shawnhar

Thanks Bill! I will order a new element.

Twice a week when I am trying to catch up and restock, otherwise twice a month(ish), stupid life stuff gets in the way of my pottery all the time!

I feel dumb for not leaving a little extra but long story short, I had to move my studio and must have smashed something against it and weakened the connection. My first firing at the new place and bisque never even made it to temp. How important is that little insulator? I have a connector and could crimp it back on but not with the insulator in place. The resistance shows the element is still good and I could replace the insulator next time I do elements. What say ye?

Demanding customers require high prices. Someone wants custom anything from me, I tell them they won't like the price and are not allowed to complain. -You get what you get and deal with it, and pay up front, and wait 6-8 weeks, filters out the people I don't want to make stuff for anyway. - Private lessons are great for me, but if you won't trim your nails I will ghost you, will not deal with that.

I have used a rubber tool (looks like a pencil with a rubber tip) to smooth out these kinds of bubbles/holes after glaze dries. I've also used a paint brush to dab a tiny amount of wet glaze in the holes.... have to do it sometimes if your finger can't get in there to smooth it out.

Dangit.... now I want to make one of these!

This is what worked for me. I use 12 to 17 minutes based on how dense the load is. I also use an offset like Pres mentioned.

I know it's off topic but I just love this statement.

Thank you! I feel much better about it now!

Do you really need 2 wheels to teach a person to throw? I have been asked by 10 people to give private lessons, is there any reason this can't be done with just one wheel? I was thinking I would demonstrate, then they would use the wheel, repeat...

Depends on what is being made. Something like sponge holders I can push 40 at a time, but I no longer have drying issues. I can take pots off the bat still pretty wet, wrap a dozen items on a drywall wareboard, wrap it in cheap trash bag, put a towel over it, and it's good for 5 days. I wrap my mugs like this too, and the handles, so nothing dries out as I am working on it. I throw as much as I can, then work on a dozen or so at a time, but I like to cut all my sponge holders at once, or handles on all the mugs in one go, so I will limit the number to the amount of time I can give in the next few days after throwing.

Well I am not up to the level of many of you but every so often I really like the way a mug works out. I make one or two "experimental" every time I throw a big batch of mugs. Anyway I feel like those that do work really elevate the look of my display and I just wish they would stay around longer for that contribution.

Normally I have no attachment but there have been several pieces in the last few months that I wish would have stayed around longer because they looked great to me and I priced them higher, they all sold immediately and my display is left with the "boring" work. How do you deal with/feel about the ones that are "elevated"?

I am not an artist so I can't speak to being creatively stuck, but every time I do chores that keep me from potting, like sieve glaze, deep clean, deal with reclaim, etc... I think about all kinds of new things I "want" to do in the studio, lol.

Drywall will mold too, I use it for wareboards and if I wrap up some wet stuff for later, it will mold in a couple of days.

I think Pres is right from a technical standpoint, the same way a guitar player can hear the flaws in a pink floyd solo, but no one that does not play would ever even hear it, and many people tell me they prefer flaws in pottery because it shows the maker's mark and is truly one of a kind. I have started leaving some little scuffs and marks in my greenware for this reason, before I would sponge them all smooth.

You need skill, drive, passion and discipline, and the ability to market yourself. I have a friend that has been making a living playing guitar for decades, but he plays the songs the crowd wants to hear, not his favorite music. I would have never imagined I would be making so many damn spoon rests. I thought I would be selling vases, lol.

I'm not an artist so functional for me. I do enjoy really pushing a mug into art"ish" territory though, I make one or two whacky ones every time I make a batch of 30 or so. I dabble a bit in art, but it's certainly not "fine", lol.

Mine had the same issue recently, I took the mechanical bits of the foot pedal apart and cleaned everything, including using "mass airflow sensor" cleaner from auto parts store in the potentiometer and moving it through the whole range of motion. Don't forget to put a little grease back where metal parts rub, like that gear. Pots get dirty and create contact where they are not supposed to, and the wheel keeps on turning. Lots of people replace them but I play guitar and soldering new ones is a PITA so I always clean them first, works 80% of the time.

Contact your local small business association and ask for help. We set up and still run ours as an LLC. The creation process is a pain but after that it's easy. Taxes on the other hand, I was brought to tears trying to figure it out, we just pay someone to do it.

I have forgotten to candle and fired wet pots, does that count? My experience leads me to believe you can throw and fire the next day without candling at all, so it makes sense you could candle at a higher temp. But, but but... one of my pots blew up, a thick one. So... seems to me the thickness dictates everything. I have broken greenware that "seemed" dry, but the thickest section still had moisture inside, so throwing thin with little water should be fine, but a newbie pot that is thick and wet maybe not. Neil made an interesting point about pots never blowing up until after 500f or so. My experience has been the same. I feel like the real issue is the "escape" of water content below a certain threshold prior to reaching that higher temp where the mechanical water starts to vaporize/steam, if the regular water content is too high then steam pressure doesn't have time to release through the body. I have steamed the hell out of pots on the wheel with a heat gun and they don't blow up. I have also seen another potter use an acetylene torch to heat up sections really fast so they would explode, but the whole pot didn't explode, just the surface. ( Well, sometimes the pot was lost, lol)

Same here...

Nice.. thanks for posting!

Thanks! Me too, I am getting 1,000 lbs of clay next Friday.