grackle

I wouldn't consider myself extremely tool handy but I know more that most women.  I have spent my life handing tools to my dad then my husband,  I could change a tire and the oil and check the antifreeze.   I am much better with wood,  I draw up plans and buy the supplies for any furniture I want built.  I do all the sanding, staining and varnish on wood work projects.  I did all of the interior finishes on our new house, even remuding all of the corners.  You have to know how to tile to live my house,  my prized tool is a commercial tile saw.  I had to learn to use a lot of different piece of equipment  in sculpture classes including welding.   In one class I had to build a table that showed movement and time passing..   My husband is always bragging  on the clay extruder I  made and continue to modify.   I don,t work with electricity a lot,  my dad was always messing with the old knob and tube wiring in our house.   You  never could tell when you might get a bad shock.   I have never gotten over the fear of it,  I always have someone else rewire my kilns.   Denice

I am happy to say that I'm beyond handy with tools. if I do not have the tool that I need for a particular project and have the necessary material on hand, I will build or fabricate what I need.
I own a patent on a tool that I fabricated for a specific job to facilitate floor scraping. When it comes to pottery, I have built an extruder along with multiple carving tools, modified my CI wheel, and fabricated a tool for Old Lady to replace one that she wore out and could not get a replacement from the manufacturer. I also built my own Raku kiln as well as multiple banding wheels from old ceiling fans. I'm still working with thoughts on how to power them for possible use as turntables for glaze spraying.
I could go on and on about all I've made or modified for various needs. Tool making seems to be part of my DNA...

Have dreamed about building a gas kiln.  We have something called live oak decline here in the TX Hill Country, and almost every oak tree on our five acres died in the past two years.  So, firewood out the wazoo.  I know we would both enjoy BUILDING a kiln, we love to build things (built our dome house and all the out buildings), but the long hours firing a wood fired kiln are daunting.
That said, both in our seventies, so not likely to happen.  I wish one of my kids was interested, but that has not happened.

Someone else always ran the kiln in college.  Then graduated, got my own skutt kiln with a kiln setter.  i ended up, after some experimenting, loading, then turning the bottom third on low for an hour with one vent open.  then closed vent, and turned on the second tier on low.  An hour later, the top tier on low.  Then the same  with medium, bottom, second and third tier, one hour apart, then the same with high until the kiln setter shut things down.  it seemed to work pretty well.
got busy with other things, and ended up selling my wheel and kiln--no time for ceramics.
retired, and had a little money, bought a new wheel and L and L easy fire kiln (too small, but living with it) with a genesis control system.  I would have been happy with the kiln setter, but they talked me out of it.  first time I fired it, cone 6, I knew it was too hot, ware was obviously a bit over fired, so now use a cone 5 and it works well.  I want to learn how to set up an auto program, but have not had time for that, just use the standard programs, mostly the medium speed.  Still working part time, and that is my excuse.
Did not have the first one long enough to need to rewire, maybe will with this one.  My husband, I think, would love the challenge though.

Someone else always ran the kiln in college.  Then graduated, got my own skutt kiln with a kiln setter.  i ended up, after some experimenting, loading, then turning the bottom third on low for an hour with one vent open.  then closed vent, and turned on the second tier on low.  An hour later, the top tier on low.  Then the same  with medium, bottom, second and third tier, one hour apart, then the same with high until the kiln setter shut things down.  it seemed to work pretty well.
got busy with other things, and ended up selling my wheel and kiln--no time for ceramics.
retired, and had a little money, bought a new wheel and L and L easy fire kiln (too small, but living with it) with a genesis control system.  I would have been happy with the kiln setter, but they talked me out of it.  first time I fired it, cone 6, I knew it was too hot, ware was obviously a bit over fired, so now use a cone 5 and it works well.  I want to learn how to set up an auto program, but have not had time for that, just use the standard programs, mostly the medium speed.  Still working part time, and that is my excuse.
Did not have the first one long enough to need to rewire, maybe will with this one.  My husband, I think, would love the challenge though.

Thank you!!  I will be experimenting and hopefully keeping good notes about what works and what does not.!!

A lot will depend on the brand and the makeup of the engobes. When trying to figure out how to use any commercial product, the first place you should check is the manufacturer’s website for directions and possibly the SDS sheet. They should tell you how the product works, or is intended to work right there.
However, with commercial glazes/underglazes/engobes, some things are true across the board. If the product came premixed and ready to brush, there is some form of brushing agent/gum/binder present. If you had to add water and sieve it, you’d have to check the product’s SDS to see if any are present. Those mediums will often allow you to apply these products to both green and bisque ware, giving you a lot of flexibility. The gums can let you layer things, so if you’re applying a commercial brushing clear, you’re probably good to go. However, those organic ingredients can interfere with the amount of a gumless dipping glaze that will be absorbed on those areas. In that instance you’ll either want to apply the engobe to greenware/leather hard, or bisque the piece a second time after applying the engobe. 
Sgraffito is usually done on leather hard, but is still possible when the work is dry if you’re doing a technique that doesn’t involve deep carving. If you can tolerate the sound or feel of a metal tool on bisqueware I imagine you could try it, but I’m cringing on your behalf. 
 

Really interesting question.  How could we not find some pieces more interesting/ pleasing/not pleasing once we have some experience with clay?  I know that I have probably more disappointments with my own work than blazing wonderful successes!!  
and yet,  there is a lot to learn from other work, right?

Really interesting question.  How could we not find some pieces more interesting/ pleasing/not pleasing once we have some experience with clay?  I know that I have probably more disappointments with my own work than blazing wonderful successes!!  
and yet,  there is a lot to learn from other work, right?

Oh my goodness.  So many glazes, so little time, so I try to keep the number under control.  Really just 8 that I use on a regular basis--plum (red/purple), Santa Fe Sky-light turquoise, Jade--a green barium glaze that I only use for creatures, no kitchen food items, sage, my current favorite, Mettallic black (awesome),  Floating blue (can be tricky tends to slip when layering), Clear, and slate blue (different on differnt clay)  These are all in 5 gallon buckets.  I like to make plates and the bigger buckets help with that.  Still learning how best to use a brush for glazes.
I have a number of stains, and some underglazes, plus some jars of  commercial glaze that I am still testing.  Also some black and cream with speckles engobe, also still testing.
Being retired makes the slower pace so nice.

Oh my goodness.  So many glazes, so little time, so I try to keep the number under control.  Really just 8 that I use on a regular basis--plum (red/purple), Santa Fe Sky-light turquoise, Jade--a green barium glaze that I only use for creatures, no kitchen food items, sage, my current favorite, Mettallic black (awesome),  Floating blue (can be tricky tends to slip when layering), Clear, and slate blue (different on differnt clay)  These are all in 5 gallon buckets.  I like to make plates and the bigger buckets help with that.  Still learning how best to use a brush for glazes.
I have a number of stains, and some underglazes, plus some jars of  commercial glaze that I am still testing.  Also some black and cream with speckles engobe, also still testing.
Being retired makes the slower pace so nice.

Thanks, Rae!  That one is hand built with paper clay.  i made some with toilet paper (dissolved) and I think some nara porcelain.  I saw a video online about making the templates.  I think the top could be a little narrower but we are using it to make coffee and it works!

thank you babs.  that will be done with some of my sample pieces and with others dry.  my husband wanted me to make some new clay clock faces for his clocks, and i will do that with these to see how it all, works!!

thank you,  Neil,  this makes a great deal of sense, and since i only glaze fired these two as a test, i will experiment further with your suggestions.  I am using the amaco underglazes and the coyote underglazes.  i have some nice thin paper clay test pieces that have not been bisque fired, and will do some experimenting with those.  perfect!!

interested in the idea of pounding out slabs before you roll them...i usually just throw them down to widen things out a bit, turning the slab every time, but pounding sounds quite theraputic.
i do love my long rolling pin.

interested in the idea of pounding out slabs before you roll them...i usually just throw them down to widen things out a bit, turning the slab every time, but pounding sounds quite theraputic.
i do love my long rolling pin.

cool.  I wanted so much to know if it lived up to the hype.  have been building a fish all day, and because i needed to add feet (I always put feet on my fish), i have to let the body set up a while and add the feet, and then the fins--just did that, so we will see what it looks like in the morning.  here is the photo so far  so far just making what I can use up without letting it get stinky.

cool.  I wanted so much to know if it lived up to the hype.  have been building a fish all day, and because i needed to add feet (I always put feet on my fish), i have to let the body set up a while and add the feet, and then the fins--just did that, so we will see what it looks like in the morning.  here is the photo so far  so far just making what I can use up without letting it get stinky.

cool.  I wanted so much to know if it lived up to the hype.  have been building a fish all day, and because i needed to add feet (I always put feet on my fish), i have to let the body set up a while and add the feet, and then the fins--just did that, so we will see what it looks like in the morning.  here is the photo so far  so far just making what I can use up without letting it get stinky.

I like to say “even potters need a hobby,” and mine is bookbinding! I make hand-bound notebooks, sketchbooks, and journals. I love paper, cloth, adhesives, and sewing. My graphic design training taught me about pages/sheets/signatures, so I get to use my previous career’s knowledge. 

What a delight to hear more about the lives of people I interact with regularly but don’t really know at all.
I’m an art teacher at a public school (22+ years). It’s unusual in that it’s a k-12 school. I have to explore all sorts of creative endeavors just to be good at my job. A few of them drew me in far beyond what I needed to teach the subject.
Clay is where my heart is, I got a BFA and MFA in ceramics before my teacher life. A significant part of “extracurricular” creative activity still revolves around it. I like to make the tools I use and I want them to be as beautiful as my pots. The wood for handles and ribs comes from what I collect and I will use a branch or plank or block I harvested over lumber from the store at every turn.
The students got me into paper making, poor things didn’t know I was going to make them chop apart plants, boil them in alkali, then spend hours beating them to a literal pulp. I’ve made a lot of paper of my own since then. Coptic stitched a few journals too, @GEP. 
A serious creative anomaly happened when I decided it shouldn’t be so hard to distill essential oils from plants. I was wrong, but the process relies on third world technology and I’m pretty fluent in that. A couple years later I had an efficiently working still and system and obtained essential oils from the most interesting plants growing locally.
When I learn about something I get more interested in it. It’s a blessing, and a curse. I’m always up to something.

i've been getting into spoon carving slowly...i also love to camp and spend time in the outdoors.

Mosaics, and I just realized I should be glazing and firing scraps of slabs with all my colors to use in mosaics, duh..  Kayaking, especially on rivers, we love the Rio Grande and other Texas rivers.  Have also spent a good many fall weeks on Lake Powell in Kayaks, and the San Juan river, plus the Missouri River in Montana.  Which is to say, we love to travel, especially in the west, getting off road and into the back country.  My husband works in wood, and I help him design boxes and clocks.  The clocks are my favorites.
Now that spring is in sight, I am starting seeds and even planting some things, .like swiss chard and lettuce and other greens.

Mosaics, and I just realized I should be glazing and firing scraps of slabs with all my colors to use in mosaics, duh..  Kayaking, especially on rivers, we love the Rio Grande and other Texas rivers.  Have also spent a good many fall weeks on Lake Powell in Kayaks, and the San Juan river, plus the Missouri River in Montana.  Which is to say, we love to travel, especially in the west, getting off road and into the back country.  My husband works in wood, and I help him design boxes and clocks.  The clocks are my favorites.
Now that spring is in sight, I am starting seeds and even planting some things, .like swiss chard and lettuce and other greens.

Mosaics, and I just realized I should be glazing and firing scraps of slabs with all my colors to use in mosaics, duh..  Kayaking, especially on rivers, we love the Rio Grande and other Texas rivers.  Have also spent a good many fall weeks on Lake Powell in Kayaks, and the San Juan river, plus the Missouri River in Montana.  Which is to say, we love to travel, especially in the west, getting off road and into the back country.  My husband works in wood, and I help him design boxes and clocks.  The clocks are my favorites.
Now that spring is in sight, I am starting seeds and even planting some things, .like swiss chard and lettuce and other greens.