liambesaw

My daughter & her hubby live in Kennewick. I haven't been able to see her for a couple of years and have never been to WA & I have a friend in Seattle. Be careful what you ask for --might end up throwing a glaze party someday! 

I'm surprised they haven't changed it to "need anything under 100 lbs and fits in a checked bag while I'm in Denver?" 
 

It really takes so much space to store raw materials.  I'm at my limit right now, but I have a full spectrum of materials for cone 6.  If you ever feel like flying across the country we can have a glaze mixing party just for you

My local ceramic supply place is about 25 minutes away but what I save in driving time I more than pay for with their high prices. I buy clay locally plus all the less expensive dry materials like epk, talc, silica etc. Whenever possible I order from one of the US suppliers and have it shipped to a dropbox just into WA state then it's an hours drive from me. I go to Seattle or Tacoma a couple times a year to shop there for heavy expensive stuff like frits, usually tie it in with a camping trip.
Driving thru Seattle, groan, that has to be one of the worst places that I've ever driven too! I get behind a big truck and use the expressway through to the exit for Seattle Pottery Supply and stay the heck away from the outer lanes or I land up doing some unplanned sightseeing. 

CALLIE! 
This is a much better option I think. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Silk-screen-w-custom-image-on-16-X-12-frame-You-will-provide-your-own-image/223558103087 They'll burn anything into a screen and mail it to you.  I think you'll get way better results, ez screen is a cool idea but I found it to be very uncool to use.

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!

I started out of the gate making and firing crystalline glaze: which also meant making my own glaze. From there it naturally evolved into making my own glazes; including my own versions of temmoku and others. The first ton of clay I purchased, then started making my own- later buying a pugmill. Currently, I use R2 porcelain that I specifically developed to promote crystalline growth. I make my own suspender and brushing medium: that Britt named glaze jelly. Made my own tile setters, and other kiln furniture. I prefer to explore and learn.
T

The short answer is that I use commercial bodies and commercial glazes. But being a bit of a Chatty Cathy, here's the rest of it. I do not have the physical space to mix my own, nor the energy or motivation, tho I cringe and wince and grind my teeth every time I pay to get the commercial materials that I like. New Hampshire has no ceramics supply store and the drive to ME or MA costs almost as much as shipping and pretty much kills most of a day.  So I pay (and pay a lot...since I use such small quantities). I don't go  in on other potters' large orders because they rarely use the kinds of clay I prefer.   For cone 6,  I am real happy with glazes from Coyote/Amoco/Laguna/Spectrum etc. I don't get a lot of opportunity for wood fire and raku, but with my small quantity, people are real generous with sharing their glazes.  For high fire bodies I use Troy wood, Sheffield's Z, and T3.  I use Highwater's raku. 
That said, I have to 'fess up that I truly miss making clay bodies and formulating glazes. I spent several years saturated in the learning and doing based on  Daniel Rhodes and D.G. Lawrence (clay/glazes/ceramic science)  plus an excellent education in potters/clay artists and the history.  I was enraptured with the making of the materials that were at the heart of my final work. I got my degree but that was just barely a taste. Then I took an economically-driven detour of 30 years. When I retired and went back to clay, I found that the minor brain injury I have pretty much obliterated everything I learned, including much of the physical processes needed to  function with reasonable skill as a craftsman. It took a while to integrate the sense of loss/frustration with the thrill of being back at it, however limited the effort. So, long story long, I use commercial bodies and glazes, and they are just fine--pretty sweet actually! 

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?

i rely on recipes from books and other potters but mix my own buckets of glaze.   i do not remember any true failures that were disasters except one recipe from a book that came out looking like the lava glaze someone here was trying for recently.   one other was my failure to remove the 1000 gram weight from my scale and that resulted in a much larger quantity of glaze than i wanted.
the only commercial glaze that i use is the entire color choice in duncan stroke and coat.   these are for small parts of decorations on the empty bowls i make each year.   i use their purple for the dragonflies that go on most of my other work.  i have to say that the stroke and coat "hot tamale" red makes a big bang when i spray it on the outside of some of the bowls.   i almost want to do a series of them and call them " Lucy's Kitchen" as they remind me of the 1950s TV show most of you only saw as reruns.

They require extra work for sure, and with a larger kiln I doubt I'll be using them much anymore, but I like them because they're translucent and metallic, it's a very cool combination that adds a TON of depth on an otherwise flat surface.

Haven't used lustres in years, fun when I did, but did not enjoy the smell. At the HS they were more of a novelty, and too out of reach for most things. If I had a student that needed a little extra zing for something that deserved the effort and extra firing, I did it. Otherwise have not gotten into them on my own.
 
best,
Pres

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?

Yeah, wanted a specific detail that took me like an hour to do by hand, and didn't want to spend that kind of time on every one.  This is the detail:

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.
 

Yeah, wanted a specific detail that took me like an hour to do by hand, and didn't want to spend that kind of time on every one.  This is the detail:

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.
 

Yeah, wanted a specific detail that took me like an hour to do by hand, and didn't want to spend that kind of time on every one.  This is the detail:

Yeah, wanted a specific detail that took me like an hour to do by hand, and didn't want to spend that kind of time on every one.  This is the detail:

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.
 

Yeah, wanted a specific detail that took me like an hour to do by hand, and didn't want to spend that kind of time on every one.  This is the detail:

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.
 

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.
 

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.

My Mom used to say that if my Dad couldn’t fix it, it couldn’t be fixed, so I grew up thinking figuring out how to do stuff yourself was just what people did. Like Liam, and Mea I like figuring it out. My default is to look up how to do it myself, and if it’s more of a can of worms than I can handle (like hefting a hot water tank so loaded with scale it can’t be drained out of the basement) I’ll call someone. If it’s a one person job, I am on it. I can tackle simple electric and plumbing, and I’ll insulate walls and mud drywall, but someone else can hang it.