QotW:How many pieces do you work on at a time during your normal workflow?

[Pres]

This week there is a new topic suggested in the QotW pool! @Kelly in AK posted. . .   Hey Pres, I got a good one from my wonderful partner: How many pieces do you work on at a time during your normal workflow?

Interesting question concerning workflow. I believe it depends on the pieces made, the skills of the potter, and the techniques used to make the pieces. If I am making chalices, I usually limit the pieces to 10, as there are actually 20 pieces in all, cup and stem. At the same time if doing this in the two piece method, the timing is important as you do not want to join when too dry or too wet. The cups have to be trimmed last, after the stems are trimmed. If reversed the cups usually get to dry before joining, The stems should be slightly pliable in order to join without breaking-cheese hard. I cut a groove in the bowl base for the stem top to set in, then use magic water and the spinning wheel to join the two together and keep them centered top to bottom. Then I finish joining with a rounded wooden spoon rib and trim the bowl a little more at the end to make the piece unified in form.  Plates usually 6-8 for a kiln load. Teapots usually 4-6 for mix and match with spouts and lids. Everything seems to take more time these days, but then it is a labor of love and so seductive!

Once again. . . 

QotW:How many pieces do you work on at a time during your normal workflow?

best,

Pres

[Mark C.]

Workflow for me is a few kiln loads so its hundreds,many hundreds . Long ago (70s) I stopped counting pieces in kiln loads. Say how many in a glaze fire etc. I think more in cubic feet every glaze fire these past years is a 12 cubic updraft and and a 35cubic downdraft fires at same time.Most loads have over a hundrerd stuffers-from salt cellars to spoonrests to sponge holders.

I really dislike to fire glaze fires without the stuffers as the space is wasted.

This year is a huge transition year  as I'm working less now ,we (my assiasatant) are working two months on then two off or thereabouts

Just delivered a huge wholesale (my largest ever) to a Gallery a few days ago and am working on backstock to supply  local outlets during my break.

On a daly basis I throw in series -My list on the wheel now says salt cellars, garlic roasters and candle trays-I'll make them in dozens -say two dozen candle trays and a dozen garlic roasters and 2 dozen salt cellars. I just dropped off 80 salt cellars and need a small break from them.

When working on larger orders I step up to making larger runs on any given day.

The slow winter time is still here outlet demand wise so now its stocking up backstock so I can play this summer

 

[Kelly in AK]

After Pres and Mark’s responses I realize it’s a little more complex to answer this than I expected. Making work really is a flow, I’m certainly “working on” more than what’s become bone dry. Each kind of piece demands a different kind of attention at different stages. As Mark said, it’s kiln loads, not pieces.

 I make pots after my day job is done. I’ve found somewhere between three and eight wet pots at a time, depending what they are, is manageable.

Controlling how much I produce has a big effect on how well things come out. Two or three at a time is too little, but if I throw twenty mugs and a third of them get too dry to put handles on that’s no good either. Managing to do the right thing at the right time is the best. 

[Pres]

Often Questions of the Week can be confusing, as some will look at the surface of the question and easily answer it like eating a strawberry, others will look at it and see an onion with so many layers to be peeled off before the discussion is over. My play on the QotW is that it invites all sorts of response. I knew this one would be a good one for the onions and strawberries.

 

 

best,

Pres

[Chilly]

I have physical projects and virtual projects.

I can have anything between 1 and 10 physical pieces of clay on the go at any time.

Virtual projects live in the privacy of my own head, and I don't know how to count them, but there are lots.  Most are totally unachievable with my skillset, but I love to look at something, and think I could make that with a differnt shape here, or a different colour there or ....

[Denice]

Difficult to answer,   when I was making coiled pots I could make two at the same time.   I tried to make three but I had  top coils getting  too firm for my coil/pinch up method of coiling .   When I throw I quit when my wrists and hands start to ache,  I can usually throw four pots.   I have been working on a three dimensional mural for awhile.   Just as I think I am ready to roll out the last back ground tiles I find a area that needs more work.  When I change one tile pattern,  I usually have to change all of them.   All of the  three dimensional tiles are done.    Thinking about working with layered colored clay's when the mural is finished.  

[LeeU]

When I first retired from the state I used my vacay/sick leave payout (I rarely took either) to set up my studio, complete w/wheel and a large kiln . Roughly six  12" x 24" shelves of greenware will fill that kiln, tight or loose, depending. When work flow actually flowed I would fill & fire maybe 6 times + or - anually. I was also putting a fair  amount of work in invitational  wood & raku firings, through the NH Potters Guild.  As my health took a dive  & the pandemic hit, and my local retail dried up, the flow slowed to a trickle--maybe filling/firing 4 times a year. I have not fired the kiln at all yet this year, tho I have 6 shelves of work sitting ready.  I rarely use the wheel cuz I can hardly throw anymore & the kiln is too large to fill any faster.  I've shifted gears to a different type of work & much of what I do is now provided to selected local non-profits to use for their fundraising. As far as flow goes, I now take my sweet time and maybe create a shelf-worth within a couple of weeks, but then take forever to glaze. I've got 2 shelves ready to glaze, for the next fire after this one pending.  I'm just waiting for the snow to go away & for it to stop being so dang cold (really LOL).

[shawnhar]

Depends on what is being made.

Something like sponge holders I can push 40 at a time, but I no longer have drying issues. I can take pots off the bat still pretty wet, wrap a dozen items on a drywall wareboard, wrap it in cheap trash bag, put a towel over it, and it's good for 5 days. 

I wrap my mugs like this too, and the handles, so nothing dries out as I am working on it. 

I throw as much as I can, then work on a dozen or so at a time, but I like to cut all my sponge holders at once, or handles on all the mugs in one go, so I will limit the number to the amount of time I can give in the next few days after throwing. 

[Hulk]

For firing and glazing, driven by what fits in the kiln, which, happy accident, I had just enough counterspace for a kiln load with leaving room for a glaze bucket, some tools, a cleanup water bucket and sponge, and splash room*.

In making, from one up to forty or so. When in a flow, there's just thrown, ready or almost ready to trim, and another batch in between.

The weather makes a difference in how fast things move along.
Controlling and/or suspending drying is key, as Shawnhar points out.

*The new Studio space will have to have the same or more counterspace!
...while seven cubic feet of kiln space seemed much too big, starting out, I'm used to it now, so looking forward to getting back to it.