Hi Members—

A few things to share with you this month — upcoming Members Event focused on handbuilding, tips and tricks for cold weather, and some fun updates.

THE AUTUMN FEELING: TEMOKU

Our Temoku glaze fires at cone 6 in an electric kiln, and it carries more iron than the glass can hold. As the kiln cools, the extra iron comes out of the melt and settles on the surface. That’s where the color shifts come from. Where the glaze pools thick, it goes a deep, glossy black-brown. Where it thins over a rim, a handle or a carved edge, it breaks to rust and amber. The same pot can read black from across the room and red in your hand.

It’s a fluid glaze, so it moves in the kiln. Two dips give you the deepest black. One dip gives you brown with more rust at the edges. Keep it well above the foot.

It also plays well with others. Layered with our lighter glazes, the iron bleeds into the overlap and leaves a soft, warm line where the two meet.

MEMBER EVENT: HANDBUILDING TIPS & TRICKS

We’ve lately found ourselves with lots of questions on how to get handbuilding pieces to that last level of finish. What’s the best sponge to compress an edge? How to cut something down? At what points do I sand?

We’re hosting a free member class on tips and tricks. It will be an hour on the finishing work that turns a pot into a piece: rims, burnishing, sanding and clean cut edges. Bring something leather-hard or bone dry if you have one in progress.

This is best aimed at beginner and intermediate handbuilders, and wheel throwers. 

Sunday, November 1

1:30pm-2:30pm

Free

COLD WEATHER CLAY

The studio runs cooler in the fall, and the clay changes with it.

Cold water is thicker, and clay is mostly water. Expect stiffer clay out of the bag. Wedge longer than usual to warm it up and restore plasticity. Use warm water in your throwing bucket.

Drying takes longer. A mug that was ready to trim in two days this summer now needs three or four. Check your pieces before planning a trimming night, and give handles and attachments extra time to firm up before joining them.

Glazes thicken too. A standard dip in cold glaze leaves a heavier coat. Stir thoroughly and dip faster. Tenmoku in particular runs when applied heavy.

Wedge more. Wait longer. Dip faster.

THE DAMP ROOM

Two hundred square feet of the best humidity in a city where the fog has a name: Karl. Pots love the humidity. Pots also get forgotten in it as you keep making new work.

A few rules so your pots can make it to the kiln:

Label and date every piece on the ware board or bat. Not on the plastic sheets.  We re-use the plastic and multiple names on one sheet can be confusing.

Once a month, our studio techs do a sweep of the damp room.  If they find pieces that are untrimmed and bone dry, we’ll move them to the purge shelf.

After one week on the purge shelf, we’ll do a second sweep at recycle all pieces still abandoned on the purge shelf.

Planning to be away for a while? Double wrap your piece and leave us a note with a return date on it.

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: JOLENE’S

At 7:56am on Tuesday, October 13, a pickup truck and an SUV collided at 16th and Harrison, and the SUV spun backwards into the front entrance of Jolene’s, right below us. Its airbags deployed, and the driver left by ambulance.  

Our cleaner was in the studio and heard the impact.  She heard it across the studio and ran over to the window to see what had happened.

The impact smashed in the lower part the entryway at Jolene’s, exposing a wooden beam, and left debris across the entrance and into the street. The security gate was destroyed.

Jolene’s is open and operating Thursday through Saturday.

See you soon,

Ashley + Daniel