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Biggest blunders?



 
 
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  #21  
Old September 14th 04, 02:29 AM
W_D_Great_Divider
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Ok, I haven't posted because I have been trying to think what of all the
blunders I have had I could move to the level of the "biggest". Well I had
it today and I'm still kicking myself. I have been making glazed since
almost day one. Chemistry was a class I was always comfortable with and the
work of making glazes seemed simple beyond thought to me.

Today I was using a triple beam Ohaus scale to make up 10,000 gms of glaze.
I had never used this scale but it seemed straight forward and easy. I hung
a 1000 gm weight on the end and started measuring out glazes. The studio
was busy with people in and out so while I was being very careful about
writing down each measure and the ingredient I was only half conscious of
how things 'looked' and 'felt' and it has been awhile since I have made up
glazes. Things seemed wrong in that the measures seemed far greater in
volume than they should be and by the time I had all of the ingredients
measured out I had half of a 5 gallon bucket filled with dry ingredients. I
thought 'this cannot be right. Something is wrong.' I then zeroed out the
scale, put a 500gm weight in the bucket and then hung a 500gm weight on the
arm. The arm did not budge. I added another 500gm and then another into
the bucket. I have no idea what is going on but I sure in hell have a bunch
of dry material that there is no way I can now make any use of.


"alistair" wrote in message
om...
lids on, lids off, I don't know. I once fired a teapot, very happy
with it I was. Glazed on the inside, glazed halfway down on the
outside, wood fired, came out of the kiln looking lovely. one small
problem......... all the holes I'd spent time drilling in the body
before fixing the spout, all glazed up! I inserted a screwdriver down
the spout and tapped gently a few times. It split neatly down the
middle!

all the best,
Alistair.



"W_D_Great_Divider" wrote in message
.net...
I have never known anyone to fire a pot without the lid on (to keep the
pot
and lid from warping out of fit). Perhaps the piece was fired to fast
and
or their was still moisture in the pot....


"Lcdumas" wrote in message
...
I blew up a very nice pot by firing it with the lid on...

Linda D in TX



Ads
  #22  
Old September 14th 04, 04:50 AM
W_D_Great_Divider
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Have you ever convinced yourself that you're wrong when you're right. Well
as I'm looking at the weights closer I see a second smaller number on one of
them that is far less than the larger value. My husband (bless his totally
non-spatial, verbal brain) points out that leverage may be the issue. So
sure enough when I put on the 500gm weight to the arm, use other weights
(bless my father-in-law who collected antique weights) to 500gms in the
bucket it actually weights out correctly. So the smaller value on the
weight is the actual weight (which checked true), while the larger value is
what it adjust the scale to measure (hope that made sense).... I am still
baffled by there being such an incredibly large amount of dry material that
will have to be slaked into just a 1/3 - 1/2 of the 5 gallon bucket of water
(I used to mix up large trash cans of glaze and the volume ratio looks
entire different)... So this may be my most embarrassing moment (not
really) but isn't my biggest blunder (but it is the experience that made me
feel the worse at the time since I was doing this for a friend and not
myself)...

"W_D_Great_Divider" wrote in message
t...
Ok, I haven't posted because I have been trying to think what of all the
blunders I have had I could move to the level of the "biggest". Well I
had it today and I'm still kicking myself. I have been making glazed
since almost day one. Chemistry was a class I was always comfortable with
and the work of making glazes seemed simple beyond thought to me.

Today I was using a triple beam Ohaus scale to make up 10,000 gms of
glaze. I had never used this scale but it seemed straight forward and
easy. I hung a 1000 gm weight on the end and started measuring out
glazes. The studio was busy with people in and out so while I was being
very careful about writing down each measure and the ingredient I was only
half conscious of how things 'looked' and 'felt' and it has been awhile
since I have made up glazes. Things seemed wrong in that the measures
seemed far greater in volume than they should be and by the time I had all
of the ingredients measured out I had half of a 5 gallon bucket filled
with dry ingredients. I thought 'this cannot be right. Something is
wrong.' I then zeroed out the scale, put a 500gm weight in the bucket and
then hung a 500gm weight on the arm. The arm did not budge. I added
another 500gm and then another into the bucket. I have no idea what is
going on but I sure in hell have a bunch of dry material that there is no
way I can now make any use of.


"alistair" wrote in message
om...
lids on, lids off, I don't know. I once fired a teapot, very happy
with it I was. Glazed on the inside, glazed halfway down on the
outside, wood fired, came out of the kiln looking lovely. one small
problem......... all the holes I'd spent time drilling in the body
before fixing the spout, all glazed up! I inserted a screwdriver down
the spout and tapped gently a few times. It split neatly down the
middle!

all the best,
Alistair.



"W_D_Great_Divider" wrote in message
.net...
I have never known anyone to fire a pot without the lid on (to keep the
pot
and lid from warping out of fit). Perhaps the piece was fired to fast
and
or their was still moisture in the pot....


"Lcdumas" wrote in message
...
I blew up a very nice pot by firing it with the lid on...

Linda D in TX





  #23  
Old September 14th 04, 05:06 PM
Russell Andavall
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

My first wife... Oh ah... ceramics... Lets see... stack-up door fell
down at cone 10, Cooled real quickly after I bricked the door back up
using wet sweatshirts and kiln gloves.... My mentor bought a 100 lb bag
of anhydrous silica for very cheap. We proceeded to have all the glazes
shiver off the pots... Several kiln loads of pots were ruined right
before Christmas... Crashing truck full of pottery.... (joined AA and no
longer a problem..) Earthquake 1989... lost 60% of a bisque kiln and 8
silicon carbide shelves 14x28... back to first wife... arrived at booth
drunk off her gourd and proceed to smash as much pottery as she could
before I returned from restroom... But the biggest blunder I ever made
was while selling the pottery. I was feeding a meter and the meter maid
was coming so I ran to the meter... I slipped on a pizza wrapper and
twisted my ankle so badly that it came out of the socket and broke my
leg.... 6 months of cast and pins in the ankle and a plate in the leg...
cost of feeding the meter? About $20k...
Current disaster involves getting the blade on my 1942 Champion Mixer
welded...
Russ Andavall
www.firegodarts.com

Bubbles wrote:

Hi guys!

You are being so quiet these days and I love to read from you - so starting
a topic I am pretty sure most of you will have input to!

What have been your biggest blunders? Either technical or practical - I
don't care - I just want to know what big mistakes you have made
(potterywise) and what you learned from them :-)

Mine up to now HAS to be making an oven dish with folded over handles, and
the handles made the dish too wide to go in the oven! Next dish is gonna
have handles straight up from the ends!

Marianne





  #24  
Old September 14th 04, 06:23 PM
W_D_Great_Divider
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Russell Andavall" wrote in message
...
My first wife... Oh ah... ceramics... Lets see... stack-up door fell down
at cone 10, Cooled real quickly after I bricked the door back up using wet
sweatshirts and kiln gloves.... My mentor bought a 100 lb bag of anhydrous
silica for very cheap. We proceeded to have all the glazes shiver off the
pots... Several kiln loads of pots were ruined right before Christmas...
Crashing truck full of pottery.... (joined AA and no longer a problem..)
Earthquake 1989... lost 60% of a bisque kiln and 8 silicon carbide shelves
14x28... back to first wife... arrived at booth drunk off her gourd and
proceed to smash as much pottery as she could before I returned from
restroom... But the biggest blunder I ever made was while selling the
pottery. I was feeding a meter and the meter maid was coming so I ran to
the meter... I slipped on a pizza wrapper and twisted my ankle so badly
that it came out of the socket and broke my leg.... 6 months of cast and
pins in the ankle and a plate in the leg... cost of feeding the meter?
About $20k...
Current disaster involves getting the blade on my 1942 Champion Mixer
welded...
Russ Andavall
www.firegodarts.com


OK, I vote we give the the winning medal on this on. I sure hope you paid
your dues and that life has gotten a whole lot better.

Bubbles wrote:

Hi guys!

You are being so quiet these days and I love to read from you - so
starting
a topic I am pretty sure most of you will have input to!

What have been your biggest blunders? Either technical or practical - I
don't care - I just want to know what big mistakes you have made
(potterywise) and what you learned from them :-)

Mine up to now HAS to be making an oven dish with folded over handles, and
the handles made the dish too wide to go in the oven! Next dish is gonna
have handles straight up from the ends!

Marianne






  #25  
Old September 14th 04, 08:17 PM
Monika Schleidt
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

W_D_Great_Divider wrote:
"Russell Andavall" wrote in message
...

My first wife... Oh ah... ceramics... Lets see... stack-up door fell down
at cone 10, Cooled real quickly after I bricked the door back up using wet
sweatshirts and kiln gloves.... My mentor bought a 100 lb bag of anhydrous
silica for very cheap. We proceeded to have all the glazes shiver off the
pots... Several kiln loads of pots were ruined right before Christmas...
Crashing truck full of pottery.... (joined AA and no longer a problem..)
Earthquake 1989... lost 60% of a bisque kiln and 8 silicon carbide shelves
14x28... back to first wife... arrived at booth drunk off her gourd and
proceed to smash as much pottery as she could before I returned from
restroom... But the biggest blunder I ever made was while selling the
pottery. I was feeding a meter and the meter maid was coming so I ran to
the meter... I slipped on a pizza wrapper and twisted my ankle so badly
that it came out of the socket and broke my leg.... 6 months of cast and
pins in the ankle and a plate in the leg... cost of feeding the meter?
About $20k...
Current disaster involves getting the blade on my 1942 Champion Mixer
welded...
Russ Andavall
www.firegodarts.com



OK, I vote we give the the winning medal on this on. I sure hope you paid
your dues and that life has gotten a whole lot better.


I second that, i think Russell wins the prize on disasters. I thought my
disaster dropping all the glazes in one second was bad enough, but.....
he beats us all!
I hope your life will calm down a bit in the future, Russell, get back
to making pots and enjoy it.

Monika
--
Monika Schleidt

www.schleidt.org/mskeramik
(If you wish to send me a mail, please leave out the number after my name!)
  #26  
Old September 15th 04, 08:45 PM
annemarie
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"alistair" wrote in message
om...
lids on, lids off, I don't know. I once fired a teapot, very happy
with it I was. Glazed on the inside, glazed halfway down on the
outside, wood fired, came out of the kiln looking lovely. one small
problem......... all the holes I'd spent time drilling in the body
before fixing the spout, all glazed up! I inserted a screwdriver down
the spout and tapped gently a few times. It split neatly down the
middle!

all the best,
Alistair.


Classic mistake. Always clear the holes with a stick or bent bit of wire
after glazing, I only did it once )


  #27  
Old September 16th 04, 08:01 AM
Russell Andavall
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

No metals or awards please... I thought that all of us had suffered such
disasters.... I have been potting for 35 years. Most of these lessons of
life happened after I got clean and sober! Coincidentally or not... I
came to believe that I was and alcoholic addict 15 years ago.... These
days, there are still the usual disasters that all of us suffer....
stuck lids, glazes running, pots s-cracking, license inspectors showing
up at odd times, cars that refuse to be fixed.... but I seem to manage
my disasters better and keep the mistakes to a minimum... Hey, I
produced 800 cubic feet of first quality ware last year... Now if I only
lived in a country where I could still sell that much ware a year... Oh,
ah,,, the economy is recovering... ha ha ha... (yes I am simply mad!)
Why else would I work like this for a living? Fortunately, no one is
dropping bombs down my kiln stacks yet... like they did to Hamada, Leach
and Cardue. Or enslaving me in a Russian/Chinese/capitalist factory job
40 hours a week so I can only make pots in my spare time...
But it may come to that and more.. Well friends, its just great to
be alive and able to still make pots... one more year.... I treasure
each kiln load, each set of throwing, each wedging of the clay. Talk
about a graduated list... I am grateful for my experiences in clay. Each
and every mistake adds to my knowledge of the craft.. For only by
getting it wrong 1000 times can a potter learn how to get it right one
time!!! How many times have I centered a piece of clay perfectly in 35
years? How many perfect pots have I ever throw? None!!! Just many
beautiful creations... Each one unique and different. And that is the
beauty of what we all try to do.
Russ Andavall

PS
Keep mudding no matter what! There is no 12 step group for clay...
unless you can find someone to use you as bone ash...

W_D_Great_Divider wrote:

"Russell Andavall" wrote in message
...


My first wife... Oh ah... ceramics... Lets see... stack-up door fell down
at cone 10, Cooled real quickly after I bricked the door back up using wet
sweatshirts and kiln gloves.... My mentor bought a 100 lb bag of anhydrous
silica for very cheap. We proceeded to have all the glazes shiver off the
pots... Several kiln loads of pots were ruined right before Christmas...
Crashing truck full of pottery.... (joined AA and no longer a problem..)
Earthquake 1989... lost 60% of a bisque kiln and 8 silicon carbide shelves
14x28... back to first wife... arrived at booth drunk off her gourd and
proceed to smash as much pottery as she could before I returned from
restroom... But the biggest blunder I ever made was while selling the
pottery. I was feeding a meter and the meter maid was coming so I ran to
the meter... I slipped on a pizza wrapper and twisted my ankle so badly
that it came out of the socket and broke my leg.... 6 months of cast and
pins in the ankle and a plate in the leg... cost of feeding the meter?
About $20k...
Current disaster involves getting the blade on my 1942 Champion Mixer
welded...
Russ Andavall
www.firegodarts.com



OK, I vote we give the the winning medal on this on. I sure hope you paid
your dues and that life has gotten a whole lot better.



Bubbles wrote:



Hi guys!

You are being so quiet these days and I love to read from you - so
starting
a topic I am pretty sure most of you will have input to!

What have been your biggest blunders? Either technical or practical - I
don't care - I just want to know what big mistakes you have made
(potterywise) and what you learned from them :-)

Mine up to now HAS to be making an oven dish with folded over handles, and
the handles made the dish too wide to go in the oven! Next dish is gonna
have handles straight up from the ends!

Marianne











  #28  
Old September 16th 04, 09:46 PM
annemarie
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Russell you are so right, there is always that "I can do better..." with every pot, even the ones that you are pleased with. I think this is what makes pottery almost addictive, but in a good way.
I think giving value to every kiln load, every pot, every time you work productively at the wheel. I see some of the older potters around who can no longer use the wheel or whose work is not as good as it used to be and my heart breaks for them. Mind you potters mostly seem to be a long lived, long working bunch. Something about the work keeps them going.
Glad life is working out for you.
A
"Russell Andavall" wrote in message ...
No metals or awards please... I thought that all of us had suffered such disasters.... I have been potting for 35 years. Most of these lessons of life happened after I got clean and sober! Coincidentally or not... I came to believe that I was and alcoholic addict 15 years ago.... These days, there are still the usual disasters that all of us suffer.... stuck lids, glazes running, pots s-cracking, license inspectors showing up at odd times, cars that refuse to be fixed.... but I seem to manage my disasters better and keep the mistakes to a minimum... Hey, I produced 800 cubic feet of first quality ware last year... Now if I only lived in a country where I could still sell that much ware a year... Oh, ah,,, the economy is recovering... ha ha ha... (yes I am simply mad!) Why else would I work like this for a living? Fortunately, no one is dropping bombs down my kiln stacks yet... like they did to Hamada, Leach and Cardue. Or enslaving me in a Russian/Chinese/capitalist factory job 40 hours a week so I can only make pots in my spare time...
But it may come to that and more.. Well friends, its just great to be alive and able to still make pots... one more year.... I treasure each kiln load, each set of throwing, each wedging of the clay. Talk about a graduated list... I am grateful for my experiences in clay. Each and every mistake adds to my knowledge of the craft.. For only by getting it wrong 1000 times can a potter learn how to get it right one time!!! How many times have I centered a piece of clay perfectly in 35 years? How many perfect pots have I ever throw? None!!! Just many beautiful creations... Each one unique and different. And that is the beauty of what we all try to do.
Russ Andavall

PS
Keep mudding no matter what! There is no 12 step group for clay... unless you can find someone to use you as bone ash...

W_D_Great_Divider wrote:

"Russell Andavall" wrote in message
...
My first wife... Oh ah... ceramics... Lets see... stack-up door fell down
at cone 10, Cooled real quickly after I bricked the door back up using wet
sweatshirts and kiln gloves.... My mentor bought a 100 lb bag of anhydrous
silica for very cheap. We proceeded to have all the glazes shiver off the
pots... Several kiln loads of pots were ruined right before Christmas...
Crashing truck full of pottery.... (joined AA and no longer a problem..)
Earthquake 1989... lost 60% of a bisque kiln and 8 silicon carbide shelves
14x28... back to first wife... arrived at booth drunk off her gourd and
proceed to smash as much pottery as she could before I returned from
restroom... But the biggest blunder I ever made was while selling the
pottery. I was feeding a meter and the meter maid was coming so I ran to
the meter... I slipped on a pizza wrapper and twisted my ankle so badly
that it came out of the socket and broke my leg.... 6 months of cast and
pins in the ankle and a plate in the leg... cost of feeding the meter?
About $20k...
Current disaster involves getting the blade on my 1942 Champion Mixer
welded...
Russ Andavall
www.firegodarts.com

OK, I vote we give the the winning medal on this on. I sure hope you paid
your dues and that life has gotten a whole lot better.

Bubbles wrote:

Hi guys!

You are being so quiet these days and I love to read from you - so
starting
a topic I am pretty sure most of you will have input to!

What have been your biggest blunders? Either technical or practical - I
don't care - I just want to know what big mistakes you have made
(potterywise) and what you learned from them :-)

Mine up to now HAS to be making an oven dish with folded over handles, and
the handles made the dish too wide to go in the oven! Next dish is gonna
have handles straight up from the ends!

Marianne







  #29  
Old September 16th 04, 10:59 PM
Bubbles
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"annemarie" wrote in message
...
Russell you are so right, there is always that "I can do better..." with
every pot, even the ones that you are pleased with. I think this is what
makes pottery almost addictive, but in a good way.
I think giving value to every kiln load, every pot, every time you work
productively at the wheel. I see some of the older potters around who can
no longer use the wheel or whose work is not as good as it used to be and my
heart breaks for them. Mind you potters mostly seem to be a long lived,
long working bunch. Something about the work keeps them going.
Glad life is working out for you.

---------

My teacher is all of the above - great personality, increadible experience,
but when a visitor asked her how long it took to learn to be a potter, she
answered that she was still learning!

She doesn't throw much anymore, as her health is not so good, but her
sculpted and slab-built pieces are just fantastic - and she can TEACH! I
learn something new every time I am there!

The saying goes "Those who can't, teach" - but in my eyes, that is not a
negative - in fact, it is a positive when it comes to potting - if you don't
have the strength/energy to make stuff - teach us newbies how we can make
stuff! I am blessed by my teacher having the time and energy to teach me
what she knows :-)

Marianne


  #30  
Old September 17th 04, 08:09 AM
Steve Mills
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

I have Arthritis, and I'm lucky; I have good drugs, a Wife who does
WONDERFUL massage, 3 smashing grown up Kids, I'm bloody minded enough to
keep trying to be normal (what is normal?), AND I can still make pots.
Like you Russ I'm thankful that I can still do what fires me up. I love
my life. If I get knocked off tomorrow I would have NO regrets at all.
It's a blast!

Steve
Bath
UK


In article , Russell Andavall
writes
No metals or awards please... I thought that all of us had suffered
such disasters.... I have been potting for 35 years. Most of these
lessons of life happened after I got clean and sober!
Coincidentally or not... I came to believe that I was and alcoholic
addict 15 years ago.... These days, there are still the usual
disasters that all of us suffer.... stuck lids, glazes running,
pots s-cracking, license inspectors showing up at odd times, cars
that refuse to be fixed.... but I seem to manage my disasters
better and keep the mistakes to a minimum... Hey, I produced 800
cubic feet of first quality ware last year... Now if I only lived
in a country where I could still sell that much ware a year... Oh,
ah,,, the economy is recovering... ha ha ha... (yes I am simply
mad!) Why else would I work like this for a living? Fortunately, no
one is dropping bombs down my kiln stacks yet... like they did to
Hamada, Leach and Cardue. Or enslaving me in a
Russian/Chinese/capitalist factory job 40 hours a week so I can
only make pots in my spare time...
*** *But it may come to that and more.. Well friends, its just great
to be alive and able to still make pots... one more year.... I
treasure each kiln load, each set of throwing, each wedging of the
clay. Talk about a graduated list... I am grateful for my
experiences in clay. Each and every mistake adds to my knowledge of
the craft.. For only by getting it wrong 1000 times can a potter
learn how to get it right one time!!! How many times have I
centered a piece of clay perfectly in 35 years? How many perfect
pots have I ever throw? None!!! Just many beautiful creations...
Each one unique and different. And that is the beauty of what we
all try to do.
Russ Andavall

PS
Keep mudding no matter what! There is no 12 step group for clay...
unless you can find someone to use you as bone ash...

W_D_Great_Divider wrote:
"Russell Andavall" wrote in message
...
My first wife... Oh ah... ceramics... Lets see... stack-up door
fell down
at cone 10, Cooled real quickly after I bricked the door back
up using wet
sweatshirts and kiln gloves.... My mentor bought a 100 lb bag
of anhydrous
silica for very cheap. We proceeded to have all the glazes
shiver off the
pots... Several kiln loads of pots were ruined right before
Christmas...
Crashing truck full of pottery.... (joined AA and no longer a
problem..)
Earthquake 1989... lost 60% of a bisque kiln and 8 silicon
carbide shelves
14x28... back to first wife... arrived at booth drunk off her
gourd and
proceed to smash as much pottery as she could before I
returned from
restroom... But the biggest blunder I ever made was while
selling the
pottery. I was feeding a meter and the meter maid was coming
so I ran to
the meter... I slipped on a pizza wrapper and twisted my
ankle so badly
that it came out of the socket and broke my leg.... 6 months
of cast and
pins in the ankle and a plate in the leg... cost of feeding
the meter?
About $20k...
Current disaster involves getting the blade on my 1942
Champion Mixer
welded...
Russ Andavall
www.firegodarts.com

OK, I vote we give the the winning medal on this on. I sure
hope you paid
your dues and that life has gotten a whole lot better.


Bubbles wrote:


Hi guys!


You are being so quiet these days and I love to read from
you - so
starting
a topic I am pretty sure most of you will have input to!


What have been your biggest blunders? Either technical or
practical - I
don't care - I just want to know what big mistakes you
have made
(potterywise) and what you learned from them :-)


Mine up to now HAS to be making an oven dish with folded
over handles, and
the handles made the dish too wide to go in the oven! Next
dish is gonna
have handles straight up from the ends!


Marianne








--
Steve Mills
Bath
UK
 




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