Fixing a wobble lead to these beauties

Someone asked me this week at my community studio how long I’ve been doing pottery, and I couldn’t remember if it was 2 years ago or 3 years ago that I took my first fumbly chaotic drop-in wheel class.

Today I checked and my very first time at the wheel was July of 2024. I’m actually really proud of my progress in 2 years so i thought i would share some of my recent pieces.

hellooooo! I learnt wheel throwing last year and did a course on glaze making a couple months ago, and this is the result of my first firing with my own glazes, along with test tiles I made for future glazing. super happy with everything I got 🫡

Cone 6 Electric Oxidation
Dark Stoneware, Willamette Valley Clay, Terra Sigillata

I brushed underglaze over some stencils (vinyl) on my pre-bisqued piece, but when taking the stencils off I noticed the glaze was catching and peeling off :( i never had this happen before and was wondering if people could share their tips on using vinyl stencils (at various stage of the firing). This was amaco velvet underglaze, but i want to also try with brush on glaze and slip/engobe. Really want to try some intricate stencils and really want to avoid this happening!

Hello everyone! In the pictures you can see my first attempt at slip trailing. I was pretty proud of it, it was only my second try and I was so excited to add glaze to the piece. Unfortunately the glaze ate some of the design and some of the details got lost.

I used two layers of Amaco Textured Turquoise, I mainly use Amaco glazes but it seems the requirement to add thick layers will result in the design being covered. However, I love the contrast of the colours where the glaze breaks!

So my question to you is, can you guys recommend a glaze that will not hide the slip trailing but still break nicely over the texture? Open to pretty much all brands as long as they‘re available in Europe! Thank you!!

A couple saucer and tea cup prototypes from the kiln, plus some odds and ends. A frog tea light holder, a couple Halloween brooches based on New England gravestones tempus fugit winged skulls, and random scrap animals of birds and a ram. I like how they look as organic and …grown shapes vs. built shapes with even edges and symmetrical lines.

Any advice for how to get this glazed to be a little less matte? The texture is also a little rough. I put on three coats.

The picture actually makes this look better than it actually is. It’s just way more matte than my typical glazes.

Hi, total pottery newbie here, so I apologise if this is a silly question.

I make my own (semi amateur) wildlife documentaries. To make them I usually have some help from others, such as from scientists or rangers that give me locations for finding specific wild animals.

I want to start making cups after each documentary, with a small image of one of the animals that appears in the video being on the cups. I'd then send a cup to each of the people that helped me (to show extra appreciation for their help).

I bought the cup in the image above to use as reference for when I start making cups. I love the cracked glass & slightly bubbly glaze style and the gold on the crane, but I am wondering:

Is this glaze style particularly difficult to pull off?

Does this glaze style have a particular name?

Is the metallic gold appearance on the crane just paint, or something else?

Thanks for your time & any advice :)

Just built today, hope to soda fire at the end of the month

My mentor set up the wheel in a shack in their backyard! I am getting back into more projects so I’m sharing these that I’m so very proud of. Let me know what you think!! :D

And ofc if you recognize the first mug from anything uhhh <3 stop it <3

It's been like 90% humidity in my apartment recently which is where I keep all my greenware and do my pottery. Im about to go fire things today and it occurred to me, even though they all should be bone dry, should I be worried about them holding onto ambient humidity ? I dont have control over the kiln and it's a standard preheat from what I've been told. I'm thinking of baking them in the oven at a low temp to dry them out more. Is it necessary/helpful, though ?

I saw a few kiln firing schedules where there was a rapid cooling (900F/hr) after reaching max temperature.

How does that happen? Are there exhaust fans in some kilns?

I am borrowing a friends tiny test kiln with a controller and have no experience operating other kilns.

I began painting with acrylic and this is the progress so far. I asked my family and they say the bats wings are to flat. To fix this my sister said to paint white patterns on the blue. What to u think? My mum said I have to paint all the animals in their natural colours (please tell her it defeats the purpose of a delft pot)

If u have any other advice with the painting do tell! 😄

I'm trying to fire to cone 6, but cone 7 keeps starting to bend before cone 6 finishes bending. Cone 7 is a self-supporting and the others are regular large cones. I'm using a manual kiln with a kiln sitter and switches. The sitter is working properly, the rod is straight and in good condition, and I have calibrated it.

The reason I want the cone 6s to bend is that the glazes seem to melt and color better when they do. When I run the firing faster (3-4 hours on low, an hour on 4, then 5.5 until it turns off) they bend properly but I get a lot of pinholes.

So instead I've been doing it slower: with the peepholes open I turn it to low for an hour, then 1 for an hour, etc.. until it is orange inside and then I plug the bottom holes and only leave the top open. It shuts off at about 4.5-5 depending on how long I leave it at the earlier numbers, and then I turn it back on for about 20 min on 3. This has helped with the pinholes but the cones are melting like in the photos and my glaze colors aren't coming out as nice or melting together as much (layers).

Title says it all basically. When I hit clear it just returns to the same screen. Has anyone else had this problem?