Pres

It hasn't been that recent but I added some vermiculite to some clay I was using for a mural.  I thought it would make it lighter and give it that rough look I was wanting.  It succeeded on both of those but failed in burning out.  It was only fired electric to C04,  I took a dental probe and dug out all of the powdery vermiculite on the areas that were visible.   It might of burn't out if I had fired it to C6.    Denice

Here's what's on mine today. In progress--carving the outer surface of what will be a lidded container, assuming all goes well. It's for an anagama fire in the fall--the clay is new to me--Sheffield's Z--which John Baymore recommended, and I just love it-can't wait to see how it fires.  I can afford maybe a half shelf, and I hope to have enough vertical pieces to get the most out of that type of fire.  The kiln, at the NHIA-Sharon Art Center was built by John & his students. I get to join in, provided there is available space, as part of the New Hampshire Institite of Art's public-access Community Education program.  Not shown is the banding wheel, a half dozen trimming tools, foam to  cushion the upside down lid w/knob, porcupine quill, hole cutter, a Chinese Lucky Cat wving his paw, and a large mug of fresh hot dark roast. 

Working on the next order for Savannah Bee, mugs, teapots and honey jars. About two thirds complete, all teapots, ready for glazing, 30 mugs and 25 honey jars in present load. On the workbench two days ago was this. . . .

All extruded handles! 
best,
Pres

Working on the next order for Savannah Bee, mugs, teapots and honey jars. About two thirds complete, all teapots, ready for glazing, 30 mugs and 25 honey jars in present load. On the workbench two days ago was this. . . .

All extruded handles! 
best,
Pres

Actually the rollers and stamps are applied before shaping right after the cylinder is thrown. This expands the textures, smooths them a bit, softens edges.
No old lady, I am not getting rich, just a labor of love, wholesale, but not bad. teapots are higher return, but all in all I'll be fine. Hoping to save enough for a new L&L with controller!

Working on the next order for Savannah Bee, mugs, teapots and honey jars. About two thirds complete, all teapots, ready for glazing, 30 mugs and 25 honey jars in present load. On the workbench two days ago was this. . . .

All extruded handles! 
best,
Pres

@Pres Are these done on the wheel, or are they hand built? If there are wheel, how are you managing to keep such nice texture on them? Are you adding the texture when it's closer to leatherhard?

Working on the next order for Savannah Bee, mugs, teapots and honey jars. About two thirds complete, all teapots, ready for glazing, 30 mugs and 25 honey jars in present load. On the workbench two days ago was this. . . .

All extruded handles! 
best,
Pres

Working on the next order for Savannah Bee, mugs, teapots and honey jars. About two thirds complete, all teapots, ready for glazing, 30 mugs and 25 honey jars in present load. On the workbench two days ago was this. . . .

All extruded handles! 
best,
Pres

Working on the next order for Savannah Bee, mugs, teapots and honey jars. About two thirds complete, all teapots, ready for glazing, 30 mugs and 25 honey jars in present load. On the workbench two days ago was this. . . .

All extruded handles! 
best,
Pres

MY handles look like this
 

Just pulled this out of the kiln. One of my better pots with this decoration style.

Figured I would share in the joy of posting stuff on workbench! Waiting on the rest of the load to cool so I can see all the rest of it. Hopefully more as good as this one. It is nice to get a little reward before I take a long pottery break yet again to study. Hopefully I will have time to get back out in the garage and get some more work made!

Mine are the F unctional ones-every one has a thumb spot on top as well

Look in this forum at the second thread. It is called QofW: Participants Questions...

Wedding jar completed except for cleanup a little after it sets up some more.
 
best,
Pres

Hi folks, no new posts for the QotW so I will resurrect one from a while back: What is your latest environmental companion in the studio?
I stated this question with the addendum of latest, because just today I used my phone streaming Pandora via bluetooth to my hearing aids! Really cool, but I found that it used the batteries to the Comm Pilot that makes the connection. Only could use it for about 5 hrs. Maybe have to pick up a battery pack to plug into as it is rechargeable from USB.
 
best,
Pres

Pres those teapots look like they would be fun to make,  I love making teapots.  I hope I can retrain my brain and arm connection so I can throw them on electric wheel I just bought.   I just had the foot pedal adjusted so that made a huge difference.  Losing the ability to throw was the first thing I lost to MS ,  I am slowly retraining my brain , I can throw small bows and cups now.  Mark C found me the wheel on E-bay so I sold my kick wheel  and forging forward with my quest.   Denice

Working in the brick garage in Summer is an advantage as it stays cooler. This is yesterdays completion, as more were thrown. still need to rub off nubbies.
 
best,
Pres
 

Teapots posted in my gallery. Part of an order for October.
 
best,
Pres

Forgot to mention, that the professorship was for something completely out of art area, but related. Seems because of my computer animation background that the college thought I would be a good fit to teach teachers how to transition into using their computers to prepare classroom materials. So it was about creating good legible organized slide shows, overhead transparencies and handouts for the classroom. .  . pre white board.
 
best,
Pres

Gabby recently asked in the question pool. . .  . Recognizing that some days are obviously different from others, and some here have studios that are available only in warmer weather or not in really hot weather, what is the typical day, hour block by hour block, during a time of year you are at your ceramic work? The interesting thing in these is the variety in the time of day people spend at their creative work, some starting in the morning and ending at 4, say, others starting at 4 and going into the night, some working at a stretch and others doing a couple of shifts, and so forth. There is also variety in how they spend the times they are not working. Some have a habit, like a walk. The choreographer Twla Tharpe, I believe, takes a cab to the gym every morning for a couple of hour workout. Some people have time specifically dedicated to reading (most of the writers do) or to family/spouse time.
In reply to this of late it has been problematic getting into the shop, and once in, a problem getting out of the shop. I will often go to breakfast with my wife around 7:30, come back to the house around 8:30, check the forum here, check email, check news, while putting in laundry, waiting for the drier, folding clothes and getting other things done. About 10 am, I may get into the shop, but sometimes not until 12:30, then I may work until 6 or 7 pm, and sometimes back at it until 8pm after some dinner. Weekends are the same, Sundays hardly ever unless pressed, Thursday no afternoon, as I bowl, and if the weather is nice I kayak at least once a week. . . . this Summer none yet. Hey! I'm retired!
Now if you had asked me that question in the mid to late 90's, I was in the shop earliest of Spring every night after school from nearly 4 til dinner, 7 til ???? Then back to school the next day at 7am. I did Saturdays all day, and some on Sunday if needed. Once school was out it was in the shop before breakfast, then breakfast, then lunch, and dinner. . . the only breaks in the day til 10 or 11 every night. No in the long run, not fun, and doing shows did not pay well. When offered a itinerant professorship at a local college with me in full control of the curriculum, teaching for two weeks to make more than I made in the entire Summer, I relaxed and made pots when I wanted. 
 
best,
Pres
 

Gabby recently asked in the question pool. . .  . Recognizing that some days are obviously different from others, and some here have studios that are available only in warmer weather or not in really hot weather, what is the typical day, hour block by hour block, during a time of year you are at your ceramic work? The interesting thing in these is the variety in the time of day people spend at their creative work, some starting in the morning and ending at 4, say, others starting at 4 and going into the night, some working at a stretch and others doing a couple of shifts, and so forth. There is also variety in how they spend the times they are not working. Some have a habit, like a walk. The choreographer Twla Tharpe, I believe, takes a cab to the gym every morning for a couple of hour workout. Some people have time specifically dedicated to reading (most of the writers do) or to family/spouse time.
In reply to this of late it has been problematic getting into the shop, and once in, a problem getting out of the shop. I will often go to breakfast with my wife around 7:30, come back to the house around 8:30, check the forum here, check email, check news, while putting in laundry, waiting for the drier, folding clothes and getting other things done. About 10 am, I may get into the shop, but sometimes not until 12:30, then I may work until 6 or 7 pm, and sometimes back at it until 8pm after some dinner. Weekends are the same, Sundays hardly ever unless pressed, Thursday no afternoon, as I bowl, and if the weather is nice I kayak at least once a week. . . . this Summer none yet. Hey! I'm retired!
Now if you had asked me that question in the mid to late 90's, I was in the shop earliest of Spring every night after school from nearly 4 til dinner, 7 til ???? Then back to school the next day at 7am. I did Saturdays all day, and some on Sunday if needed. Once school was out it was in the shop before breakfast, then breakfast, then lunch, and dinner. . . the only breaks in the day til 10 or 11 every night. No in the long run, not fun, and doing shows did not pay well. When offered a itinerant professorship at a local college with me in full control of the curriculum, teaching for two weeks to make more than I made in the entire Summer, I relaxed and made pots when I wanted. 
 
best,
Pres
 

Gabby recently asked in the question pool. . .  . Recognizing that some days are obviously different from others, and some here have studios that are available only in warmer weather or not in really hot weather, what is the typical day, hour block by hour block, during a time of year you are at your ceramic work? The interesting thing in these is the variety in the time of day people spend at their creative work, some starting in the morning and ending at 4, say, others starting at 4 and going into the night, some working at a stretch and others doing a couple of shifts, and so forth. There is also variety in how they spend the times they are not working. Some have a habit, like a walk. The choreographer Twla Tharpe, I believe, takes a cab to the gym every morning for a couple of hour workout. Some people have time specifically dedicated to reading (most of the writers do) or to family/spouse time.
In reply to this of late it has been problematic getting into the shop, and once in, a problem getting out of the shop. I will often go to breakfast with my wife around 7:30, come back to the house around 8:30, check the forum here, check email, check news, while putting in laundry, waiting for the drier, folding clothes and getting other things done. About 10 am, I may get into the shop, but sometimes not until 12:30, then I may work until 6 or 7 pm, and sometimes back at it until 8pm after some dinner. Weekends are the same, Sundays hardly ever unless pressed, Thursday no afternoon, as I bowl, and if the weather is nice I kayak at least once a week. . . . this Summer none yet. Hey! I'm retired!
Now if you had asked me that question in the mid to late 90's, I was in the shop earliest of Spring every night after school from nearly 4 til dinner, 7 til ???? Then back to school the next day at 7am. I did Saturdays all day, and some on Sunday if needed. Once school was out it was in the shop before breakfast, then breakfast, then lunch, and dinner. . . the only breaks in the day til 10 or 11 every night. No in the long run, not fun, and doing shows did not pay well. When offered a itinerant professorship at a local college with me in full control of the curriculum, teaching for two weeks to make more than I made in the entire Summer, I relaxed and made pots when I wanted. 
 
best,
Pres
 

Update: So I've been pretty upset the past two weeks waiting to hear back about a test for a mutation in my blood cells that renders the known forms of drug treatment useless. They did the wrong test twice...anyway apparently third time is the charm and the test came back negative, I'm just responding slower than most, which is very very good news. Thanks for all the nice comments and getting to hear folk's sharing. I wish everyone else a bit of good news in their struggles also. 

I always have a bag on the table where I working to place scraps which I try to add as I go so they are not dried out.  I mist inside the bag.  So the clay says moist.  When I have enough, I plop the contents of the bag out and smoosh  (Technical term) the pieces together into a rectangular shape.  Then I set the roller on high setting then roll, then set it lower and position the clay the opposite way and roll again....and do this again until I reach the thickness I want.  What I found about changing the direction each time was that I reduced the amount of air pockets.  I also waste very little clay and don't generate so much dust.