liambesaw
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Posts posted by liambesaw
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I spent all weekend doing something I haven't done for 20 years! Making molds.
3 piece mold, plaster is curing and hopefully ends up working out.
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6 minutes ago, Denice said:
I am going to try throwing again today, I tried a couple of days ago and it did not go well. My hand doctor told me it could be a couple of months before I get completely healed. I hope my hand will cooperate today if it doesn't I think I will start coiling again. Tried using my slab roller and couldn't turn the wheel with my right hand had to use my left hand and arm. Wish me luck! Denice
Good luck, don't push yourself too hard!
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4 minutes ago, Min said:
It's been quiet on this workbench thread so I thought I'ld show my mussels.
^10 porcelain, heading for a soda firing if they make it through drying without cracking.
Wow, very musscular! I just saw a thread on Reddit where someone added barnacles to everything, must be one of those days
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To me, if I can understand a system, I can make it whole. So as someone who is curious and skeptical, I don't accept that things work by magic, or that the way they work is unaccessible to the common person. Everything can be understood, at least on a general level, which can be used to deduce a possible issue.
So I try to understand and fix everything, even if it's more expensive.
- Bill Kielb, Pres and JohnnyK
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43 minutes ago, Callie Beller Diesel said:
I don’t spray big bowls. I pour the inside and outside separately, and usually add a little water to the glaze to thin it. Go to the dollar store and get some large diameter plastic tubs: it makes life waaay easier. When setting them up in the kiln, place other items evenly around the rim to create a heat sink. Test tiles, shot glasses, mugs, even extra kiln posts. It took my cracking rate down to nothing.
If you have a Korean supermarket somewhere near you, I found kimchi mixing tubs to be very cheap and very awesome for glazing. It's like halfway between a laundry tub and a kiddie pool, I can put my big banding wheel inside and harvest all the drippies.
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10 minutes ago, shawnhar said:
I DESPISE making big bowls, the throwing part is great, the glaze failure rate for me is heartbreaking. I can fit 24 mugs in my little 818, if 1 or 2 fail, no biggie. The kiln will only hold 2 big bowls and at least one always fails, they don't fit in the glaze bucket, I suck at the pouring method, crawling, pinholes, too thin, drips if I try to mix colors, it's always something. We did sell a bunch during the holidays and I am down to 2 left, and I have 2 bisqued that haven't been glazed because I dread the failure.
Secret to glazing big bowls is spraying, everything else causes too much glaze to pool in the bottom which can break the bowl or bubble or all sorts of nastiness.
I've been really into doing big 2 piece vases and stuff, trying to feather my nest by covering my front garden areas in big pots
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I like making those pots most so even though they don't sell, I still like making them. I had a big bowl that I would bring to the farmers market just as a marketing gimmick. People don't see big bowls, so it was like "whoa look at this big bowl". I mean they never bought anything but maybe some day I'll see them again and theyll be like "hey. Big bowl guy!"
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Pretty much everything, heh. I make videos about making things and it's been beneficial for other potters, but detrimental for selling things at a price. It looks easy, and I can't really blame people for thinking so. I think only people who took ceramics in school or who have tried it themselves can really appreciate the time and energy it takes to get a form the way you want it. It's not even easy to make something really crappy. But just watching someone do it, is like... Oh yeah of course, you just make the clay into whatever you want, easy premise.
I think the 3D arts are especially prone to this bias because HELLO you just make what you see. Most people have drawn something, and realise how difficult it is to draw something the way you see it. But most people have not tried to sculpt or do something in three dimensions because it's less accessible. They have no frame of reference.
I've gone back and forth with people on this and the jury is out, but as far as the amount of skill and time that goes into a given form, it's lost on a lot of people.
Luckily I've found that most people seeking ceramics are people who have at least tried it and are appreciative of the skill and effort.
As a footnote, I really appreciate the experience of sitting at a booth and hearing the things that we usually consider negative or condescending about our craft. For me it brings to light a lot of things I'd never have considered and I feel like I understand better what it is that impresses people who don't have a frame of reference. It's not comfortable at the time, but in retrospect it's something I feel is important to think about.
- Bill Kielb, Hulk and Pres
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I don't eat in my studio, but I'll bring a coffee or beer in. I put it in a little cupboard in my shed and sip on it while I get everything ready for whatever I'm out there to do. Not when I'm throwing. Usually if I'm filming a video it'll take me about half an hour to set up lights and cameras, get the microphone set up and queued, adjust white balance and exposure, etc etc.
I think drinking the dregs of your coffee and then spitting out a bunch of grit is probably enough to cure most people of drinking while claying. Not a pleasant experience!
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12 minutes ago, Callie Beller Diesel said:
My basement studio has access to a sink with hot water, but I’m careful to use bucket siphon systems for disposal, as I don’t have a clay trap. 12 years in the same house, and so far so good.
You can buy one for the dental industry for pretty cheap. Under 50 bucks. Just search Amazon or whatever for "plaster trap". You just replace your sink trap (the U shaped piece) with the plaster trap, it just plugs in. We use them at work and they work great for both plaster and gypsum, so they'll work for clay too.
Assuming you'll ever want one, much cheaper than the clay ones
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I don't have water in my shed, I need to top off my buckets with a hose. Hasn't been an issue though. Large crock pot for hot water, hooked to a 4 hour timer just in case I forget to turn it off (yes, I bought the timer after I came back in to a crock of dried cement one day). My throwing sessions are generally 4 hours or less, unless on the weekends so I don't go through a lot of water anyway. I try to recycle as much water as possible by letting everything settle and then scooping it out of my cleaning bucket and back into my throwing bucket. Works good.
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Your chimney might set your house on fire.
Here's a link to a free handout on kiln design, it has some helpful sections on calculating chimney length and combustion area for natural draft kilns.
https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/gaskilnsfreemium.pdf
- Rupsa Nath and Rae Reich
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Ho boy, did I ever!
First off, my family is still in what I call "special request" mode. They know I make pottery so I will get a few "special requests" per year, I save up these special requests for Christmas. My uncle requested back in the summer a stash jar, so I made a big one for him:
And my step mom wanted a vase, so I made her one:
My mom asked for a water dish for her watercoloring, which for some reason I forgot to take a picture of. My dad got a pipe he had been bugging me to make.
Throughout the year I often will throw some mugs or cups and then (especially in the summer) not get handles pulled and onto them before it's too late, so I save them up and make candles out of them. So these are lavender citrus soy candles, 8 ounces each for a 48 hour burn time supposedly, I've never actually kept track of how long one has been burning, but yeah they work great and are a super quick, cheap and easy project to use up some of those random vessels. A word of caution though, if you make these and sell them as part of your business you'll need to buy either a special candlemakers liability policy or a BOP policy that covers candlemaking, and be sure to research what youre doing so you don't end up making fireballs instead of candles.
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1 hour ago, GEP said:
I’m in a similar mode as @neilestrick. My studio is officially closed for the holidays, but I want to tweak one of my glazes before starting up with production again in the new year. Wouldn’t it be nice if the right answer is in the first line blend? Too optimistic?
Not optimistic. You are working on intuition when tweaking a glaze, so a line blend is a good way to test intuition. I bet one of them is the keeper!
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2 minutes ago, Min said:
Haha, I wish! Most of the stuff I order in is duty free already, it's the surcharge the private companies charge that is the killer. I had some stuff shipped from Bailey's, most of it came to the drop shipment place I use in Lynden WA except once they had to ship a splashpan separately and they shipped it to my home. The surcharge was more than the splashpan (around $40). Shipments under 20- CA have no duty or taxes added.
Do you live somewhat close? My old business partner lived in Vancouver and would drive to the mailbox store in point Roberts to pick up his commercial shipments, and fill up his car with cheap subsidized distilled petroleum for his cars as well. Either that or he'd drive down to my place and stop by Costco for that cheap government subsidized milk lol. Amazing how it was cheaper for him to drive an hour to cross the border and unload a bunch of shipments at the post office than it was for him to sit at home and mail them. Weird system we've got, but it seems that people have worked it out
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21 minutes ago, Min said:
@Callie Beller Diesel, do you have Chit Chats in Calgary? I've got a family member who used them to ship books from Vancouver to places in the US. He would drop off the boxes in Burnaby (Vancouver suburb) then Chit Chats took them down across the line and shipped them via USPS. It cost him around $2- per box plus whatever the US shipping was. I don't know if they are still in business or not, this was going back a few months.
From their website:
@liambesaw, we do have UPS but it's silly expensive, as is Purolator or Fed Ex and Canada Post. The cross border fees that UPS, Purolator or Fed Ex charge are crazy, they bill whatever the duty is then tack on a huge surcharge. If there isn't any duty they still add a ridiculous surcharge. I NEVER get anything shipped from the US to here in Canada unless its via USPS.
That's bizarre, I shipped there with UPS for 1/3rd the price of USPS!
I think UPS and FedEx are forced to be cheaper in the USA because they have to compete with government subsidized USPS. In Canada, Canada Post is quite expensive and therefore UPS and FedEx can afford to be expensive as well.
Either way, Congress just passed the new trade deal with Canada and Mexico so you can soon enjoy duty free goods via UPS again.
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11 minutes ago, Callie Beller Diesel said:
Yeah, but if he’s got to ship it back across the line... costs me $25-30 CAD to send one mug stateside.
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
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21 minutes ago, Callie Beller Diesel said:
@liambesaw You might want to have a conversation about shipping to their American customers regardless of the trade agreement. You'd save him and his customers a TON of shipping. Canada post is $$$, compared to any service you guys are used to.
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.
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8 minutes ago, Bill Kielb said:
Nice look! I like all of them, maybe more for matte slightly less for high gloss
Any need for warning not to place on direct fire?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.
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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:
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2 minutes ago, terrim8 said:
No, the point I am trying to make its that it won't take long for people to find the desired commodity in North America if the value is significant enough to encourage exploration. That is why I used the DeBeer's example. This generally runs into an oversupply situation and then the price of the commodity drops. But we can find and develop things here if needed. Btw, DeBeer's Victor Mine in northern Ontario is finished already and so is Snap Lake in the NWT. Short expensive mine life.
Of course none of this can change company behavior or foreign government actions with respect to child labour or lax environmental laws.
And as potters, you're absolutely right- we don't affect the commodity markets - we're too small. We can decide to not use a product if we know it is produced unethically but that's about it .
The problem though is labeling. How do you know where your cobalt came from? Or all those diamonds I need to hurry up and buy for Christmas!
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.
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1 hour ago, terrim8 said:
They used to say that about DeBeers & South Africa about diamonds. Then a South African "defector" by the name of Chuck Fipke came along & spilled the beans to the geological community about specific pathfinder minerals in diamond exploration. It had been a company secret.
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!
QotW: Do you use commercial products or do you mix your own?
in Int'l Ceramic Artists Network (ICAN) Operations and Benefits
Posted
I use a local commercial clay body for throwing. But I recently had to make the decision whether or not to mix my own casting slip. I ended up deciding to make it myself, using a recipe from Indiana University, they had the slip recipe and also clay body recipe (for adding handles, attachments, etc).
So far so good, the purchase price for the raw materials was 90 dollars, and it's enough to mix 15 gallons of slip, and if I add another 50 dollars (grolleg) i will still have enough of the other ingredients to mix another 15 gallons. The price of a porcelain slip from the store was 120 dollars for the same 15 gallons. So it was an easy decision for me. I'd have to mix the slip either way, might as well weigh out the ingredients myself!
I make all my glazes as well, that price break is a LOT bigger, you will pay a huge premium to buy commercial glazes.
I made my own studio furniture and ware boards and all that, because wow have you seen what they want for that stuff? Wowzer!
I did buy my wheels and kilns though, I buy my trim tools and ribs as well. I know a lot of other people who make their own tools but buy their glazes.
I have been making my own lustre overglazes, although the price would be a wash if we had access to colored lustres here in the states. I made my own titanium lustre for a while, but mother of pearl lustre is so cheap it's not even worth the time it takes to make it.
So I guess it's always a balance of time vs. money, some things like making glazes have a huge payoff, other things like making lustres or equipment have a very low payoff (but are still fun). If you hAve a lot of time and no money, do it yourself, you have a lot of money and no time, buy it?