I’m consistently unhappy with my handles. I often get tiny cracks - see next to the otter’s feet - even when I wrap them, make sure the clay body is a similar dryness to the handle, I slip and score and spend absolutely ages attaching them. I’ve had some success adding more clay when attaching but it creates a bulky shape and takes absolutely ages. I’ve never had one break off and it doesn’t seem structurally to be an issue, I subject them to heavy home use to test, but I’m gently working to getting towards a point where I can sell and right now I feel it’s really letting my mugs down - and also it takes ages and that’s not sustainable for selling either.

TL;DR if you’re really pleased with your handle shapes and the results, what’s your process please? 🙏🏻

This is probably going to sound like a really stupid question.

For any background, my grandfather had a kiln. He did mostly slip molds. I grew up going over to his house, picking a random fired item off his shelf, 'painting' it, and picking it up the next time I was over there. Like my own "Paint Your Own" pottery place.

I loved it.

I have an idea for something, but it has an odd question.

The thing I am thinking of making has been referred to both as being "grey clay" and "porcelain". It's a fantasy item.

There's also a thing about some of it being iridescent.

My question is simple, but also may be stupid.

If I make something out of clay and cover it in porcelain slip (I know there are shrinkage issues, I got that far in looking stuff up) is there any translucence in the porcelain slip?

If I put a design on the clay with glazes (paints, but I know they're not called that) and then cover it with porcelain slip, will any of the design show through, even slightly?

I know that porcelain itself has some translucency, just wondering it any of that holds true if using the slip as 'paint' to cover another design.

I had three, but unfortunately knocked the best looking one over onto the floor. Clay is New Mexico Ironstone

You may remember me from a previous post where I moaned about everyone talking politics in my community studio, the costs being high for what I was getting out of the membership, and just feeling torn on what I should do.

Brought home all my glazes and tools from the community studio. Brought home clay I hadn’t gotten around to using. Hubby and I set up a small space in our basement. I have a couple of other tools on order. Have a bucket system in place. Will fire my greenware at a nearby studio that rents out kiln space, but am planning to save up to splurge on a small kiln in the future.

Spent the last couple of hours hand-building a footed bowl while listening to soft jazz and the Digger movie soundtrack. 🪏

I wish I had done this a lot sooner.

Spent 5-6 hours making these yesterday in one sitting because I wanted to practice trimming. Took inspiration from how Florian Gadsby does his trimming. If you haven’t heard of him, do yourself a favor and go to his YouTube channel. The first 3 bowls are made with WSO clay and the last one was made with Bmix. Lmk if you think there is anything else I could do to perfect “the bowl.”

These are both gifts - the osprey mug depicts a scene with special meaning, and the belted kingfisher is the recipient's favorite bird. It is driving me up the wall that I accidentally dripped a tiny bit of the liner glaze on the kingfisher's face but I'm trying to accept the imperfection. Constructive criticism always appreciated!

i’ll never beat this i fear

Okay so wanting to see which brown would best emulate this like fawn color brown, definitely leaning towards the more rich dark brown! These are the underglazes I picked up. Terracotta, chocolate brown, and spice brown

First time throwing with porcelain this glaze didn’t do what I thought it would do. High school art student btw so please be nice!

Hey, I love my telescopic sponge, but I've never changed it until now. It seems to be stuck and not able to be removed/replaced. This is one that has the screw threads inside. It just spins around and I can't get it to do anything else. If anyone has advice, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks

I wiped the bisque fired piece and let dry before glazing and it still turned out this way. Looking for some tips? Too thin, too thick?

Cone 10 if that matters.

Long shot, but I am moving from the east coast of the US to the PNW. I know we have many wood fire options where I currently live, but as I’m searching for some in the PNW area, I’m seeing way less than expected. Anyone know of any options in the area? Thank you!

This is probably a stupid question but I accidentally got a drop of a different glaze onto a piece I had already finished glazing. It’s part of a set so I want it to look roughly the same as the others and I don’t want to have to wipe it all off and deglaze it from scratch if possible. Is there an easy way to remove the drip? Like maybe just wiping away gently with a sponge and putting a dab of its own glaze back over it?

I never learned how to properly glaze because my teacher wasn’t the best, but I still have access to the studio and their glazes and am trying to finish glazing some final pieces.

Any ideas as to why this is happening?

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?

What’s your favourite slipcast Christmas ornament mold? I have a few Alberta Student molds but want to branch out. Do you haveany recommendations?

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! ❤️

My pumpkin glaze was a disaster. This was my tester so I'm wondering if anyone has advice before I try again

I fully dipped my bisque in a light runny glaze for 3 seconds

Only dipped the top half in a non runny darker glaze for like 2 seconds

Then I dipped in a clear glaze for 3 seconds

All glaze was fully dry before dips

I used eco clay (studio reclaim) and fired at cone 6

Why did it turn out so patchy? There's even patches that seem to have no glaze on them

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!