What’s on your workbench?

[Mark C.]

Work bench will have two glaze loads on Friday-packing, much of it is wholesale /consignment-a little for me some to be prices-most not.I shipped4  shipments today from those loads just cherry picking kilns..

 

[liambesaw]

Today I mixed up a couple new glazes and sacrificed a few pots to see what they'll look like.  Doing a glaze firing now, it should be cool enough to open up and take a look tomorrow night!

This week I will go back to trying to throw repeat bowls.  I need to step up my bowl game, I'm pretty decent at mugs now. I just need to finish putting handles on all of last week's mugs and then it's bowls bowls bowls.  Gonna force myself to figure out getting them to the gauge every time.

Oh yeah, and I have to finish editing my latest YouTube video.  Hah.  I don't think people realize how difficult editing video is until they're neck deep in it.  Kudos to any YouTubers out there

Edited March 25, 2019 by liambesaw

[Mark C.]

Work bench is now empty after packing two kiln loads-packed up my small toyota bed full with pots in boxes and dolly and took a dozed boxes in to two outlets (both consignments)

Also finished  up packing a Large whole sale order which I droop off in Santa Rosa. on way south to SF to take my wife to her 6 week doctor check up after hip surgery.

I'm also taking down 1bout 1200 # of scrap metal sorted into 17 different sorts-red brass-yellow brass-100 # lead ingot -400#s of wire -clean to insulated-all sorted well

dirty brass clean and dirty copper-you get the idea no steel all higher qualities -wire is from 30 years ago working as a sparky.

Lots of the brass is from shipwrecks over the past decades-all scrap no nice items.

I did this sort last summer and my electrician friend has yet to take it so I'm making this a multi pot's .metal, doctor run, also bringing back a copper dive helmet and some fish prints.

 

Liam said (I mixed up a couple new glazes and sacrificed a few pots to see what they'll look like.)

test tiles are easier than pots especial for 1st tests

I lost a good friend about over a year ago and yesterday I finally started to empty his pottery shop. He was my salt kiln partner.

I am cleaning it out for his widow. mush of whats there came thru me to begin with. I worked on his glazes for many hours and brought home what I can use and we poured the water off the rest to dry them out. I am going to take the whole lot so she can have a two car space back in a ship building.

I processed a large truck bed full today at my studio.This is a huge job and since he once was doing raku and low fire it complicates the mix. I am going to try to donate all the low fire to a school and will give some clays away as well. I found him the Geil kiln and we will deal with that later-I also brought him a small electric from one of my AZ show trips 10 years ago and he has a 3 zone new skutt electric which  will also sell in the future  year after the shop gets cleared out and some time goes by.All the kilns are in a new connected large kiln room-finished out with painted sheet rock.He fired the gas kiln twice.

This is familiar as I have bought out 2-3 living potters in my past but this is good friend and much of what I'm moving I have handled before. It sad but I promised when she was ready I would do this for her.

The clay and glaze and material alone will be 4-5 truck fulls.I will take a month  or more to work thru this.

My work bench today had all his stuff on it but now its found a new spot in my stuff.

Edited March 25, 2019 by Mark C.

[liambesaw]

2 minutes ago, Mark C. said:

Work bench is now empty after packing two kiln loads-packed up my small toyota bed full with pots in boxes and dolly and took a dozed boxes in to two outlets (both consignments)

Also finished  up packing a 5 k whole sale order which I droop off in Santa Rosa. on way south to SF to take my wife to her 6 week doctor check up after hip surgery.

I'm also taking down 1bout 1200 # of scrap metal sorted into 17 different sorts-red brass-yellow brass-100 # lead ingot -400#s of wire -clean to insulated-all sorted well

dirty brass clean and dirty copper-you get the idea no steel all higher qualities -wire is from 30 years ago working as a sparky.

Lots of the brass is from shipwrecks over the past decades-all scrap no nice items.

I did this sort last summer and my electrician friend has yet to take it so I'm making this a multi pot's .metal, doctor run, also bringing back a copper dive helmet and some fish prints.

 

Liam said (I mixed up a couple new glazes and sacrificed a few pots to see what they'll look like.)

test tiles are easier than pots especial for 1st tests

I lost a good friend about over a year ago and yesterday I finally started to empty his pottery shop. He was my salt kiln partner.

I am cleaning it out for his widow. mush of whats there came thru me to begin with. I worked on his glazes for many hours and brought home what I can use and we poured the water off the rest to dry them out. I am going to take the whole lot so she can have a two car space back in a ship building.

I processed a large truck bed full today at my studio.This is a huge job and since he once was doing raku and low fire it complicates the mix. I am going to try to donate all the low fire to a school and will give some clays away as well. I found him the Geil kiln and we will deal with that later-I also brought him a small electric from one of my AZ show trips 10 years ago and he has a 3 zone new skutt electric which  will also sell in the future  year after the shop gets cleared out and some time goes by.All the kilns are in a new connected large kiln room-finished out with painted sheet rock.He fired the gas kiln twice.

This is familiar as I have bought out 2-3 living potters in my past but this is good friend and much of what I'm moving I have handled before. It sad but I promised when she was ready I would do this for her.

The clay and glaze and material alone will be 4-5 truck fulls.I will take a month  or more to work thru this.

My work bench today had all his stuff on it but now its found a new spot in my stuff.

I don't know about you, but I've never had a test tile come out the way it comes out on a pot.  Since I'm testing these glazes for a specific set of pots, I threw a few smaller but the same shape just for testing the glaze, hard to translate a tile onto a large vase.  I do use test tiles for experimenting with glaze recipes, nothing works better for line blends or small adjustments.  

[Mark C.]

33 minutes ago, liambesaw said:

I don't know about you, but I've never had a test tile come out the way it comes out on a pot.  Since I'm testing these glazes for a specific set of pots, I threw a few smaller but the same shape just for testing the glaze, hard to translate a tile onto a large vase.  I do use test tiles for experimenting with glaze recipes, nothing works better for line blends or small adjustments.  

Tiles are the start for me than a spoon rest or sponge holder-Before sellable larger forms-then a mug well you can see the work up

 

[liambesaw]

27 minutes ago, Mark C. said:

Tiles are the start for me than a spoon rest or sponge holder-Before sellable larger forms-then a mug well you can see the work up

 

Under these is strontium crystal magic, just want to see what they'll do on a vase, I already know what they do on their own and with each other, the SCM is the only unknown here.  I'm firing it on a waster so it should be a lot of fun, muahahahah.  Made this picture so I can remember what went where on the dang pot since it's a harlequin of sorts now with overlapping colors.

[Bill Kielb]

Annotating pictures? Making videos? You are getting to be quite proficient with this digital stuff!

[Gabby]

12 hours ago, Mark C. said:

 

I lost a good friend about over a year ago and yesterday I finally started to empty his pottery shop. He was my salt kiln partner.

I am cleaning it out for his widow. mush of whats there came thru me to begin with. I worked on his glazes for many hours and brought home what I can use and we poured the water off the rest to dry them out. I am going to take the whole lot so she can have a two car space back in a ship building.

I processed a large truck bed full today at my studio.This is a huge job and since he once was doing raku and low fire it complicates the mix. I am going to try to donate all the low fire to a school and will give some clays away as well. I found him the Geil kiln and we will deal with that later-I also brought him a small electric from one of my AZ show trips 10 years ago and he has a 3 zone new skutt electric which  will also sell in the future  year after the shop gets cleared out and some time goes by.All the kilns are in a new connected large kiln room-finished out with painted sheet rock.He fired the gas kiln twice.

This is familiar as I have bought out 2-3 living potters in my past but this is good friend and much of what I'm moving I have handled before. It sad but I promised when she was ready I would do this for her.

The clay and glaze and material alone will be 4-5 truck fulls.I will take a month  or more to work thru this.

My work bench today had all his stuff on it but now its found a new spot in my stuff.

This  work is hard on a sad heart, but he knew it would be you doing this, ultimately, and likely found that thought a comfort.

[liambesaw]

Round 1

 

[shawnhar]

I like the yellow throwing water drips! (Bowls are cool too...)

[Benzine]

@liambesaw Nice bowls!  What did you use to "square" off the sides?

[liambesaw]

29 minutes ago, Benzine said:

@liambesaw Nice bowls!  What did you use to "square" off the sides?

Thanks! I just pulled the rim out on opposing sides

[Benzine]

9 minutes ago, liambesaw said:

Thanks! I just pulled the rim out on opposing sides

Simple, but effective.

Did you switch clay bodies? 

[liambesaw]

41 minutes ago, Benzine said:

Simple, but effective.

Did you switch clay bodies? 

Yeah, I grabbed the wrong box last night and didn't feel like hauling it back inside.  This red clay is a lot smoother than my yellow stuff, so I can't complain too much. I like both equally, it just takes a few days before my throwing water and wheel turn colors 

[liambesaw]

So out of my glaze tests, this combo was the most promising.  My other glazes didn't really respond well to SCM, at least not in a beautiful way.  

[Bill Kielb]

Hmm, looks like Fido could use a liner glaze, maybe a durable 04 lowfire fix.

[liambesaw]

Just now, Bill Kielb said:

Hmm, looks like Fido could use a liner glaze, maybe a durable 04 lowfire fix.

Could be!  It's just a glaze test though.  I'll do a lemon test on this one, I've heard of SCM causing normally durable glazes to be underfired.  These titanium crystals are insane though. Love the look!

[Bill Kielb]

Lemon test usually meaningless, put it in your dinhwasher 30 times. Actually I would just line it if I were to let my pooch drink from it. It’s obviously artistically melted but I would never assume it to be durable. No lead or cadmium though so there is that.

[liambesaw]

29 minutes ago, Bill Kielb said:

Lemon test usually meaningless, put it in your dinhwasher 30 times. Actually I would just line it if I were to let my pooch drink from it. It’s obviously artistically melted but I would never assume it to be durable. No lead or cadmium though so there is that.

We don't have a dishwasher!  The only colorants are 3 copper, 1.5 cobalt, 6 rutile and of course the magical 14 titanium. 

I usually use my 20x5 + zircopax and titanium as a liner, works great!

 

Edited March 26, 2019 by liambesaw

[Benzine]

2 hours ago, liambesaw said:

We don't have a dishwasher! 

 

You poor soul!  My Wife and I spent many of our years together, both dating, and marriage, without a dishwasher.  We finally got one a few years ago, and things are soooo much better, especially with tiny people running around the house!

 

Great bowls by the way.  Those appear to be glazed versions, of those I commented on earlier.  The rims look thin, from certain angles, but it could just be how the photos were taken.

[liambesaw]

26 minutes ago, Benzine said:

You poor soul!  My Wife and I spent many of our years together, both dating, and marriage, without a dishwasher.  We finally got one a few years ago, and things are soooo much better, especially with tiny people running around the house!

 

Great bowls by the way.  Those appear to be glazed versions, of those I commented on earlier.  The rims look thin, from certain angles, but it could just be how the photos were taken.

Yep the rims are thin, my wife likes the entire bowl as thin as possible, and since she's my only customer right now, she gets what she wants!

[liambesaw]

Welp, I've been on the lookout for a decent deal on a wheel and I found a brand new Skutt prodigy for 650.  Couldn't pass it up.  Got it set up tonight and wow what a difference.  Anyway, threw another 9 bowls, I think I've got it now!  I think I'll have enough for a kiln load by the weekend haha.

[Benzine]

16 hours ago, liambesaw said:

Yep the rims are thin, my wife likes the entire bowl as thin as possible, and since she's my only customer right now, she gets what she wants!

That's an interesting equation.  "The customer is always right" multiplied by "Keep the Mrs. happy".  I believe the answer is, "Do what that person says!"

Congratulations on the new wheel!  I've never used that brand, but I love the large splash pan they put on them.

[Hulk]

6 hours ago, liambesaw said:

"...brand new Skutt Prodigy..."

You gonna like dat'n! ...err, you prob'ly a'ready do; your foot's gonna like't too!

,)

My experience, Skutt honors the warrantee from time of shipment to retailer; they can tell you the date, should you wish to ring'm up.

Should you ever get clockwise, it can be done simply enough - reverse'n' wires.

[liambesaw]

56 minutes ago, Hulk said:

You gonna like dat'n! ...err, you prob'ly a'ready do; your foot's gonna like't too!

,)

My experience, Skutt honors the warrantee from time of shipment to retailer; they can tell you the date, should you wish to ring'm up.

Should you ever get clockwise, it can be done simply enough - reverse'n' wires.

It's like night and day, no more fighting the ring and cone drive... Feels like heaven.

It has a small splash pan but it's so easy to clean

Edited March 27, 2019 by liambesaw