liambesaw
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Posts posted by liambesaw
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1 hour ago, Bill Kielb said:
I love it! Glad the PJs have gone elsewhere! I have always had Shepherds ( clumsy bowl tippers) so I found it necessary to throw a quick ribbon for double wall and add it to the shape.
This looks great!
The ones for my dogs are gonna have extruded sections inside to slow them down when eating, they're little piggies and will finish their food in under 10 seconds otherwise!! I was thinking a flopped rim might be fun too, but no way I could do that to a gauge.
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58 minutes ago, oldlady said:
very nice!
i did notice that you are stretching a long way to reach the water. and whatever is behind you to the left. maybe it is time to look at your setup for speed and comfort. just curious about why you throw water and clay under your bats?
Thank you, my water is pretty far away, it's a large crock pot on a sheet of plywood, wish I could get it a bit closer. Scrap buckets behind me. I'm gonna have to move out of my shed eventually, hopefully before I hurt my back haha.
These plastic bats are not good, the holes have loosened in less than 6 months and they all have a knock. I put slip under it to help suction it to the wheelhead, and for subsequent ones I just put a little water to help the slip seal down the next one.
I have Masonite bats on my shopping list for next trip to the pottery store, but also really need to just bite the bullet and pour up some plaster ones.
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Ok, ended up only throwing 2 keepers last night, but I got my gauge set and will throw some more tonight. I can only do 3 a night for now because 3 of my bigger bats up and walked off somewhere. Oh well! I have a 50lb bag of plaster #1 and some pie tins, I should just start making some.
Anyway, another video if anyone is interested in my process.
- shawnhar, Hulk and Bill Kielb
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12 minutes ago, Gabby said:
Remind me of the type and size of dogs you have. I have an 87 pound golden retriever
I think dog and cat dishes are an excellent idea for the Seattle area market.
Maybe don't make them white with a goofy picture.
We've got 2 huskies, a 3 year old white one (Kita), she's 65lbs, and a 10 month old cream one (Kodi) and he's 45lbs so far. We also have a 12 year old daschund (Scotch) and a 15 year old tuxedo cat (meowzer)!
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4 minutes ago, Gabby said:
I have an oblate sphere on my banding wheel. I have roughed in some dancing figures to circle the outside and am thinking about the underglaze treatment.
On a separate table I have an oval plaque, as yet unfired, maybe ten inches by 16." I will probably underglaze that before firing. That one is on a Year of the Pig theme, with a plan of showing up to three red river hogs, a Vasayan warty pig, and a warthog.
That sounds interesting!!
And my wife has changed my plans for the week. We are putting together our business plan and she wants me to work on designing and throwing some dog and cat dishes. Our animals have always been central in our life, and so has our mixed heritage so we thought these would be central themes in a family business. So DOG BOWLS!!! WOO! Now I have to go find my sketchbook
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Did a glaze firing last night, hope to open tonight when I get home. Kiln was still at 900f when I left for work. I've got 35 mugs in there and a shelf of spoon rests. Trying out a new glaze, coffee nuka. Went to mix some other glazes this weekend and lo and behold! No silica. Grrr, I thought I had half of a 50lb bag left when I saw the bin almost empty.
Oh well! That just means I get to make another trip to Seattle pottery supply!
This week I'm going to continue to try repeat bowls. That's all that's on the docket. I might do another glaze firing midweek if I can, but not a deal breaker
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8 minutes ago, Pres said:
My hammer was often the cutting wire, as I would often cut the piece in half just to see. I still do it, and find it is a great tool for teaching. However, there have been times that pots went through bisque before I realized I didn't like it. . . . . Floor drops are so satisfying when all of those shards are scattered, and nothing left to do but sweep it up. The sound of a pot breaking on a concrete floor is enough to get everyone's attention either in fear of an accident or a crazy teacher getting release on one of his pots. They never worried about me wrecking theirs.
best,
Pres
"Don't mind me, just practicing my juggling with all of your final projects over here!"
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My hammer is a big maple tree, the pile is getting good.
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11 minutes ago, Magnolia Mud Research said:
Pres,
There is a lot to be said about the 10,000 hours of practice ... . I don't remember the rest of the story. Practice not only of throwing, but designing work that is interesting and desirable. Well thrown pots can be ruined with poor choices of glaze and glaze applications.
40 hours practice per week leads to about 5 years of practice (+/- a year or so).
LTAre you saying 10000 hours before someone will want to buy your work? That seems excessive!
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I'll let you know when I get there. Like pres, I think hours is probably a better measure than years.
I can throw a nice even mug the same way pretty much every time, and I've got 10 months of "recent" wheel throwing under my belt now. But I have a wheel at home and I am throwing for about 3 hours a night, 5 days a week. Weekends are mostly glazing and firing so I'm only at the wheel maybe 4 hours. So that's around 19 hours a week, for 44 weeks, 836 hours total so far and I'm just now feeling confident I can sell my mugs and bowls.
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3 hours ago, Bill Kielb said:
For mugs, cups, vases, I really like picking them up off the wheel head and placing them on a cheap cfold towel on a batt. Bottom dries out with the rest, stays round and no cutting later only to have a batt with a splotch of clay in the center.
he definitely is in a groove though.
Nice about these little bats is no cutting (unless I need to free up some bats early), the mugs pop off at leather soft and I thumb trim them. The bad thing about a system like this is that you need to learn to center on a non-level surface because after some heavy use they don't sit down perfectly in the slot anymore. Hah! I don't have a problem wiring off the wheel, but with my limited room it can be hard to swing my body to side and place the mugs on the shelves using both arms.
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I'm making YouTube videos now too! I thought to myself "what is the internet missing?" And guess what, there wasn't a single video of me in my pajamas making mugs, now there is! Still trying to figure out the whole YouTube thing but I'll get there!
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I got a foundation in ceramics back before YouTube, but had a pretty long hiatus between college and getting my own gear. Now I spend a lot of time watching YouTube videos on technique and read helpful books like a potters workbook by Clary illian, or functional pottery by Robin Hopper. I also read back issues of PMI and CM. I think it's just all around absorb as much as I can. Of course these forums here are really nice as well. I have been to a single demo, and it was nice but I was getting annoyed by all of the weird questions that people were asking while the presenter was trying to demo, it felt like they really got in the way. I enjoy doing stuff by figuring it out so I think I'll stay away from the arts center for now!
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Welp, had to go get clay again, was down to my last box. This time I decided to go ahead and bring a half ton home, which is all I trusted myself and my Tahoe to drive safely in crazy downpour. 500lbs of Klamath yellow and 500 lbs of vashon red. I really like the yellow as a fast, soft clay and the red as a stiffer smoother clay. Also picked up two new kiln shelves for the kiln I got in December. The ones it came with were both cracked and covered in lowfire glaze. Now I can get 3 shelves of mugs in my kiln at once which will be very nice.
Speaking of kilns, I'm doing a full bisque right now! So far I've been able to fill my kiln every week with a bisque, I'm pretty happy with that!
This week on my workbench is more spoonrests and mugs. I spent this last week doing just a bunch of spoonrests.
- Bill Kielb, Hulk, Rae Reich and 2 others
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41 minutes ago, Mark C. said:
liambesaw
you need a biggger shed
Haha this year if the farmers markets yield a bounty!
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I know most people here have a dedicated area for their pottery, and I feel like eventually I'll move towards that. When that time comes there is a list of equipment I'd love to get for specific reasons and a slab roller is one of them. I'd love to make slab plates and feel like a slab roller would make that a lot faster. I want an extruder for handles, test tiles and extruded kiln stuffers (soap dishes, toothbrush holders, business card holders, etc). But in the end I need to be realistic about the space I have, so no. The space a slab roller would take up would mean displacing my entire rack of glaze chemicals, which also happens to be the rack with my sleeping bags, tent and portapotty.
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9 minutes ago, JohnnyK said:
When I took a JC Raku class, I was required to sculpt a modernized version of a Xian Warrior. The requirement was that we use an existing warrior and modify it to reflect how we see ourselves and our current life situation in clay. I chose to show myself as a farmer since I do have a "hobby" farm. (No, I don't grow hobbies...).
My question is: How do you see yourself in clay?
Here's what I came up with:
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I have a pedal, I just have to keep my foot on it to maintain speed. It's an AC motor so can't do a whole lot. There are some bolts I can crank on to stiffen it up a bit, they're just a pain to get to.
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1 hour ago, shawnhar said:
The foot control not jumping from zero to 88mph when you barely touch it, good bat pins and the rest I don't care about, although I'm spoiled by the quiet nature of my Bailey, it's really grown on me and now all the wheels at the studio suck, lol.
I want to get a wheel that doesn't do that, would be so nice for throwing bigger forms. So I could stand and pull. Maybe this year if I am able to sell some mugs and bowls and whatnot.
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Extruded soap dishes
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39 minutes ago, Mark C. said:
Today it extruded soap dishes sponge holders-butterdishes and mugs. Short day
Can I see what those look like?
For me, I've got a bunch of mugs to trim and handle, and another bunch of mugs to throw. I have been making sake sets for my relatives in Japan, hopefully going back this year
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Wow they all look so good!
What’s on your workbench?
in Aesthetic Approaches and Philosophy
Posted
Thanks! I'll do that, I am picking up some lag bolts to mount my extruder on the way home. Maybe get a few done tonight.
I'll try not pulling the last bit instead of rolling the rim, I kinda like the rolled rim though.
They should end up right around 8 inches wide, if not, I will adjust and make bigger, my dogs current dishes are 6 inches wide and 10 inches wide and I wanted it to be in the middle.