Hulk

Hello all :-)
thank you for the replies! There has been mixed responds, some calling them nonfunctional or not glazed at all. I disagree since I own work by these potters and they are great and definitely glazed! However, some of you were believers in the existence of this transparent/see-through matte(ish) glaze.

Maybe I didn't choose my words right, I'm looking for a non-high-glossy glaze that shows the character of the clay. ( a bit earthy ). Possibly a 'satin' does the trick. These pots by Denise Rijnen show exactly what I'm looking for. The marbled cups are definitely glazed because you see the orange line., but the glazes does show the character of the different clays underneath... that's pretty  transparent/see-through/translucent if you ask me.

I went ahead and asked the artists directly what they used.
Annemieke Boots didn't really want to tell, the response i got was : 'It’s a glaze I adapted to my use, a glaze of Lucie Rie. Just check, google and try!!'
I tried to google it and wasn't very successful. :-(  
I asked Julia, and she gave me a link to a ceramics shop that sold a transparent matte powder glaze! juhu! 
 https://www.keramikos.nl/aardewerk-poederglazuren/1743-matglazuur-transparant-1kg.html
And Denise Rijnen I still have to ask.
@Bill Kielb your recipe looks great! Thank you for taking the time to share it!
Thanks @Callie Beller Diesel for trying to figure it out with me :-) 

I ran an absorption test of the new 630- 44 hour soak with a 2 hour boil in the middle, the best I could do with my schedule this week. Absorption came out to 1.2%, which is great. My kiln fires to a strong cone 6, probably closer to 6 1/2, but even at 6 it should be well within acceptable range. I don't fire to cone 5 and my baby kiln is out of commission right now so I can't do a cone 5 test for a couple more weeks.
I gave some of the clay to one of my students yesterday and her initial reaction was the same as mine- it didn't feel at all like the old 630 and she didn't like it. However after throwing a couple of pieces she again had the same realization as me, which is that it still throws well, it's just different. I'm going to make a few pieces with it tonight and see if it's still as forgiving as the old formula. You could really abuse the old stuff without any problems- very little S-cracking and handles never pulled away.

Well, to make things more interesting, I found this when I removed a large chunk from the broken creamer. This is looking at the cross-section of the wall of the piece. I'm not sure what would cause this, maybe leftover organics? I couldn't find more examples of this in the other broken pieces of the creamer.

Hi y’all, hoping this forum is still alive! 
i just snagged a Cress FX23P off of Facebook marketplace for a very similar reason the original author of this post made, proximity. 
 
I’ve been searching for the past year waiting for an electric skutt kiln to pop up anywhere within 5 hour driving radius, but this one popped up just last week 20 minutes away from me and I had to just jump in it! 
 
Im looking forward to learning more about my new baby! 

If they were just slipcasting and glazes weren’t involved, most clay-based hazards involve inhaled silica, and can be easily remediated with a lot of wet cleanup. A proper respirator is still a must though, because even wet cleanup will stir some things into the air.
If there were glazes, possibly lead, involved, we’d need more info. I like Bab’s suggestion about having a cleaning stipulation before move in.
 
edited to add: I’m going to take the liberty of deleting your duplicate post. You probably want all the information in one spot.

Proviso before moving in that it is cleaned for you?
Renting or leasing? 
Any industrial cleaning service who would have all thr haz gear required for suvh a clean?
Fire hose , ppds and a floor drain with a clay trap?
If you clean you would have to have a way of disposing the sludge, clay water etc.
If totally suitable, cheap, proximity etc may be worth it .

@bees.and.stones, please let us know if any of the glazes linked work for you. Bill's glaze is a great example of how one glaze can work really well for one person and not so much for someone else and the importance of test tiles to try out a glaze before committing good work to a new untested glaze. Glaze recipes often don't travel well. Given that you are in Europe your materials could well have a different analysis from what's available in North America.
My test tiles of Marcia's Matte from Bill's link above. Ink stained and cutlery marked with a rough unmelted surface when I tested it a couple years ago. Black underglaze stripes on 3rd test tile.

Because I do spend an unhealthy amount of time on instagram, I sleuthed around all 3 accounts a bit more, to see if I could figure out exactly what was going on there. 
All of the accounts you linked to are using assorted speckled clays, not a plain clay with a speckled glaze. Find images and carousels where you can see the fired foot rings of the pots, and you’ll see the evidence. The speckled look comes from either manganese or iron impurities in the clay body, depending on whether they’re firing in an electric or gas kiln respectively. Also, the images you’ve chosen to link all appear to be very matte due to moody lighting, but product listings of the same items on their websites show the work more clearly. All the glazes on all the functional pieces are a satin or gloss. Most notably, the “balance” cup is remarkably more glossy on the artist’s website than in the image posted here.
Get a speckled clay body and use the glaze Bill linked, and you should get your desired effect. 
Edited to add links to the respective artist’s websites:
@annemiekebootsceramics: https://www.annemiekebootsceramics.nl/work/tableware
@sensitiveboi: https://cargocollective.com/sensitiveboy/index
@darc.matter.ceramics https://www.darcmatter.eu/shop/alle-items

They are available all over.
Dr google thermal heated jackets, rechargeable, up to 10hrs,can get sleeveless ones or full jackets.
Some washable. 
I wear homespun and knitted sweaters with sleeves to elbows, snug as a bug, but Mediterranean climate here so no sub zero days 

The Studio space here in Los Osos (Central California coast) sometimes gets into the 40s F during the wet season (aka "Winter"), which is workable with adequate clothing, protecting the feet from cold concrete and heavy alloy castings (the foot pedal sucks the heat right out ya foot, I'm telling you!), warm water in the bucket, and clay brought inside the night afore.
Mostly it's more like 50s F in the mornings though, and quite often we'll see 60s before noon, in which case I'll roll up the door to let some heat in.
Where we're going is a different story, as it's cooler in Winter, and much hotter in Summer four hundred miles North of here, and inland.
A heat pump is very likely in my future!
Meanwhile, our Son's house is more comfortable.
We've remodeled three bedrooms, both bathrooms. The exterior walls are cement block, which doesn't insulate well. We added R13 foam insulation and sheetrock on the inside.
R13 isn't a lot, but it's a big improvement from R2 or whatever cement block provides. It's much quieter as well.
Framing the wall, pulling new electrical, fitting the foam board, then sheet rocking, finishing, and painting are a bit of trouble, but it's not overwhelming.
The windows slowed us down some.
The foam board has gone up, it was about forty-five dollars a sheet.
Lumber went down some, was up to fourteen dollars each, then back down to about eight; we used 2"x4"x8' pressure treated for framing, which we ripped down to 2.75".

babs, i want one of those heated jackets!!   are they only sold in timbuktoo?   can you walk around or are they plugged in to the wall?
my studio has two huge radiators and the oil fired boiler in the back corner.  one radiator is next to the french doors and the other is a taller one in the opposite corner.  it has been too cold and i have not felt well enough to work out there except for a few small things.   yesterday the sun was out all day, i had forgotton what sunshine can do to perk me up.   the bay window makes it a pleasure to do small hand work like sifting through all the collected papers and business cards of potters i meet.  i think i filled an outside trash can with useless stuff.   i had no idea how many brushes i have until i sorted them out.   and i do not paint!
i turned up the thermostat in the studio to 68 and with the sunshine, it was a comfortable place to work.   cleaned most of the work table down to the tyvek surface and finished it today.   there are so many things in that space that i brought up when i sold the florida place.   things seem to multiply in the corners when i am not looking.  once the space is cleaned up, the floor washed and the bottles of test glazes are disposed of, i plan to make pots.  lots of pots.    hope the sun will shine again, i missed it for almost 2 weeks recently.
it is good to have 2 thermostats for 2 zones, the house can stay just a little warm while i work and the studio goes down to 64 when the sun goes down.

With wind chill we hit - 40 the other night at -17. Very windy!  I was really glad I had taken my Thermal-Lite shelves inside from the non-insulated screen porch! It has not been this cold in NH in the 22 years I've been up here-the lowest previous was maybe -28 w/wind chill.  I'm able to block the snow drift from coming in but I wonder about the effect of such cold on the kiln (L&L 23S)?  I have a kiln load ready to go but I assume I should not be firing it! For some reason my studio (former bedroom) stays warmer than the rest of the trailer so I don't alter what I'm doing indoors.

Not what I do but a quick thought, those Thermal jackets which have heating coils in them, crock pot of warm water for throwing. Insulated mats to stand on.
Found if my head, neck  back are warm I can withstand a lot.
Old days, gas kiln working away in corner, bliss.
Nothing like a bitta wedging to warm the body.....
But, needs serious responses as stopping work for months not good.

Hi folks, nothing new in the pool so I will pose a new question.  Lately, I have been thinking about the Winter weather, and though it has been relatively mild, the sudden chills like Christmas weekend, and the last couple of days do concern me. Mostly I shut down in the shop until April, using some heat then when I am working. However, all Winter long I shut down, let things freeze and then in the Spring have to reconstitute the glazes, and wedge throwing clay, to get back to work. It works out, as the brick garage is a beast to heat, and only has electric. So I wonder what others do to compensate for winter weather.
QotW: What are your Winter strategies for working in the shop or on pottery?
 
best,
Pres

Thanks for the comment Min. I'm familiar with segments you mentioned, and understand there's no "one size fits all" for a slow cooling routine; so to try and bound the context of my question I'm limiting myself to the Skutt "cool" function which only allows for a single segment.
So my question really has two parts:
 Is there a good single segment cooling function? What does that look like in practice when entering it on the controller? The goal here is really just a test run and to dip my toes before writing custom firing / cooling segments. I've spent the majority of my years firing wood kilns so wrapping my head around surface effects in an electric kiln is the path I'm on.
-------------------------
And thanks for the eye candy Peter, I'd been looking at that article and it was definitely a motivator to test out slower cooling!

Just eye candy:  glazes where slow cooling can have a dramatic effect.

From Super Cool! Slow Cooling in an Electric Kiln
https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/daily/article/Super-Cool-Slow-Cooling-in-an-Electric-Kiln

...and

There isn't a one size fits all type program for slow cooling. What works for one glaze won't necessarily give you the same results with another glazes. If the glaze is a high gloss one then slow cooling might not have any appreciable effect on it. If on the other hand it's one with fairly high amounts of one of the matting oxides (calcium, magnesium, alumina, strontium, barium, titanium or zinc) then slow cooling will more than likely have an effect. Getting the schedule is a bit of trial and error but a general starting place for a cone 6 glaze fire once it's reached it's top temperature could be 9999F to 1900F then ramping down at 150F an hour to 1400F then off.  (9999F is basically putting the kiln in a freefall without getting an error message)
If you do a drop and hold schedule for healing pinholes and blisters then I would suggest dropping your peak temperature at a rate of 9999F to 100F below your top temperature then holding there for approx 20 minutes then proceed with the 9999F to 1900F then 150F down to 1400F then off. 
If you find the glazes are too matte then increase the temperature it drops at (perhaps to 175F an hour) and/or raise the 1400F up and see how they turn out. If they are too glossy but might be matte with a slower cool (perhaps 125F and hour).
 

Have been thinking about this one for several days - no regrets.
I'm only five years in.
I keep cycling back to wish I'd started sooner, but then I like where I am now, so.
Having seen a live throwing demonstration (a very long time ago), I wanted to try that, and finally got around to it Spring 2018, as retirement was coming up (and happened much sooner than I'd anticipated) and I for sure wanted to stay busy - not just "busy" - err, vitally engaged.
Clay has provided vital engagement!
I love it.

There is a little bit of my life in everyone's answer,  life just gets in the way.   I am  just thankful that I am 70 and can still work with clay.   I am unloading my big kiln today  and  start glazing so I can fire tomorrow.  Who could ask  for more!   Denice

Have been thinking about this one for several days - no regrets.
I'm only five years in.
I keep cycling back to wish I'd started sooner, but then I like where I am now, so.
Having seen a live throwing demonstration (a very long time ago), I wanted to try that, and finally got around to it Spring 2018, as retirement was coming up (and happened much sooner than I'd anticipated) and I for sure wanted to stay busy - not just "busy" - err, vitally engaged.
Clay has provided vital engagement!
I love it.

@Jay Decker, Studio Potter magazine link to his article "Down the Spinal Canal" here.  If that link doesn't work for you then try this one  to see the article. Glicks article is towards the end of the issue. You can either do a paid option or a free one to read it. 
Welcome to the forum.

The only regret that I have is not spending more time with my hands in the mud. Something I plan on changing soon...

Definitely. I made a lot of mistakes when setting up my business. I received all of my training in the university system, which at the time (1990-1997) was heavily focused on cone 10 reduction and selling in galleries.  So when I set up my gallery/studio/classroom in 2004, I did it the only way I knew how: I built a gas kiln, found galleries to sell my work, and taught my classes with the same methods I had learned in school. None of that worked out very well. Galleries were closing left and right, the gas kiln was not at all practical for my business, and students weren't interested in the rigorous class structure I was trained in. So after 4 years in my original location, I made the decision to radically alter my business model. I moved to a location that was about 1/3 of the size and got rid of the big gallery space. I stopped selling other artist's work, bought a couple of electric kilns, and changed the way I approach my classes. I also started doing art fairs, which were a big problem in the academic world I was trained in- they were the realm of hobby potters, not serious artists. I also started really advertising kiln repair services. Finally everything started to fall into place with my business, after 4 years of struggling.
So my big regret is that it took me a long time to see past my training and consider other ways of running my business. To be fair, it was a difficult time to open any small business. When I opened in 2004, traditional methods of advertising- print ads, phone books, etc- were on their way out and ridiculously expensive, but the internet hadn't quite picked up the slack yet. Facebook was just getting started, Instagram didn't exist yet, and DYI website builders were barely available and not very good. It was going to be difficult no matter what, but my  lack of flexibility made it worse. I should have started smaller, jumped into cone 6 from the start, and considered other methods of selling.
In regards to clay work itself, no regrets. I've focused on a lot of different techniques over the years, and every one has made me a better potter.

There are very few aspects of my life-the more serious, important stuff-that does not carry some regret. Some regrets have been very deep-decisions/circumstances responsible for major shifts in feast or famine, well-being , and very not-well being, relationships, work life, and living situations. Some regrets have been sorrowful learning experiences that somehow transcended everything bad and became fuel for positive change years later. My clay journey is not separate from expressing my world view, and my creative spirit, even tho I had to leave it by the wayside for many decades. I work to not regret the past (sometimes much easier said than done, but it is do-able) and as such, no, I have no regrets about my journey with clay.  Since I retired I have been able to waken it from hibernation and am very grateful to be enjoying it...like today, when I "allowed" myself to overlay & partly "brillo off" some  metallic acrylics on a glazed tray--been wanting to do that for a while! It gave me a rush to "just do it". 

I was planning on a MFA in as well Pres. It was suggested I take a year off and focus on clay at home in studio. The rest was history no regrets there .My only gripe is what its done to my wrist and hands 50 years of production has really taken its toll on my wrists-3 bones cut out on right wrist and one thumb bone on left hand. removed. My hands are not happy these days
Of course arthritis has also added to them not being happy.
My brother was a Art Prof at UC Santa Barbara for 25 years so I got lots of exposure to that way of life (all my family where teachers) I cut my own path and am happy with it. It was more work by far  than teaching and took much longer to get traction. I only have myself to answer to and I have done it all my way as Frank Sinatra would say. I have amassed a great retirement  when needed as well as I started that thought in the mid 80s as I knew that no pension was coming down my road.
When I want more $ I just worked more and hit the road selling more. 
No regrets -I think next time  around I may want a small Island in the tropics with a pier to tie up my boat and do more diving. Of course with climate change that may be in 5 years here in Humboldt County