that fires by color which is impressive . It was an extremely important skill  in early use of kilns. Humans can actually do some amazing things. Damage to eyesight was an occupational hazard. I like electronics a whole bunch but most often we struggle to emulate human skills with what seems like electronic precision. Controllers likely good for most folks though but the lessons of heat color sort of lost in textual explanations likely never to be learned with appropriate appreciation.

I have always had a tendency to leave top two plugs out, when bisquing. The glaze load gets the top two out until 1200F. , Then I put them in. I have had problems in the past with poor color and found that the plugs out helped get crisper brighter colors. Firing down slightly also gave me a little more depth and crystallization.  Some of this may have been because of waxing bottoms.
 
best,
Pres

@Bill Kielb, you may not realize that I fire without any controllers or setters. My L&L was ordered without them in the 80's. I have fired almost entirely with heat color and cone packs. However, am considering a controller to make life easier as I get older.
 
best,
Pres

Sounds logical and likely has little effect on firing time. Not a whole bunch of air moves around after red heat but I suspect small amounts are just what the doctor ordered. Time tested! Wax is always difficult through about 800 degrees even with a downdraft vent.

ONce again there are no new suggestions for questions. I have noticed that there seems to be concern about doing shows with the Covid situation, and up till this point I have tried to stay away from Covid when asking questions, and will continue to do so. So ignoring Covid (if possible) if you do  retail shows, what are you most comfortable with in the way of shows?
I started out years ago, by joining the local Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, Blair County. I was a founding member, and therefore a party involved with by laws, activities and meetings. We decided to jury within the chapter, and that any member wishing to be in a local Guild sponsored would need to be juried in the chapter. I was one of the first juried in, and later became a juror. We did a show at Christmas time for a few years, then I did some local shows in the Summers, mostly finding it a waste of time as they were too small to draw a proper crowd, a beginning but expensive. At the same time as this was happening the Penn State festival was having changes and their local artist groups were complaining about lack of local artists being represented. This brought about a separate jurying that allowed work in person after slides to be judged for the local division. In the beginning the locals were located in one area, then over the years spread over the entire 400+ slots. This was a large show, and I did it for about 7 years. I loved doing the show, even though it was a lot of work, and I met a lot of local people. My wife helped me at the booth, and at times a friend of ours. I often would have to return home during the day to unload a kiln and make certain I had stock. After 7 years my wife was pretty burned out, as was I trying to teach in the Spring and throw pots at night to get up 10K of stock for the show. This was rough on family and our social lives to the point that when another venue opened up for shorter hours and better return I took it and became a college professor for the next 5 years teaching night and Summer classes.
If I were to return to doing shows, at my age it would be local, small booth set up with easy to sell items with a few show pieces. No large booth, no orders, what you see is what you get sort of thing. Just to keep busy, but then again, a good display in a retail area would do as much good I think.
QotW: if you do  retail shows, what are you most comfortable with in the way of shows?
 
best,
Pres

Hi folks, 
Once again there are not new questions in the QotW pool, so I will pose one I was thinking about when wedging clay. Everyone has a "go to" point or comfort zone, for wedging, throwing, rolling out slabs, and other things. Myself I figure over 15# is work when wedging. When it comes to throwing, 25# is my limit, but then I don't often do that,  only for large jars and vases. I usually limit my throwing off the hump to 15# as that will easily get me a good hour or two of throwing for stems or chalice bowls. Most recently I have been running some experimental ideas on chalices, so use about 8# of clay.  When rolling out slabs I limit my clay to about 8# as I don't have a slab roller, but use a 25 inch maple  one.  Some people run their limits because of their kiln sizes, or their own physical limits. While others will find work arounds for their dreams, as in an extra kiln section, combination throwing and handbuilding, or making modular pieces to assemble later.
Putting this together in a QotW:  What is your go to" point or "comfort zone" when dealing with clay weights or sizes for your work?
 
best,
Pres

@oldlady Jim Butcher is an urban fantasy author who's largest and most ongoing series is the 15-book-and-counting Dresden Files.  They follow the adventures of Harry Dresden, Chicago's resident wizard.  Pres and I discovered we were both reading him in the "what are you listening to in your studio" thread earlier this year. If you'd like more details I'd be happy to share them in dm, but I should probably stop hijacking the thread here.
 

@Callie Beller DieselI really like the box form with the resist design. . . .works really well on the dark clay with the snowy glaze. I love making the boxes, and when I was doing them I could sell as many boxes as I could mugs. Time involved is about the same, but the finished effect looks more valuable for lots of people. I would display them with bath beads or salts, paper clips or other things. They work really well in bathrooms when you have toothbrush holders, soap dishes and other things for the bathroom. Some people even talked about using them for salt as salt pigs were not lidded.
As far as cold, snow, ice, and all that comes with it. . .these aged bones are not up to it . keep it!
 
best.
pres

@Callie Beller Diesel(last Dresden. . . still finishing, sad about Murphy, scary)
Working with boxes can be really addictive, I did a run of potpourri burners in the 80's, tower with a ball shaped box on top, lid was carved with pierced decoration to allow the potpourri fumes to escape from the votive candle burning in the chimney base. So many variations of the same form can create some really neat pots.
 
best,
Pres

@Callie Beller DieselI really like the box form with the resist design. . . .works really well on the dark clay with the snowy glaze. I love making the boxes, and when I was doing them I could sell as many boxes as I could mugs. Time involved is about the same, but the finished effect looks more valuable for lots of people. I would display them with bath beads or salts, paper clips or other things. They work really well in bathrooms when you have toothbrush holders, soap dishes and other things for the bathroom. Some people even talked about using them for salt as salt pigs were not lidded.
As far as cold, snow, ice, and all that comes with it. . .these aged bones are not up to it . keep it!
 
best.
pres

I like my snow with fish in it after it melts and flows to the sea and gets warmed by the sun around 7 degrees latitude -now that my snow.The rest you can have-let me count the ways I do not like it
cold
cars spin out
slippery when wet
shoveling
more later

Sun loosing heat, heh. It's snowing here now.

Ten pounds was my limit,  with my bad hands and wrist it is probably 5 lbs now.   I am mostly a handbuilder so the amount of clay I can or can't throw doesn't matter.  Spiral wedging was the method I was taught first,  now I do the slam method or just work out of a new bag of clay.  Sometime little bubbles pop up,  I can handle them.  I am hoping after my left hand surgery I will be able to throw again.    Denice

Bisque unloads Sunday afternoon on all the work benches.
The last huge wholesale order of the year-already have 12 boxes done and packed for this order.
The beat goes on

I usually make ones similar to yours Callie but sometimes I make them with the holes just in the bottom part with either a flange type rim or small handles then it can be used as a steamer too. (used on a stove inside a pot with the pot's lid on top of the steamer/berry bowl)

I tend to use centimeters and millimeters for 98% of work that need measuring.
for dinner/salad plates I still use my americano ruler (bad system really) but have done so since 1973 and know the two sizes well-just lazy and never changed
For most forms I  cut the pug into weights I know without weighing  just by the cutting of the whole pug. I weigh the clay if the form is an odd weight.
when doing free form slab fish I sketch the fish on paper 1st and trace it onto the slab
I tend to do this all pretty fast without a lot of thought

One of the first things I did when setting up my studio was to make a tracings of a kiln shelf (half round) on kraft paper and  foam core. I then used the "guides" to measure and select the best sizes for a set of tall utility shelves, a small shelving unit, a utility cart, and drying boards (dry wall) that were all "calibrated" to hold 6 shelves worth of work.   I also used my templates to figure out how much of what type of pieces I could fit on a shelf. The coordination, as a production process assist, has served me well and I never have to guess about when I have enough to fill the kiln. I am a slow worker and it is a large kiln, so that is important for planning and serves as a motivator to get it done, since it can be a long wait until the next load is ready.  

So it depends on what I'm doing.  For forms I make repeats of, I have a master for each form.  It says on the bottom the weight of clay that is used to make it.  I put it on the wheel, set a gauge, and then I am up and away making them.
For plates it's easy.  12 inch bat, open to the edge, pull the edge in to the pins and then pull the wall and lay it down.  It always ends in a 12 inch plate.  I use 4lbs for a 12 inch plate.
 

the size of the kiln shelf is a real help.   i have traced the shelf onto my white slab roller top.   making something too long to fit is not a good idea.   it also allows me to trial fit the forms i use for slab work on a shelf so i can tell if a new shape is profitable.   and it gives me an idea of what odd corners might be available for small fast sellers.  

Steriod shot can help but its a temporary solution. See a hand only surgeon -tahts one who only doies hands that all they do.
I'm looking at a January  or Feb. deal myself. No fun. I see my second hand only suregon is SF in two days for a second opinion .
The wax does speed up healing as well as the ice water to hot water baths that you plunge your hand into a few times a day. It all helps with blood flow and inflammation reduction.
Same with water soaked microwave washcloth wraps on wrist. All good stuff.Any top notch rehab person will suggest all the se treatments .

Pres
I to have bumps on finger joints and as far as the hooked or curvered fingers that do not straighten . That can be a simple surgery procedure with no ill side effects if done with a hand surgeon. I had a friend do 3 fingers and no ill effects long term.Only one of my fingers is hooked at end and its thge one I cut off at age 12 and was reattached .So thats a special case and I'm fine with it looking curved when I point.

Tough decisions as we get older @Dottie. Most o f this is personal decision, but I will let you know what I have been doing. Retired 2009, do part time pottery mostly in the non Winter months. I have had cysts, with bone spurs, one operated on, and it killed the joint on the rt thumb. I recycle all my clay with wedging, and throw most of my pieces. I used to pull handles with my rt hand, but now use an extruder to make handles for mugs and other pieces that require handles. I used to take NSAID for pain, mostly just before bowling, as I am an avid bowler at 3 times a week. I have found that the pain of the hands goes away when I am using them. The more I use them the longer the pain seems to stay away. However. as I used to teach most handbuilding techniques in HS, I know how much the pinch pot forms can affect the hands, especially as you get older. Maybe you could resort to a hybrid form with coils, or extruded forms working on the sculptural pieces that way. I think if you love what you do you will find ways to adapt.
 
best,
Pres