liambesaw
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Posts posted by liambesaw
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2 hours ago, Chilly said:
Which "newbie question" has most confused/confounded you? For example, today, I was asked: Why do you always tell me to do a glaze test before I use it on something real?
I'm all for testing on something real, but when I say test a glaze first, I mean before mixing up more than a test batch. I'm sure in a school setting where every piece is precious it has a different connotation.
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My basic throwing kit, after buying and making all sorts of tools:
1) pointy asian style trim tool
2) small wooden kidney
3) whatever junky sponge is around
4) chamois
And last but most important and versatile......
5) metal rib
And here's what I use them for:
1) trim tool - I use it to clean up the "buttress" or skirt on mugs'n'jugs and to pull my bats off. Thing is a champ and that's why it's on my bench. Cost me 99 cents at the ole pottery shoppe
2) kemper small hardwood kidney rib - it has a flat side, it has a curved side, what's not to like. But really I use this for compressing the bottoms of plates and as an inside compressing rib when doing a tall form (with the metal rib on the outside).
3) junky sponge - now I don't want to name any names, but after trying some fancy name brand sponge pack I have to say I wore them out in short order and moved on. I use chunks of tile sponge, Hydra sponges (the cheap round ones in the kits), etc. If you're married to the mudtools ones, try the foam from a box of cones, it works great.
4) chamois - ok I'm gonna ruffle some feathers here, but you can take your paper towels and bag plastic and you can go ahead and put them in the garbage where they belong. Nothing feels as good as gripping that slimy little piece of lambskin and pulling it down over a rim. Nevermind the beautiful, perfect, compressed, strong, and incredibly smooth surface it leaves behind. That's great and all, but I mean actually just holding the thing and letting it slide in your fingers, when you wring it out, when you slap it onto the side of your water dish... It's all magical! It almost feels ethereal and lighter than air. Anyway, chamois are great.
5) metal rib - ok, metal ribs, let's be honest... They're cheating, right? No one tool should have all of this power. I use my metal rib for so many things, I will begin describing them now. I clean my bats with one, I shape pretty much everything I throw with one, I scrape slip off of clay, I decorate with one, I burnish with one while trimming, the list goes on forever! Definitely my favorite tool.
Beyond those for throwing I also now rarely use a needle tool, pretty much just for scoring, though still occasionally use one to level off the top of an uneven rim. The other occasional use tool is a large cooking chopstick from daiso. It serves as throwing stick, and general all around stick for doing stick stuff.
For trimming I pretty much use a thin dolan pear and a screw cap from a gallon milk jug. I'll tap whatever I'm trimming into center, put the milk cap in the middle and apply gentle downward pressure on the milk cap to hold whatever I'm trimming on center and just hack at it with the pear tool. I occasionally use an Asian style trim tool but I can't keep them sharp enough for them to be of any long term use whereas the dolan tools are hardened steel and the edge lasts quite a while, even on groggy stoneware.
Welp, that's about it and probably far too detailed, but you can go tool crazy if you aren't careful. For mugs I'm down to sponge, chamois, metal rib and trim tool, and I get into a pretty good rhythm can pump one out every 2-3 minutes to the gauge.
Speaking of which, I've got 30 out in the shed that need to be thumbed off and handled... Toodles!
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1 hour ago, Tumbleweed Pottery said:
The woman I’m buying from is firing it today to test. I will ask her if she is glaze firing.
I only fire to cone 6 anyway. But that does concern me about the new elements. I plan to fire using Amaco Potter’s Choice and celadons, which I know are 5/6.
She is liquidating her studio and selling me all her commercial glazes (pints), kiln furniture, kiln, like-new Shimpo RK whisper, tools, ware boards and bats for $1,400.
She has a modest little studio, but the deal seems considerable.
My husband is an electrician/technician for the FAA and works on landing equipment. He could replace the elements pretty easily. How much am I looking at for all new elements in the kiln?
Elements are usually 40-50 bucks a piece, so it depends on how many are in there
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You can fire a kiln with a kiln sitter to any cone lower than it's rating. Just have to buy the pyrometric bars of that cone number.
Curious as to why you're buying that model though, it's only rated to cone 6, which means it will only hit cone 6 with new elements, so it's really more of a low fire or bisquing kiln.
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Maybe it's just the stuff that finds me, but it's really kitschy or edgy or witty. I think a lot of the popular art right now is people feeling like they have to either make something so awful it's adorable or overly shocking/dark/depressed, and then wittiness seems to underly a lot of these themes.
Thats definitely pigeonholing an entire two decades of art into a tiny narrow beam, but from what I see as popular it is usually some depressing theme, with a witty political message or something that purposely looks like vintage kitsch.
I'm not a huge fan, but I do understand it and why it is popular. People be upset.
Maybe a name could be the period of unrest or discomfort.
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18 minutes ago, LeeU said:
And they are lookin' good! Nice and simple, no jarring distractions, conveys the info just as it should! Hope building the webite is at least a little bit fun--I loved doing mine even though I have neglected it lately.
Thanks! Unfortunately they do have jarring distractions because whenever I sit down to film, my neighbors who are NEVER out, decide to do their yard work. But it's been great kind of chronicling my journey since the start of the year, and it's a lot of fun too.
As far as the website goes, well I am not that into computers anymore so it's hard for me to sit down and concentrate on one, but I'll get through that eventually
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I've been busy filming and editing YouTube videos. Need to get back on the mugs and bowls wagon though, so will get back to normal making soon.
I also need to finish my website and get things moving on the business end, I just only have so much time in the day, someone clone me please!
- shawnhar, Bill Kielb, Pres and 1 other
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You gotta have something worth dry cleaning to use dry cleaning plastic
I have painters plastic for in the studio, but it's only really helpful if I can get to what's inside of it within a few days. The wet box just keeps everything the same moisture regardless of time, so saving up a bunch of mugs for handles day works well for me. Under plastic my mugs are too dry after just 3 days.
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Just now, neilestrick said:
There's very little reason to fire to cone 10 in an electric kiln. Your glazes won't look the same as pots fired in a gas kiln to cone 10, because you can't do reduction in an electric. You might as well fire to cone 6 and save the wear and tear on your kiln. There are really nice vitrified, translucent, cone 6 porcelain bodies available from most clay suppliers.
I cant think of a single reason, any savings in material would be offset in energy cost
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1 hour ago, Stephen said:
yeah but you are right back with the issue of firing to cone 10 with a cone 10 kiln. But I guess you could fore to 8 with long hold?
Cone 10 kilns are built to fire to cone 10
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21 minutes ago, Joseph Fireborn said:
I use a small green house for my mug handles. Works perfectly. I also use it for when something comes up and I can't get to my work to trim it.
That's what I mainly use it for. I'll throw mugs and pitchers and store them in wetbox all week, then attach handles on the weekend all at once. Works great! I don't have much room so I store these tote dryboxes outdoors, but a greenhouse thing sounds like a great idea for someone with room inside
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48 minutes ago, Benzine said:
@liambesaw are those mugs in a damp box of sorts?
Yep, Costco tote with a couple inch o plaster in the bottom. If I put them in there for a day or two after attaching handles they even out a bit
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It's hard for English speakers to interpret concepts that have a name. There's nothing special about words here as a concept so it can be hard for us to understand the big deal about using a word (or phrase). And someone Japanese probably has the same difficulty understanding why westerners are so careless with the words they use. Lost in translation is a great phrase because there are concepts that are hard to explain with words, and feelings and whatnot. Japanese is really cool, they have stuff like onomatopoeia for textures and feelings and stuff, it's way beyond comprehension for me, I just try to sit back and enjoy. My wife is Japanese and I get to hear about the misuse of words a lot, she kind of understands now and can see it from the western side, our words don't carry the same brevity and we use them like they're free.
I liked her article, but I think she could have done a better job of explaining why it makes her so angry.
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2 minutes ago, spiffypix said:
lol figures. Still, $125 isn’t terrible. Thanks
Mine are 55 a piece and I have to buy 4 at a time, you're getting off cheap!
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That's one element
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Just a reminder that cone 6 is what that kiln is rated for at the top temperature. It'll only reach that temperature with new elements, it's more of a bisque/low fire kiln
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It's a little beat up but not too shabby. It's a cone 6 kiln so good for bisque and low fire as is. Not sure why there's an l&l manual there if it's a Skutt.
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Wow great! Thanks
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I was just trying to say that mark loves what he does every day, and has made a life of it. As a Potter he has a pretty special opportunity to "retire" from maybe the grind of soap dishes and coffee mugs, and just make what he likes instead.
I mean... Pottery is what a lot of the retired folks here have decided to focus on in retirement, so I stand by it, there's plenty of time to retire when you expire.
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6 hours ago, Mark C. said:
Right now I could quit (retrire completly)but I like this business and am not good at relaxing.The hard partis the happy meduim.
There will be plenty of time to retire when you're dead.
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1 hour ago, Benzine said:
People do sales on Reddit?!
Heh, not direct sales! I've been contacted a few times now after posting pictures there for someone to buy mugs, I'll take it. Heck, I even have made a sale from imgur
What’s on your workbench?
in Aesthetic Approaches and Philosophy
Posted
Well, I'm out of clay... So I'm going to get some tomorrow! A half ton this time, my tahoe is rated for 1480lbs of weight, and that explains why my February order felt so wrong driving home haha. Trying out some different porcelains and then getting mostly my red stoneware.
I need to do a few firings this weekend so I'm going to go ahead and load and bisque tonight, 30 mugs, 8 dinner plates, 8 small plates, bunch of condiment dishes, spoon rests, vases, etc. It's gonna be a full load.
I also have a few videos I need to record this weekend. Going to do a teapot video and I think some citrus juicers. Haven't sketched the juicers out yet but should have time tonight for that.