Smooth Edges

Nobody wants to drink from a mug with a rough edge or grasp a handle only to have a high spot grab your finger. The way a piece feels in the hand is just as important as how beautiful the piece looks sitting on the table.

I don't care for sanding my pieces. Some people like to sand after the bisque fire, others after the piece has been glaze fired. I would much rather spend my studio time doing other things and not have to bother with it at all.

Spending a couple of seconds at the time of throwing to sponge off the rim leaves it consistency smooth. Some people will use a small square of chamois (tie it to a fishing bobber so you don't lose it at the bottom of your water bucket) for the same purpose. Whatever your choice, just curl the sponge/chamois around the rim while the wheel is spinning.


Enjoy!

Holiday Open Studio

Holiday Open Studio Decmeber 13 and 14, 2008

Handmade functional pottery, sculptural claywork, and fused glass jewelry are just a few of the items which are available at the Holiday Open studio. Come for a visit and enjoy refreshments, while experiencing the working studio of ceramic artist Teresa Wik.

Cleaning Pieces

It is far easier to tidy up a piece while it is still wet as apposed to once it is bone dry or worse yet, after being bisque fired.

For Wheel thrown pieces, I use my finger to smooth out any rough spots on the wall of the piece, to soften the top rim and foot. I am not a fan of holding a wet sponge and turning the piece of the wheel. It always seems to me that I end up sanding those pieces to get rid of the little rough spots. My theory is the sponge takes away the fine, smooth clay and leaves the larger grains.

For handbuilding or altered pieces double check for any small crumbs of clay left of the piece. Also examine all edges and corners to be sure they have a nice, smooth, round edge. Sharp corners become even sharper once glaze is applied and the piece is fired.

Wood Stove Steamer

The Wood Stove Steamer

The idea came to me while scrubbing the gunk out of our cast iron stove steamer… I thought if this were glazed pottery, it could easily be cleaned out with a sponge, maybe a little bleach if really bad or even better, it can be put into the dishwasher!

The Steamer has little feet to raise it off your stove so it won’t boil over or crack from the heat of the stove. The top top opening is large enough to put your hand into for easy cleaning. Holes in teh lid allow for the steam to escape. A wimsical and functional handle on the lid tops the piece.

It is important to remember to fill it up with warm water- cold water could cause cracks.

I’ve been testing one at our home and it works wonderfully!

Studio Organization

Those who know me, would laugh at the thought of me being detail oriented and would most likely pull an abdominal muscle if I ever tried to say I am organized.

While cleaning up the studio today, I realized the studio is, in fact, pretty darn organized! My husband, Stu gets the credit for all of his fantastic ideas and terrific handiman skills. I just keep him going with warm drinks and cold beer. :)

A few of the things Stu has created are: glaze chemical storage area with pull out shelves, spray booth using an old shower pan, display shelves for fairs which fold up when not in use, he has made about a dozen different glaze bin storage areas... the list goes on and on. Over the next few weeks, I'll show pictures and descriptions. In the mean time, check out my webpage to see some general pictures of the studio. www.tpotspottery.com.

PS- he also made the adorable front to the studio, it was a roll up door when I moved in.

New Glaze Color

New Glaze color needs a name!!!! any suggestions?

Based on a receipe in Mastering Glazes Cone 6- this glossy brown glaze actually has a varigated tanish grey color where thick with tans and rusty browns where thinner.

As with all my other glazes- this one is lead free. It is food safe and can go in the oven, microwave and dishwasher.

Can you guess what this piece of pottery is used for? (other than glaze testing) :)

It is a sponge holder! The sponge fits in length wise so it can dry out between uses. Helps keep down on the smelly sponge syndrome.

Fall Drop In - Tuesday and Thursday

Tuesday AND Thursday- 5:30 pm - 8 pm

Weekly ceramics drop-in at T Pots Pottery Fall Session (Sept. 23rd to Dec. 4th )

Drop-in class is the time to get your hands dirty and release some stress, while moving at your own pace to create functional and decorative pottery. All levels welcome.

Cost: $25 for the first drop-in (includes 10lbs of clay, glaze and kiln) then $15 after that for each drop-in during the Fall Session.

*New- Starting Thursday October 30, a second drop in session has been added!

Lost Everything (almost)

After countless hours on the phone with Microsoft, taking my computer and external hard drive (with vista backup files) to two different computer guru's, I am finally accepting the fact that I have lost all of my big files.

Not only were those files big in my mind since they held my contacts, e-mails, financials and web page, they were big in size as well...

The computer guys were able to recover some of my pictues and files. Thank you!

Guess, if I have to find something positive... my computer is much faster without all of the files and other accomulated junk. :)



After all of the research, I have learned two very major things (1) Vista backup sucks and (2) The compression software which comes with Vista has many problems. I downloaded 7-zip (free) which decompressed files Vista could not.

Ugh Computers- lost everything!

This fall has been gorgeous so much so, I decided to do some computer work out on the patio with my faithful companions, Beau and Tanner. Beau ,an 11 1/2 year old classic golden loves to hang in the shade while chewing on pine cones and watching the wildlife. Tanner, on the other hand, loves movement, he is a very active golden retriever possessed by tennis balls, bike riders, squirrels and anything else which moves.

To get to the point - Tanner got caught up in the power cord of my laptop creating a whiplash effect crashing the computer on to the patio. The hard drive was fatally damaged.

Back up, back up, back up... I had backed up just 4 days prior to "the incident". Unfortunately, I just get error messages attempting to restore it.

I don't have the answer to what went wrong, what the best way to back up is or how to check to be sure data is saved and retrievable. I'm looking into it and will let you know what I find. Or let me know if you have any suggestions!

In the meantime, if you were previously on my mailing list or would like to be, please shoot me an e-mail!

Cleaning Bottoms

Bottoms up! I'm talking here about the foot or bottom of pottery pieces... One of the final things I do before putting a price tag on my ceramic pottery is sanding the bottom or foot.

I have had more than one person tell me they purchased handcrafted pottery which scratched thier expensive table top at home so they threw the pottery in the trash! Not only was the new owner of the pottery upset, I'm sure the potter who created the piece would also be upset to know the fate of their hard work.


A few seconds of sanding will make all the difference. I use two differnt types of sandpaper, no special files or tools needed.


For really rough spots or getting chunks of kiln wash off the bottom, a heavy grit belt sander type paper works great, it is called "cloth belt" and comes in sheets, rolls and the circular type (pictured below). The belt grinder cloth is much stronger than typical paper so it won't tear. If you are handy or know someone who is handy with a saw, a block of wood can be cut for to slip inside the circleular sandpaper or it can be held in your hand.

Cloth Belt

Sandpaper sponges are the wonderful invention I use in a fine grit to smooth the botttom as soft as a baby! They last a long time, can be used on greenware, bisque or after the glaze fire, best of all, they are cheap. I get mine at our local hardware store for .39 cents each! 3M makes them under the name of Pro Pad.

Sponge Sanders

Pesky Details which must be done!

Those pesky "minor details" which sometimes seem unimportant and/or a waste of time can be make the difference if customers will purchase your pottery a second time or not. I know from my sales that repeat customers represent a large percentage of my sales. And we all know that word of mouth is the best advertising!

No matter what our reason or excuess to be mindful of the details, it is so very important that the extra time be taken to do the finishing touches to each and every piece of pottery created. The cool thing is, you get to decide when a ceramic creation is complete and which of the details are needed.



So, in this series, I'll be talking to some details which I feel are "must do's" and some things to make them easier.

Intro: first blog ever!

I’ve been toying with starting a blog… many, many months have gone by and still not one word has been written, until now. So, here, now today is the first installment and introduction.
I won’t bore you with my bio as that can be found on my website http://www.tpotspottery.com/ . As this continues to grow; my goal if for an informative page, not only about what I am working on, also with hints, tips and techniques for the beginner to advanced potter. Ceramics is a huge field with so many wonderfully crazy things to try from manipulating and stretching the clay to (and past) it’s capacity, to mixing glazes, changing up firering techniques and of course, the tools and equipment- oh how I love all the different toys we get to play with.!
Check back soon for more…