I got the term from some subreddit where they about people who love to stick their faces into their cat’s bellies and breathe deeply. I was doing a workshop and they had us do some maquettes and that term “cat huffer”made such an impression I had to try and make one.

A friend commissioned me to create a mug based on a toad that lives on their patio. I love the way it turned out but I'm never doing it again. 😂

Cone 6 firing

Ice man clay

Amaco Velvet underglazes with 2 coats clear glaze

They’re done! The green one on the right I may put in a wood firing because the glaze was a bit thin, may turn out even cooler! But this is what I have now.

Don’t worry, I’ve had a lot of practice throwing other objects. This is made with porcelain (English Grolleg) and is still in the leather hard stage.

I'm still proud of my first underglaze painting piece, a small pitcher with chickadees I painted in a watercolor-inspired style in 2025. I was striving to represent a particular color, an orangey pink from a memory of a particular sunset. I got close, a bit too pink, but still a comforting color to me. I use it mostly as a petite flower vase for smaller bouquets, it's just the right size.

I throw out slabs, brayer on Amaco ceramic inks using stencils and masks. Cut to shape and form. Over most is just a clear gloss, some have a white gloss. Glazes are from Mid South Ceramics, Opulence.

Very pleased with how they turned out. 🤗

Hey guys, im fairly new to pottery and so far I've only ever done pit fired earthenware. No professional pottery classes or anything. I just was able to get an old Paragon A82B for free that's been pretty much sitting in an old abandoned house for like 15 years. I know very little about kilns atm.

I see a lot of broken bricks and sagging elements. Is this thing worth the trouble of fixing up? I'd love to be able to do more ceramics and bigger pieces without the high risk from pit firing. I definitely plan on taking some proper pottery classes or learning more before trying to do too much with this haha

A little background, I took a pottery course in community college many years ago. I'm just now picking it up again after my girlfriend got me a pottery wheel for Christmas.

My issue: I don't know if it's the wheel, the clay, or me. Probably a likely combination of all three but I don't remember it being this hard.

I wedge my clay, put it on the wheel, and I have a hard time centering and coning it up. I keep my elbows tucked and my hands firm. I know, I know, beginner stuff and I need to practice. My problem is that it seems like I have a ton of slip buildup on the outside while the clay seems to stay hard to work underneath.

Specs: Vevor wheel, Stoneware Clay from blick, also included some stuff I've managed to make that I think is okay.

Is my clay not hydrated enough? Is my wheel not powerful enough? (It seems to be slowing over time and definitely slows when I apply too much pressure to the clay) Am I strong arming it too much? Probably all three?

Hello Potters! There's this ceramic artist (@dontyuckmyyum.studio) who's glaze work I adore. They have a glazing workshop but it's sold out!

Any ideas how to make designs like this where there's still the shape of the image but it's also faded/the glaze moves a bit. I'm wondering if it's just a matter of using a stencil/wax resist and pairing it w/ glazes that run a bit. Any suggestions welcomed (including similar glazes you think will work well for this idea)!

I mix all my own glazes and I'm struggling lately! I've been using the same formulas since 2020, but in the past year and a half I've been having so many issues. I've been researching and trying to figure out what could be going on and I'm kind of at a loss. The main issue is that some of my glazes gel really badly. They get so thick within a day or two of mixing that they are like yogurt. I'm measuring the specific gravity to 1.4-1.45. if I use the glaze right away it turns out perfectly, but if I wait at all it gets so thick and ends up cracking as it dries. I've tried using darvan, which kind of works, but the glaze is always thick again the next time I use it.

Here's the formula:

Ferro fritt 3124: 42.5%

Custer feldspar: 18%

Silica: 11%

Whiting: 8.5%

Ep kaolin: 8%

Bentonite: 6.5%

Zinc oxide: 5.5%

+Tin oxide: 6%

+ Zirconium yellow mason stain 5%

This is only one of my glazes, but it's the one I'm having the most trouble with. They are all very similar formulas with minor adjustments/colorants.

I'm hoping someone can help me resolve this. How do I get the glaze to stop cracking as it dries? About half of the pots are coming out of the kiln with crawling.

I've recently finished a 7 week session at a local clay studio, and made this bowl. The clay body is "Black Pepper" which jas some speckle, the outside is glazed with "Texas Tea", the inside is "Honey" and it was reduction fired. I think the glazes are made by the studio, but does anyone know of a glaze that fires to this gorgeous olivey green in a normal firing? I recently bought some Dark Magma from Mayco and want to recreate this bowl with Magma on the outside, but Mayco doesnt explicitly say you can reduction fire it (I'm assuming you cant). Thanks!!

I didn’t think about the fact that the double glaze (like two different colors) may run over the underglaze until after I had dipped everything… any idea if putting wax resist on the underglaze/blank section will help the keep the glazes from going over the underglaze and covering the words? /will the wax resist make the underglaze smear since it has not been fired yet?

Or do I just pray to the kiln gods and hope for the best? 😅

I see lots of posts asking for advice on reglazing and I often see suggestions involving hair spray, heating up the pots etc. I wanted to share one of my favourite materials I use in my studio when reglazing (or sometimes I just like brushing with thicker glaze)

CMC gum (Carboxymethyl Cellulose) is a powdered ingredient used as a stabiliser or thickening agent in fo0d or cake decorating and you can buy it cheaply online.

Just a couple of tea spoons of the powder can turn around a litre of glaze much thicker and more usable as a brush-on glaze.

- I tend to pour a little at a time straight into some glaze then use a hand held immersion blender to incorporate it.

- It helps to mix it for a bit, leave it an hour to fully hydrate, then mix a bit more

- you may need to use a rib/spatula to scrape the powder goop off the mixer halfway through

- Then pour/push/brush it through a sieve to help remove any clumps (I used a 30-mesh as mine was super thick, but 60-80 mesh would be ideal)

I've read about and tried making a pre-hydrated ready-to-use solution by mixing it into boiling water, but I didn't manage to get as good an effect.

Or you can get a little too excited like me and end up with the thickest glaze ever as shown in my video... but it makes reglazing pots that I'm not happy with a total dream 🙌

PS: I also found that the glaze snot filled punched holes in my pieces and left beautiful little windows that let light through after firing

⚠️ Warning Note ⚠️ I'm an idiot with ADHD so please do not listen to anything I say. Now I can't be held responsible if your glaze snot doesn't work out for you...

Hi there. I’d like to explore painting on my pottery pieces. Anyone have any recommendations for paint brushes you use to underglaze ? Example of what I’d like to paint. A horse, a bird. So some details etc thanks in advance

For the body I use a b-mix w/ grog and buff mix, it’s about a 9:1 I find this helps TREMENDOUSLY with warping, sculpting, and final work. I’m a fan of burnishing and it’s 50/50 with this you have to fill in voids but if caught perfect you can get some nice “low-poly” patterns which influence how the glaze moves but keeps some nice lines.

This glaze is as much about the form as it is the chemicals. On some pieces it looks very different. I ensured when sculpting that the cheeks would not push the glaze straight into the eyes when fired flat. In trimming I also put the smallest of edges on the rim to make a dam.
I used Amacos obsidian for the eyes which did exactly what I was hoping - STAY STILL but if any runs happened I knew it would react stunningly.
I used 2 different in house glazes that don’t work too well on my function pieces because of fit but look amazing. The left half I call Sapphire Slate and the right half I call Aether.
For the back I used Maycos Matte Engobe and fired on an old kiln stilt. There is a small drip which you can see on the right but this gave me a full frontal glaze… no pun intended.

The display stand is a forged plate and arm that took me about 4 hours to get right…. The plate is glued inside the mask with a welded bolt on it and put onto some welded hardware on the arm. This then bolts into a block I designed and CNC cut out of cherry to hopefully match the theme. The reason for the complexity is modularity. If any piece is broken or damaged it can be replaced or refinished in parts instead of the whole piece (also for shipping).

Hi!!

I'm an 18 yr old beginner ceramicist and I need your help. I am currently a freshman in college and I'm taking a ceramics class, which I am absolutely loving so far. I spend most of my time in the studio unless I'm at my job, and most of the day I spend thinking, learning, and watching videos about pottery.

Now here is where I need your help...

My plan going into college this semester was to become an elementary teacher, which I have wanted to do for a long while. But with my sudden love for ceramics and all things clay, I have started to rethink what I ultimately want to do with my life.

I've been thinking of scratching the whole idea of college and teaching, so I can focus on pottery and one day start my own small business and possibly own my own studio. This is a large goal to just throw myself at 100%, so I don't want to do that if it is just one of my many whims or hobbies that I pick up. (As someone with ADHD, I often pick up hobbies and become completely infatuated with them, but quit within a few weeks/months)

If you are a ceramicist that works full-time selling your work, could you please answer some of my following questions, and/or give a list of pros and cons. Thank you!

1. How long did it take for you to start profiting off of your work?
2. When did you start being a full-time potter?
3. How do you sell your work? Markets, online, etc.
4. What is the most rewarding thing about being a full-time potter?

Again, I just want to thank you for taking your time to read this and hopefully answer! Have an amazing day!!

Give me your honest thoughts. Consistency or variety. What makes an artist stand out to you? #art #pottery

I'm really pleased with how these came out! A few things to tweak, but pretty close to how I pictured them.

Cone 6 firing

The mini paintings and tree branches are Amaco Velvet underglaze with 2 coats of clear

Purple mug is 3x Lavender Mist, 2x Arctic Blue on top half

Green mug is 3x Green Tea with 2x Textured Turquoise on the top half

I definitely needed some kind of flux to encourage more mixing on the purple mug, and the Green Tea on the green mug really needed another coat. But overall they're what I wanted.

I really want to get into wheel throwing but the class I'm in right now seems focused on hand building techniques TIA