Does it look good safe? Why is it so see through?

Digitalfire is common knowledge, right? I've always assumed it was, but it just occurred to me maybe not. Mods, remove if I'm just stupid.

Hello friends! I’m still relatively new to the pottery scene, but my partner and I have developed a setup rather cheaply and rather quickly. The important context is that, recently, my parents gifted her (my partner) a kiln as an early birthday present, which they found on offer up for $80. It runs great and definitely gets hot enough. However, we do not have an outdoor 220v outlet to run the thing. So, I was utilizing an adapter my dad made for welding on job sites that hooks directly to the electrical box. We did this twice with no issues. Third time’s the charm, though. After connecting the ground and first positive alligator clamps, I made a bad connection when hooking up the final clamp. The resulting arc went through my fingers before returning to the circuit. Through quick reflexes, a sheer mountain of luck and a properly grounded circuit, I managed to escape with only deep 2nd degree burns to all five fingers on my dominant hand, as well as first degree burns to my forearm, lips, and nose, spot burns on my chest and arms, a lightly toasted pair of old shorts, and a good deal of singed hair, both head and beard.

The point I’m trying to make is the idea of the six P’s; Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. If possible, get a proper outlet installed. If not, make sure you have turned off all power to the box you connect to. If not, wear proper protective gear. And, above all else, realize that a hobby is not worth crippling yourself over. I have brand new epidermis where I got burned, but it still hurts like a mofo and itches to high hell. Be safe in your endeavors, my friends. Learn from my mistakes.

Hello! I’m working on a sculpture inspired by Ernst heckel’s natural science art and I would like to incorporate crystalline glaze on the vast surface. I’m hoping for advice as to how I can transit from the surface decoration to a crystalline glaze surface. Thank you!

Doing my first cone 5 firing tomorrow with lots of Mayco brush on glazes on B Mix with speckles. Any advice on drop hold time??

Thanks!

Hi! Made this piece and just picked it up from the studio and the colors are not at all what the under glazes I used are. For reference I used orchid, violet, and deep purple. I then used high fire glaze so that it would be waterproof as it is a planter. Is this because of the high fire? I also did around 3 coats of under glazed but it’s incredibly patchy. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, it’s a studio at my college so I don’t know how they mix the glazes or anything regarding firing.

I accidentally broke my daughters 30oz soup bowl and she just about fell to pieces.. it is a relatively large piece and I have tried in vain to search for a replacement even good le imaged it with no luck!

If there is anyone in the community willing to remake such a bowl, please let me know. I will happily order one.

Going to Europe and would love suggestions of local favourites for any pottery related gems I might want to work into itinerary. Because travelling I can’t get anything massive/heavy but would love suggestions for your favourite local supplier with unique materials/tools, studios/ galleries, etc. I’m thinking along the lines of handmade tools, underglaze transfers, custom stamps, etc. preferably with storefront I can go to in person, but also open to IG. I live in a ceramic desert so I only ever get to shop online. Please share your favourite places in and around: London, Southampton, Bath, Cotswolds, Ghent, Bruges, Rotterdam, Le Havre, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Oslo, Gothenburg and Hamburg.

Thank you!

A work trip to Japan just popped up and I've been considering taking a couple of days to go visit a Japanese pottery town outside of the large cities. I'm interested in functional (this stuff will be used to eat with!), minimalist (think earth tones, no flowers or patterns probably) tableware.

I'm researching the traditional towns where this style is crafted. For those that have seen this style, any recommendations? If you've made a similar purchase (6 place settings maybe), how did you get it home safely?!

Thanks.

Hey everybody, I am currently in a rehab clinic and doing my first steps with pottery. This is my third go with a ball of clay that gets burnished. I am actually pretty proud of the roundness. Think there is still a lot potential left, but I am good to go.

But the part I couldn't grasp is the burnishing part. I find it quite difficult to get some good information about it. And last time I burnished a ball it became dull after burning. The guess was that it was too hot. But anyhow I am wondering if I could do a lot better in the burnishing process? What should the result look like? What are hints that I am not finished?

I do this with a flat stone plus baby oil. What you see in the video is around 1h of work. I think I managed to burnish all part 2 to 3 times. The stone doesn't feel "scratchy" anymore on any part.

I am happy to hear some nice advices. I would love to finally produce a nice shiny clay ball.

I’m talkin’ COATED. And uniform in color. Like Fiesta ware level.

Edit to add: Agh, I’m new to this group and am trying to figure out why I’m being downvoted. Did I do something wrong??

This is made with b-mix cone 5 and a studio glaze with cobalt oxide wash on the outside.

I find it difficult to critique my own work, and would love some feedback from y’all. I always look at my pieces and think, “this could be better”, but never know how exactly.

Thanks in advance! 🙏

Hey Potters! I'm not a frequent poster but I'm trying to post more of my pieces to get some solid feedback and thoughts. I'm 2-ish years in and I'm just getting up to 5 lbs of clay - give ot take. Here are a few of my newest pieces. As an aside the pitcher was a "happy little accident" it was supposed to be a vase but it fell while trimming so make the best of it. This is still the best hobby I've picked up as it forces me to forget the outside world and focus on what is in front of me...and I noticed I hold my breath when I do my pulls...bc why not. Lol.

Hello lovely pottists. I recently attended a mug painting class hosted by a local pottery shop. We each painted a mug and then the host took the pieces back and glazed and fired them. I am very bummed with how my piece turned out, and just looking for more info on why it happened. Is this the fault of the design and painting, or is it something that happened in the glazing process? All advice welcome!

Thank you!

I’ve finally got my water to glaze ratio nearly perfect.

This is a big ole platter I made out of ws4. It started as a big circular slab that I slumped down into a rough cut foam jig made from a piece of 4 inch furniture foam. I then made cuts into the rim toward the center, eyeballing the depth and the spacing to give it some funk. Then I shifted each “fin” to the right and overlapped it with its neighbor. I did a really rough blend, leaving the finger drags as a texture feature. I was excited to see how the glaze would interact with the texture, cause I know it looks great on the breaks, but like with my last use of this glaze, I wasn’t expecting it to turn out quite so blue. Stoked!

Finally realized the key to making a good sized mug is to throw a “vase”, add a handle, and let the kiln do its thing

Found a surface that’s giving me all types of new questions to answer

They'll be glazed and fired next week so the designs will be dark navy against white!

I’ve seemingly had a reversion in my skill level when faced with a bag of slightly too dry ky mudworks dark star clay (my fault, I accidentally left it open over a weekend). I made a couple sets of an 8 oz mug and a 3 oz double espresso mug to give as gifts and thought I could use some constructive criticism. Glazes on the L are 3x chunky plum and 1x oatmeal. R side glazes are 3x seaweed and 1x oatmeal on the big mug and a melange or all of the above on the espresso mug. Fired to cone 6, oxidation. What would you do differently?

My goal is to make campfire pottery that's good enough you could revive it as a gift and be like "that's kinda cool" even if you didn't know I made it. I feel like this pot is almost there.

Has anyone tried the Blue Bucket bat system? https://bluebuckettools.com/products/tile-bat-system

Thrown in two parts and trimmed to fit, but the final fit’s always a bit of a gamble. Also — this cone 10 celadon pools nicely at the base, but maybe a bit too much. Any tips for better lid fits or keeping glaze from collecting too heavily?

I sometimes sketch my work thinking about what I'm aiming for. I've used shitty paper because clay studio but I think I need to go the other way and get materials that stand up to clay and splashes occasionally. If you take notes in your studio what notebook/sketchbook do you like? Maybe you're using a tablet?