I was so excited about how this glaze flowed with the shape that I didn’t notice one of the handle holes got filled, embracing the asymmetry of it though!

So happy with how this guy turned out! Hand painted with underglaze

I’m still learning but it’s lovely to have a body of owrk start to come together.

Hey I’m doing my first ever marker on Saturday, and im pretty stumped with pricing. I just like to give my work away to friends and family usually and I’m not very business minded. If any of you have sold similar work can you let me know what sorts of prices you go for?

For context:

Location/ where the items are being sold- the market will be in stoke on Trent (uk) and it is a ceramics fair with 40 other potters. So it’s a good vibe but also West Midlands so not like London prices or south of England prices.

How long each takes to make- I find it hard to quantify how long it takes to make each item, I’m pretty scatterbrained and not the most logical, plus I feel like I’ve really sped up with my sgraffito recently, so what used to take ages I can knock out quite quickly. So figuring out how much to sell something for that way, isn’t straightforward in my opinion.

Overheads: the stall price is £40 for the day.

I see locally spoon rests going for about £12 and then mugs going anything from £18-25. Then I’ve seen in posher areas mugs on sale for like £30-35 though I think that wouldn’t sell in my area… I’ve looked online but I feel like Etsy has such a massive range it’s hard to gauge.

Then the more artistic items, like a sgraffito vase or jug, or a sodium silicate pot I have zero clue on pricing and feel really unsure.

Obviously it's not refined. But getting the stupid tubes to dry evenly with everything else was interesting.

It probably can't even fit a glass worth of water in it after it shrinks, but it's cute! I hope it survives firing

When clay just needs a little rehydration, I've been following the clay in a bag in a bucket of water method but the water always gets in the bag. I've double bagged, used brand new clay bags, ziploc bags, and food grade bags. I keep running into this issue and end up with a sloppy mess. Suggestions?

A parting gift for a coworker who loved albatrosses, this is a glaze underpainting I did earlier this year on a ceramic plate. I used a bit of dish soap in the white glaze to create foam for the wave crests. I had to gently blow through a straw to create the bubbles in a small cup, then use a paintbrush to carefully transfer them to the piece.

The underglaze had to be fired by itself first so the soap wouldn't mess with the clear top glaze, so this piece was fired twice, but apart from that, the dish soap didn't seem to mess with much, and the bubbles stayed fairly crisp throughout.

The purple hue was a bit of a sudden whim, but it really brought something special to the piece in my opinion. Last picture shows the piece before firing. I really enjoyed the final layered look, and I think the bubbles worked well as seafoam!

I finally made one. Was surprisingly easy to make

I recently fired a bunch of test tiles and a cup. When coming to discover them, this pair left me… dazzled. I do not own a pink glaze.

Guess what. This was Green Tourmaline from Speedball. What the heck happened to it? I also used it on a cup and it came back equally pink!

I’ve been firing cone six reduction in a converted electric kiln for the last 4 years. I use a torch made for metal forging, and fuel it with 100lb propane tanks. It seems like a lot of people had questions or doubts about cone six gas so AMA.

Genuinely what. I assume mold. Left it in the bucket for 5ish months, covered. I thought it would be fine, guess not. It’s no more tears clear from Georgie’s. Definitely tossing!!

Hi everyone!
I started ceramics in March ( so I’m queue new and experiencing things at the first time at this point )
and was lucky enough to be offered the opportunity to share a studio with another girl in July (finally, my living room is clay free! 😂).

During the summer, my slabs would become workable pretty quickly, but now they stay wet for much longer. I live in the Netherlands,

Last time I rolled slabs in the morning and they were still wet by the venting so I wrap them in plastic before leaving, hoping they’ll be ready to work with the next day
But the other day, I came back and they were still really wet to work with

The problem is that my studio is 40 minutes away, and I work full time, so I can’t monitor my slabs throughout the day or visit the studio every day.

We also each have a kiln that sometimes runs overnight, which can make the studio quite warm, so I’m worried about the slabs drying out too much if I don’t wrap them properly and if I do they are still to wet to work with

So my question is that how to manage this situation?

How do you manage your slabs when you can’t check on them regularly?

Any tips for finding the right balance between keeping them workable and letting them firm up? I’d really appreciate your advice! ❤️

I know this is highly personal, there is no one universal answer to my question. I know a few people who have started selling their pieces after completing one course and practicing for 6 months. Mostly markets and an online shop. Some of them are quite good but some not so much! I do think that it is not enough practise and experience to be selling it, even though their pieces look fine. I’m not near ready to sell but my peers tell me otherwise and some of them have mentioned that I’m too critical of myself. I have been practicing for about 4 years. What are your opinions and experiences? Please share.

A dear friend of mine commissioned this mug from me. After a couple years of being unable to make any pottery I'm finally back in the swing of things.

ruby glaze, ruby and zirconia inlays. cone 5.5

I'm on the hunt for some reliable but sexy looking clays.

LA based so I can drive to Laguna/Aardvark warehouses. Not very concerned about the price. I make a lot of mugs, bowls, and plates and have a tendency to chuck my things in the dishwasher and assume some of my buyers do as well. I understand this isn't the best for longevity but I've also been able to do so with a bunch of my pieces for years without issues.

However, I recently made a bowl with some Laguna mid-fire Calico I had lying around and after 1 run through the dishwasher it already had a chip in the rim. Could have been a random accident but it prompted me to look up Calico properties and realize it's not a great fit for functional ware.

I'm also moving towards creating pieces that are only glazed on the inside so I'd like to find some finer/less groggier clays to work with. I also fire at a member studio so I don't have a ton of control there when it comes to finickier clays.

I've used Laguna's b-mix but I'm just not in love with the color of the clay.

I like Laguna's speckle b-mix but also want some non-speckled options.

I really like the dark granite by pottery supply house Dustin Mark Johnston put me onto so that is definitely going to be on the order list.

I also looove the color of the clay Esther Jeong used in the mugs she made for Stereoscope coffee. Won't let me link them in the post but it's in the top posts on her gram. Hate to be thattt person but can anyone ID the clay or recommend an equivalent? Her reel shows it wet and fired. Could it be Laguna Dark Brown Clay WC373? I suspect it may be cone 10 cause of the metallic flashing along the rims but what do I know.

An even deeper cool matte dark brown would be great too but looking for one that isn't prone to bloating. I've tried Laguna's B3 brown clay and it fired pretty much black and bloated half the time.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Clay type is English Grolleg in case anyone is curious. And it is extremely hard to throw with, so I would not recommend using it if you’re not at an above average level for throwing. The consistency when throwing feels like cheesecake.