liambesaw

Exactly, I could probably ship all of the things since it's probably cheaper for me to send a box to anywhere in Canada than it is for him to ship a box anywhere in Canada. Surprised y'all ain't got UPS out there yet

It was 45 dollars to ship him two pourovers and two mugs, so not too bad. But since it's b2b, it adds a significant cost on his side. I already told him I'm alright with shipping stateside, but I need to figure the cost of shipping supplies into accord.

I let the customer know the standard stuff but he is one of those coffee brewing nerds so he's heard it all before... Prefill with hot tap water, no flame, fine grind, etc etc. He dropped some off with the people who roast the coffee for his company to get functional feedback from them as well, hope to get some good helpful feedback from world champion coffee brewers, this could be a profitable side business for sure. The customers company is a luxury coffee subscription type of thing, and these carafes will be part of the onboarding of new subscribers, or something to that effect.

Been making many of these coffee pourovers on commission. I'm just now starting to get good at them after making 50. I threw the parts for 10 more on Monday and am still waiting for them to get to leather hard. Everything slows down this time of year. If I turn a space heater on to speed things up, they dry too quickly so it's a game of patience. I can only make 10 at a time because 1) that's as many as fits in my kiln and 2) that's as many as fits on my drying racks. The customer is launching a website in January so I'm stocking up and making enough for the launch. They are in Canada and that has been an issue with shipping (unless the new trade agreement is passed soon), but I may end up drop shipping them directly to US buyers, so I might need to up my fee if that's the case. Here are some recent ones as well as a few glaze tests on them:

I feel ya, I think you could go crazy if you tried to get ethical with every purchase. Every store, every experience, every item is now so wrapped in bad juju that there's no way to separate it. People consume what is in front of them, there are no choices.

I don't know what that means in this context though. Diamonds are still expensive and are mined by slaves and children all over Africa and Asia. Even "ethical" and "conflict free" diamonds are provided by companies who buy conflict and unethical diamonds. A good example is DeBeers, who opened a diamond mine in Canada to supposedly mine ethical conflict free diamonds, but it's marketing... Those diamonds are much more expensive and by buying them you're still supporting a company that is 'very bad'. But either way, when you use slave labor, are able to destroy and pollute as much as you'd like, and are able to manipulate the value of your currency to benefit trade vs. your citizens, you will provide things a lower price. I don't know that i'd want to compete in that market!

Yes sarcasm. Our rare earth production in the US is strategic, not competitive. There is no way to beat china when it comes to mining and refining these elements, at least not in a way that is ethically superior at their price point. Either way, lanthanides are not a huge source of colorants for the average Potter outside of mason stains. It's just a sick global game that is being played where the environment and human rights are the wager. As potters we barely piggyback on the shoulders of large industry, but we are there nonetheless. I have no doubt that if potters were the sole destination of these elements that it would be done a whole lot more ethically, along the lines of kaolin and ball clay, but as it stands, we cannot control the demand, therefore we cannot control the market.

Here's the Hansen blurb on encapsulated cadmium sulfate/selenium stains: https://digitalfire.com/4sight/glossary/glossary_encapsulated_stains.html The relevant information being that they're manufactured in countries with little/no clean water regulation because of the toxic waste that making the stains creates. (Soluble cadmium/selenium salts)

If you think cobalt is bad, don't look at the rest of the minerals and elements we use!!!

I have one for the house I could steal, but I also have a little space heater out in my shed that does ok. It's just that I'm out of rack space in my shed. I actually did have to bring everything in last night though because we got down into the 20s and I didn't want these freezing and breaking. They're probably too dry now lol.

I'm a wheel man myself, and i don't think I really started developing actual skill until I started planning ahead of time what i was going to make and how. I generally sketch at least rough dimensions and then set about throwing something to those dimensions and shape. If I enjoy the way it looks, I will set my gauge and make a series of the same form. My goal is always to throw 2 dozen of the same form, I feel like it not only gives me a nice amount of stock on that item, but it also really hones that form and sears it into the gray matter. There is nothing like repetition to really explore yourself and a form. People ask me often what they can do to get past a hump or get on to the next level and for me it's repeating a form, it's like performance enhancing drugs for wheel throwing. So when do I decide? I decide long before i sit down at the wheel.

Folk art guild white with behrens satin matte on top Here it is with just folk art guild white

So I've been doing glaze combo tests on glazes that I use but didn't think would be any good together. Got a few surprisers anyway. But what I've been doing for a bit is making carafes. Lots of them. I'm sending my first shipment of 10 with matching mugs next week. That is, weather permitting... It's been 50 degrees at 98% humidity here for a week, so things are NOT drying. Very frustrating, even when I have them on the tables next to the kiln, it's very slow drying.

I don't even know really, I like things that LOOK like handmade pottery though. Things that look perfectly machine made are not very appealing although I understand the amount of skill it takes to make something that well.

Yep, it's a pour over carafe ala chemex: https://www.chemexcoffeemaker.com/

So I spent the weekend making more of these, and I really like to make them. I keep improving on the design which means I'm learning. Learning makes me happy! So anyway, was able to finally glaze fire some and I like the result. Here's one from the batch

Good to see you back @shawnhar

Works really well, I was working with toluene (really volatile paint thinner) and I couldn't smell it at all. Really happy with that, it allows me to work inside as it gets colder and wetter. (Although it rapidly sucks all the heat outside)

Wow those are awesome, @Min! Today I mixed glaze (folk art guild white) and made soaps of metal salts for lustre experiments. While I was mixing glaze, I grabbed a bag of spodumene, unrolled it, measured out the spodumene, and while I was rolling the bag back up, OUCH WHAT THE #&%@! Got stung by a hornet that decided to hibernate in the folds of my spodumene bag. So that was fun! The hazards of mixing glaze that no one talks about. Now my middle finger is swollen up, which could be advantageous if I run into someone particularly disagreeable.

From what I remember I was introduced to wheel throwing in 3rd grade, and had ceramics class for part of the year for every year from 3rd to 7th grade, and then took 2 years (6 courses) at community college. But I pretty much forgot everything between then and when I bought my wheel 2 years ago. Been slowly reteaching myself with the help of you guys here and YouTube since. I'm fairly autodidact so when I am interested in something i am driven to learn everything about it. Doesn't always translate to skill though.

Here's what it ended up looking like. Just a rough mockup to see if they're interested.

I was sent exact dimensions and product photos. If they like the prototypes they'll send some finished examples so I can see more closely. I've already thrown 4, have thrown spouts and pulled handles so I should have some finished by tonight.

I have been glazing and firing bowls all weekend, no surprise. But today I am making a few carafes for a company on the east coast to see if they'd like to do business with me. Just a little commission gig to get some money flowing. Supposedly 20 a month at 40 a piece, that's at least enough spending cash to buy more clay and feed my real addiction lol.

Holy cow mark, you never stop do you? I spent this weekend building a work table / fume hood for my work with soluble salts and lustres. Sulphur, and mercaptans (thiols) are part of synthesizing a lustre overglaze and these are some of the smelliest compounds on earth. I did an open air run of some palladium mercaptan a few weeks ago and you could smell it from blocks away. I decided instead of subjecting my neighborhood to a somewhat regular barrage of rotting smells that I'd go ahead and do it proper. A 350 cu ft per minute fan pulled through an activated carbon filter rated to match. It won't get rid of the smell entirely but will trap a lot of it. At least that's the hope. This combined with an acid gas face mask will hopefully keep me better protected from hydrogen sulfide and other byproducts that are unhealthy to breathe as well. I know it's pretty janky as far as lab equipment is concerned but it actually works so I consider it a win!

Yeah as soon as they are stiff enough to support being flipped over they get flipped over. I did speed dry them outdoors with a fan so I could wire them off and reuse the bats (I only have 36 bats). Worked out pretty good and I only killed 3 of them while trimming heh.