Is your tetanus current?

It is that time for me- time for a tetanus booster.  I really hope anyone playing in "the dirt" wheather that be clay, gardening or whatever... gets a tetanus booster.

You know the old thing about stepping on a rusty nail?  Well, it is not the rust, it is the dirt on the nail which causes tetanus.  Tetanus lives in the dirt and is transmitted to via an open wound.   Getting tetanus is rare but not pretty!  The CDC recommends a booster every 10 years.  Check with your doc to see if it is time for you too.

Harbor Freight Wheel

A month or so ago someone purchased a potters wheel from Harbor Freight, she gave a nice review of it on PotteryBasics 101. 

Sure there were a few things about it which were of concern but, with the 20% coupon code I had, the wheel was less than $275 out the door!  Can't beat that price.

After using the wheel for a few weeks, I sadly returned it.  Harbor Freight has a great return policy.

Below are the pro's and con's I found with the wheel. 

Pro- price, fairly quiet, comfortable to sit at

Con's- single splash pan does not come off or have a drain hold, wheel head does not come off which makes it tough to clean the splash pan, the foot pedal does not have "cruise control" it also felt awkward and was touchy to decrease speed.  The biggest single issue for me was that the top speed was not very fast for centering.  The wheel was able to handle centering 15 lbs no problem, it was just very slow.

With all that said, I do think it could be a great starter wheel for someone.  Mind you, my use for the wheel is mainly for students; beginner to advanced.  I currently have two Creative Industries Class Boss, an older Brent C, Pacifica GT800, an artista and Baily wheels.  I think the difference in footpedal alone would have been enough to drive everyone crazy.

Right now for the money and my useage needs, I feel the Creative Industry Clay Boss a better choice.

Stay tuned for a future review of the Clay Boss.

Kauai Potter Dean McRaine

Tucked behind a wood working shop just a block off the main hwy in Kapaa is a wonderful treasure... LightWave Pottery, the working studio of Dean McRaine. 

A potter for more than 20 years on Kauai, Dean designed and built the studio a few years ago.  Dean and his wife Malone welcomed us in the bright, airy, spacious and well designed studio and gallery as if we were old friends.

Once Dean found out I too am a potter, he immediately began showing me things he thought a fellow potter would be interested in.... Dean single fires Cone 10 Oxidation in a gas kiln.  He formulates and mixes all of his rich and beautiful glazes.  I was especially impressed  and interested in the chemistry involved with his copper red.  Dean incorporates texture and glaze layering to enhance the color and effect of his glazes. I could tell that glaze and colors are a passion for Dean with years and years of testing.

Currently Dean is excited with the wonderful results he is getting using colored clays.  My picture did not do it justice so, check out his website at http://lightwavepottery.com

"Puff" The Magic Dragon hanging at the studio. 

On your next visit to Kauai, don't miss LightWave Pottery & Ceramic Art

Clayworks at Kilohana

Clayworks is a really cool spot, located just South of Lihue on an old plantation, this pottery studio and gallery has it all.  The set up is simular to T Pots Pottery iwth classes and instruction.  Clayworks is the perfect rainy day activity for those on vacation, looking for something fun and different to do.  The "studio" with wheels, work tables, and kilns are outside under a covered porch in a tranquil, garden like setting. 

If throwing is not your thing, Clayworks also offers paint your own bisque and they seem to specialize in Raku firing.

Inside is a retail gallery space with some beautiful pottery from different artists.  The prices are reasonable and they will ship.

Next time you are on kauai, be sure to check out  Clayworks!

Painting- the studio

I am convinced I was not a painter in any of my previous lives.  One might think that as an ceramic artist, I would have some color sense.  I do not.  Thank goodness for those little $3.00 paint samples.  One may also assume that after painting both glaze and acrylic on pottery, painting three different studios, shelves, floors, (and myself) I would feel confident and comfortable covering a flat surface in a single color with no design or fancy techniques.  I do not.

I feel just as awkward painting with my left hand as I do with my right.  Ambidextrous painting does make it easier to reach into those tight spots without contorting into awkward positions and the ladder only has to moved half as often.  

All of that said- I am loving the colors for the middle, or working room of the studio.  After just a single coat (yes, it took all day to do 2 walls), the room feels warmer, brighter and livelier.  So excited to see the finished job tomorrow!   Who would have thought using fall, earth-tone colors would do that?

Pics tomorrow...  If you are out and about, stop by the new location just across the street from the downtown traffic circle on West River St.  10607 West River St. #2A

As always- A huge thanks to Stu (who knows color AND how to paint) for all of you help and support!!

Pottery Studio Pictures- retail gallery space

Loving the new location!  The front room is dedicated as the showroom/retail area for pottery and art.

 

 

Bright yellow and orange walls, which Stu painted, are cheerful and fun.

Made In Tahoe

Next time you are in the Crystal bay area, check out Made in Tahoe, Bea and Sue are delightful people who run the store.  Made in Tahoe is a specialty art and gift store, who focuses on Lake Tahoe/Truckee artists and artisans and their Tahoe-inspired custom jewelry, artwork, baskets, pottery, clothing and gift items.  Made in Tahoe is located in the main lobby of Tahoe Biltmore Casino & Hotel.  


I am packing some new bowls and vases to take over to Sue this afternoon.

Wild Cherries

I just took another load of pottery over to Wild Cherries.  Wild Cherries, the local hot spot for coffee, yummies, awesome lunch wraps and much more is located on Donner Pass Rd. right next door to Truckee Fire.  If you have not been there, you have got to check it out!

Fall Days

Photo from my picture journal~

Vibrant maple tree as seen from our front porch

Outside my window~

squirrels are racing throughout the yard preparing their winter stash

I am thinking~

how fortunate I am to live in such a beautiful area

I am thankful for~

my loving and supportive husband, Stu

I am wearing~

purple!

I am remembering~

lazy, warm, carefree summer days

I am look forward to~

cozy winter days, watching the snow fall

I am hoping~

for a fun, busy season

I am going~

to Hawaii next month

I am reading~

3 cups of tea

I am noticing that~

no matter how organized I think I am, there is always something I have forgotten

Two of my favorite things~

purple flowers and that exhausted feeling from playing to hard

I like to spend time with~

warm, funny, positive people, especially Stu.

*****************************************************
My Mom and best friend, Cory who bloggs at Pink Dogwood Blossom
had this on her blog so, I thought I would follow her lead and tell a little about myself.

I hope you are enjoying the fall changes and color as much as I am.

New Pottery Studio Pics

Two Sinks! Working room which is home to the wheels, extruder, slab roller and tons of misc. tools
The studio is split into 3 room. This picture is taken from the back room (glaze, kiln, drying shelves) through the middle working room into the front gallery area.

Update to $5 measure stick

After using the measuring stick a few times, I have made two modifications to it.

1. I added another piece of wood under the bottom base piece, it is a little larger and thicker than the base. I found that it needed more weight as the whole thing moved slightly after some time at the wheel.

2. I added a piece of plastic (cut from the lid to a cottage cheese container) in the shape of a arrow to the arm nearest the pot. Using a sharpie, I colored it black so it is more visible.

Aside from that, I really like the measure stick!

How to Make a Pottery Measure Stick for Under $5

I saw a measure stick in Pottery Making Illustrated which looks very nice, just out of my price range. So, I made my own for under $4 using wood scraps.

For the most part, my pottery is not all exact and the same size... close enough for "sets" yet all are a little different in size and shape.

There are times, a special order for example or working towards a very large collection when I would like to be able to know exactly what size I made to make more of the same or have an easy way to re-create the same size for special orders.

Material List:
2 drywall screws
1 Piece of wood approx 4 x 2 and 1/2" thick (base)
1 Piece of wood approx 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 and 10" long (vertical stand)
1 Piece of trim board type wood approx 1" x 1/4" and 14" long (movable arm)
Wood Glue (I did not use but may be a good idea)
Bolt (I found one with a knob)
wing nut
locking washer

After cutting the wood to size, Drill holes (use a drill bit the same size or a tiny bit larger than your bolt), every few inches on the two long pieces of wood.

Screw the base onto the vertical arm. It is easier if you drill two pilot holes before trying to screw the pieces together.

Assemble the parts by putting the bolt through one of the holes in the vertical piece then put the "arm" onto the bold then lock washer and wing nut.

That is it! You now have a measuring stick.

Back at it- Studio set-up

Now that the excitement, preparation and clean up from ARTour Open Studio is over, I am back to the normal routine in the studio.

Drop-in has started up again and the first Mini Beginner Throwing class starts this Sunday.

I rearranged the studio (just a tiny bit) to improve the flow of work during Drop-in pottery nights, have moved part of the retail pottery display to shelves against the wall,


added additional space for wedging, handbuilding and work space along the wall,


Put all of the handbuilding tools, supplies and "texture" stamps and tools in a single area,

organized the glazes and incorporated the "Cink" a recirculating sink for washing clay from ceramic tools and equipment and put little shelves next to the glaze spray booth for the mason jars of glaze.

Whew, it was a lot of work, fun to do and I am liking the end results!

What is Raku

Raku is a blast! Raku is a pottery firing process where pots are lifted out of the really hot kiln with long tongs just after the glaze has melted and before the pots or kiln cool. The pots are still glowing red when they are placed into a metal container with a combustible material (newspaper, pine needles, sawdust, etc.). The combustible material quickly catches fire and a lid is placed on top to snuff out the oxygen. The fire and pots in the container are starved for oxygen and try to pull it from the glaze, this lack of O2 results in beautiful pieces of pottery. These pots do not hold water and are not safe for food.

Test Tiles- Done!

There are over 325 glaze color choices at T Pots Pottery!




Thanks to the help of Heather and Cory, the finished tiles are hanging in the studio!




As you can see on the tiles pictures above left- the base color is "E" which according to the chart is Robins Egg. Each ring of tiles are organized with all color combination's for the same base color. Robins Egg in the example above.

Glaze Spray Booth

Spray Booth

"Window Vision"
An example of a piece glazed using the spray booth


With a spray booth I am able to blend colors for very interesting effects which can not be done with dipping the pottery piece into a bucket of glaze.

Stu made this for me using plastic sheeting we had left over from our veggie garden cold boxes. Enough light comes through the clear plastic that I don't need extra lighting inside the booth.

The spray booth is mounted to the wall on normal shelve brackets. I have found clean up when I put some newspaper under the banding wheel.The ceiling of the spray booth has been fitting with a cheap furnace filter vent which is simple to open and clean or replace the bottom filters.

the boxes on top of the spray booth hold a stack of furnuce filters and the bathroom type fan which turns on/off by a switch.

The compressor (sits under the spray booth) is set to 30 psi. I use a critter sprayer and mason jars (you can see two of them to the left of the booth) filled with different color glazes. Wearing a mask while spraying glaze is mandatory!

Glazed Test Tiles

The test tile project is coming along....

Here are about 3/4 of the test tiles. Each is double dipped in two different glaze colors available at T Pots Pottery.

Some of the results are sooooooo yummy!

.

Test Tiles- Heather Glazing

Heather has been a busy gal... she has glazed a little over half the test tile combinations.













The glazed tiles above are in the kiln as I write this!

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Test Tiles have been bisqued fired

500 + test tiles have dried and been bisque fired. Heather, the glazing queen, glazed 75-100 tiles at drop-in this week. A big shout out to Heather!

Using Foam instead of Wax Resist- update

Call me a creature of habit or set in my ways... I found it much quicker to use hot wax instead of the foam. If the inside of the foot ring is raised, the foam did not remove all of that glaze. Also any of the glazes with red iron oxide love to crawl into the crevices of the foam and stay there.

I did like the very straight glaze line you can get from using the foam.

Bisque Load

People are always extremely surprised to see a full bisque load in the kiln, even other potters have are surprised at my procedure.

To see the kiln- it looks like complete and utter chaos! One person told me it looks like a kids toy box with everything just thrown in. There is actually quite a bit of organization and fine tuning to delicately squeeze it all in there.

My goal is to get as much in the kiln as I can. Being that stilts and kiln shelves take up precious space, I try not to use them. Often times they are needed, especially with many tall, fragile and/or odd shaped ones.

1. I start by nesting the bowls on a large table.
2. Next I stack flat items- plates platters with the larger on the bottom.
3. Put the above items on the bottom shelve of the kiln.
4. Figure out what size furniture you need to hold up the shelve above the nested items. Use smaller items to fit any spaces and thin slab type pieces on top if you have room without going taller than the kiln furniture.
5. Put the shelves in. I use two 1/2 shelves per level which sit on 4 pieces of furniture. They they share two of the 4 furniture stilts so there is support under the two corners and the middle of the curved side.
6. Find all the larger, odd shaped items (those that you can't put anything on top of and have it stay stable (IE pitchers) and put them in. As you can see in the video, I put them on their side, it is easier to stack on top of them that way and they are strong to put more on top of.
7. Fill in around and on top of the layer or put another shelve in,which ever works for the pieces (and courage) you have.
   
8. The last thing i put in are the tall things which didn't fit in already as well as those things which I can put something else on top of it, like mugs. If you put cylinder forms upside down, it is easier to stack stack on top of them.

I have had really good results loading the pottery to be bisqued in this manner. Here are a few tips:

• Be sure the weight of each bowl, plate or platter is sitting on the base of the the one below it and not on the vertical wall.
• Never, never put a large platter or flat slab piece on the bottom shelve- they always crack.
• If you have a lot of flat slab pieces, stack them on their side vs flat or do single layer. The bottom one always cracks.
• The crazy stack needs to be stable with out large gaps, as the clay shrinks during the firing, you want everything tight so it shrinks together.
• things don't have to sit pretty on the shelve, they can be placed in which way as long as it is stable and won't move during the firing.
• Fragile items are typically last and don't have anything on top of them.

I put together a video showing a bisque load being done... click here to see it on you tube.

Glazeing Rules of Thumb

Glazing can be very challenging. Everything from picking colors and combination to how long and where to dip can all be confusing.

Opening the kiln is always very exciting. Sometimes there is also disappointment...

Glaze ran right off the pot onto the kiln shelve

Here are some very basic, tips to use as rule of thumb:

• Wax should be applied to the bottom of the piece as well as 1/4 inch up the side
• Mix the glaze completely before using it
• Re-mix the glaze between dips to ensure it has not begun to settle
• Dip no longer than 3 seconds on the first dip and less on the second
• Hold the piece upside down for the drips to fall back into the glaze bucket, this also pools the glaze towards the top rim of the piece instead of the bottom where it is more likely to run off the pot.
  
• Glaze should be the thickness of a postcard
• Using more than 3 colors on a piece can create stunning results or ugly browns and greens
• Use extreme caution double dipping the bottom 1/2 of the piece if using a runny glaze
• To minimize finger prints on the finished piece, wait until the piece is dry before handling (no longer shinny and without darker spots)
  
• Clean all glaze off waxed areas, from the bottom and 1/4 up the side of the piece.

Pully for lifting kiln lid

The hinge on my kiln never seemed to work correctly. After a few years of use, the kiln rings and lid were really showing wear from the torque of the lid mechanism.

Not sure what if others have had the same problem, here is what Stu did to fix it.



He made a pully system so I can crank the lid up and down.


















The crank on the wall



The crank ratchets which is fine for lifting the lid. In order to lower, I have to hold down the lever at the bottom. So Stu drilled a hole in and put the bungie cord on to keep it in the open position.

On the wall- he used a hinge and welded a piece of metel to it- that swings out to hold the handle so it can not turn on its own. It pushes against the wall, out of the way when raising.




Stu made the arm out of scrap metal and put pullies on it.


















Here you can see, we added one more handle to the lid and attached it with scrap metal and carabeaners.

Test Tile Extruder die

Here is the die I made to extrude test tile. Notice there are two cutouts, not only is it easier to push the clay out, it is twice as fast! The edges are not straight on purpose (really)the rough edge makes nice texture so we can see what the glaze will do.

It works great, I have over 450 waiting to go into the next bisque load.

Glaze Chemical Storage

I'm so lucky to have such a talented husband!

Shown is the chemical storage and glaze mixing area. Stu made the unit from scrap steel. He then used drawer slides for the shelves.


Each bin (rubbermaid ones I found on sale) is it's own shelve which pulls out for easy access.
The shelves about the work area contain oxides and colorants. Most of the containers are from the Dollar Store. The "disposable" ones from the grocery store also work well.

I like the digital postage type scale the best. I do use the triple bean for measureing small amounts, like 100 g test batches.

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Glaze Test Tiles

Seems that everyone who glazes at the studio wants to know what colors look like together. I just counted glaze buckets- there are 19 colors to choose from that means there are over 360 possible combinations... no wonder people get overwhelmed choosing glaze colors!

So, I have started the task of making test tiles.

The first time I made 'em, I used the extruder to push out 6 sided hallow forms then cut them 3" tall. The tiles were easy to make and showed the color well but, they take up a lot of space.

Currently, I throw a 10" wide bottomless cylinder about 3" tall with marks on one side for texture. Easy enough to throw yet, often times, it dries to much before I cut out the pieces.

So, the newest plan is to make a 3 inch "L" shaped die with built in texture for the extruder. All I will have to do is cut it every 1 1/2 inch. and put a hanging hole in the top.

I'll keep you posted with the progress!

Using Foam instead of Wax Resist

Chris, a potter from New Jersey, has been frequenting drop-in the past few months while he is staying with his sister in Truckee. He showed me how he learned to use a foam pad (consistency of a sponge) to wipe the bottoms of pieces on after glazing.

The idea is to glaze a piece, once the glaze is dry enough to lift with your hands, you push down and twist the piece back and forth on a moist piece of foam. The friction, caused by pushing and twisting, removes the glaze on bottom and up the side a little ways.

First we tried a fairly stiff piece of foam I had laying around the studio, it worked pretty well. Being it is on the stiff side, it only removed glaze about 1/8" up from the bottom. I love the straight line where the glaze has been removed. But, I want a little more clearance since many of my glazes can run and with drop-in pottery nights there are so many people using the glazes who are not failure with them.

Last night at drop-in, we tried foam from Wal-mart which is used for seat cushions. It is much easier to push down on but, does not remove the glaze as well. Some of the "testers" last night commented it took longer to then sponge off the glaze than dipping in hot wax.

I'll keep you posted on the results- last nights glaze pieces are in the kiln as I write this.

Let me know if you have tried something similar or other alternatives to using wax!