liambesaw

One of the many reasons I don't like plastic bats. I throw on masonite and it just pops off when the object is leather hard. If I have to pull off the wheelhead I dry my hands real well, make sure the pot has all the slip scraped off, and just cut and lift with dry hands. Sometimes they go out of round a little and I kinda give the wareboard a little shake to try to settle it back into round.

Yes, despite the exposure we get, and it's not minor, the odds of developing silicosis now that we practice basic studio hygiene (aka, we now know what the problem is), is very slim. I did have a friend who cut marble for a living as a gravestone carver develop silicosis after only a few years on the job. It was severe enough for him to change careers, but not serious enough for him to require any sort of medication or therapy for it. Back then it was the "wussy" thing to wear PPE, and for marble cutters a dust mask doesn't cut it. Anyway, it's easy to worry about things like health, but it sounds like you're in a much cleaner environment than I am, and I'm not overly worried. I use p100 respirator to mix glazes, clean kiln and kiln shelves, etc. The high exposure things are the biggest.

I also do not water my pots down. I don't do anything to them before glazing except blow them off with an air hose to knock off any dust

The fix depends. It depends on what you want as the properties. I personally would either wait a week and see if the glaze deflocculates itself (a lot of times this happens on its own). Or deflocculate it myself with some darvan or sodium silicate. This causes the glaze to dry faster by reducing the viscosity while keeping the water content the same. Another option is to flocculate, which would be adding a little epsom salts solution which will thicken the glaze and cause it to dry slower. I don't like this because i hate waiting for glaze.

They're still a myth to me

The mold on the lid is actually efflorescence. It happens when kilns get wet. Soluble salts migrate to the surface where the water evaporates, leaving a fuzzy layer of salt and discoloration. It will eventually go away.

Cress kilns is still a company, so you can contact them for a manual. But most kilns are pretty much the same thing or a variation of the same. You can look up videos on YouTube about operating a manual, kiln sitter or digital controller depending on which your kiln has, and the directions will usually translate to that kiln. Good luck and welcome!

Functional Pottery by Robin Hopper. Very good book if you're interested in functional pottery.

I wish mine looked like that!! Its supposed to be an orange, but some of the details got lost when I used an old spray paint stencil I made since the stencil film didn't really stick well to the clay.

I spent the weekend glazing the rest of my bisqueware I had saved up, finishing bottoms and taking pictures. Going to be listing it all on my online store and having a fun sale sometime in the coming weeks. I have some stuff I know will be popular just from how many people on instagram, facebook and reddit have reached out to try to snipe things early. I participated in my local clay art associations pot swap this year and will be sending out this plate to the person whose name I drew!

Plenty of people do this instead of wedging, I think that's how @Mark C.starts his day?

I think it has more to do with saturation than bacteria or fungi. As you say, the clay is fine if it's "wet", or aged, both allow time for even wetting. I don't have a pugmill, but when I recycle clay I don't have to age it to use it. I just slake it (complete hydration) and then dry it on a slab until it's nearly the moisture level I want. I think it may make some sense about the stronger vacuum, placing the freshly mixed clay under a STRONG vacuum will not just remove the air, but it will cause any dry spots to hydrate as well. That said, I think they probably use a filter press, and in that case they are wet mixing anyway so that point may just be moot, or redundant steps to maintain plasticity. I have a box of porcelain manufactured a month ago when I bought it, and one that is a year old, I cannot tell the difference when throwing. I always heard of aging my clay but noticed that when I buy clay it's usually manufactured within the last 30 days, and a lot of times in that same week. But I know my clay is filter pressed, I have seen the giant filter press machine, and apparently that is not standard procedure anymore?

He hasn't tried one of these yet? This is what the world champion coffee brewers use (don't worry, I also didn't know coffee brewing was competitive).

I know someone who recently purchased the timer unit from paragon, so they had them up until at least 3 months ago. It was expensive but they got the kiln in pretty much new shape so they didn't complain too much

The overglaze-ceramic-hi-fire knob is an adjustable interval timer. At overglaze it slowly ramps to full power, at ceramic it has a medium ramp and hi-fire is a steep ramp. And it's one of those parts where if it goes out, its gonna cost you about 400 bucks. Unfortunately it's not an off-the-shelf part, it's a mechanical timer made for this kiln and available from duncan(paragon?)

Have had a lot of time in 2020 to analyze my forms and discover new avenues as far as decoration is concerned. I'm going to roll with it, and since 2021 doesn't sound too different, I'm going to keep discovering things into the new year. When shows open up and things settle in, I will be better prepared in the new year.

wow! Spotless!

Wouldn't need removable frames, and really I could probably wall it in since this is the back of my property, but due to budget and such I think I'm gonna just frame up the roof and then let the rest organically happen as I need it to. I'm thankful we don't get 3 feet of snow ever, but I like the occasional 6 inches we get every few years haha. Never even thought about it getting on my kiln, it better not or I'm gonna be peeved!

Paint scraper?

Yes that's too fast for bisquing. Does your kiln not have high/med/low switches? As far as biscuit firing, you only would do that for low fire earthenware. They are bisqued as 04 and glazed at 06. The body is still absorbent at both temperatures so glazing is not an issue. If you bisqued to cone 5 it would be impossible to glaze because the clay is no longer absorbent.

I have some pallets from getting materials delivered, maybe I can rig them up on the sides as a "fence"

I do 2 booth tables and a sheet of plywood usually. In the front yard. I only have a 14 cubic foot kiln, but apparently I'm stingy with space hah. Unfortunately with my current setup i can only glaze on days where it's not rainy, and I'm sure you know how rare that is this time of year up here. I'm planning an extension of my studio for next spring, essentially tripling the size of my tiny studio. Another 10x20 foot covered area in the back. I can't wall it in due to building code here, but it will help immensely with storing greenware and glazing. Oh I can't wait!

Glad to see real potters have to set up sheets of plywood in the yard to make room for glazing too lol! Looks like a chore man, nice load

That might be interesting. Today my back hurts. That is sad.

Maybe next time lol, I'm not pulling my elements out to paint itc in there now! Would love lightweight shelves but would likely have to get them custom made ($$$$) because of the size of my oval kiln. It's 37x25 oval, not a common size afaik