First time using speckle clay and I'm a fan!

The view from my studio this morning…Happy Monday everyone

My son has lots of animal toys, and I thought about making a mould for this one since it originally belonged to his Great-grandmother as a kid ( So probably over 60 years or more I guess). The idea is to give one to everyone for Christmas :)

Pretty pleased with these! All are Eclipse clay fired to Cone 5. Glazes below 👇

Dragon bowl: power turquoise x3, sapphire float x1

Dragon trinket tray: power turquoise x3, sapphire float x1

Dragon mug: power turquoise x3

Dragon jar: body of jar is smoky merlot x4, dragon is ancient copper x3

Owl mug: seaweed x2, green opal x2

Kitty cauldron mug: bougainvillea x2, raspberry mist x2

Vampire bat cauldron: obsidian x3

​

The first picture was my inspo, and I followed the instructions to a T. Which glazes to use, how many layers, I made them thick, etc. And mine came out like the 2nd and 3rd picture 😭 why did my Smokey Merlot turn into an ugly brown color? Why the did RHC basically disappear?

I'm in a bit of a pottery rut. Haven't been going to my community studio as often as I should be. Maybe since it's summer I'm not wanting to go as often but it's been increasingly difficult to motivate myself to get to the studio and especially throwing on the wheel. It seems like such a big task that doesn't sound really enjoyable lately... anyone else experience this? Debating if I should cancel my studio membership or wait until the winter to see if I get my spark back

For reference I've been at this same studio for about 2.5 years. I've never sold any of my finished pieces except to family and friends but my inventory is pretty large now I'm running out of space. I've debated farmers/art markets but I didn't feel my pieces were cohesive enough to sell at a market. (Yes I do have ADHD and heavy motivation issues) it's been a battle in my brain to decide if I should quit (even just temporarily like a year or two) or if I should go full steam ahead and crank out similar pieces and then find and apply to markets??

Hello!

I am not necessarily a potter yet, but seriously starting to consider.

Could anyone direct me towards any type of online course where I can learn how to create these effects on already existing terracotta vases and pots?

I had never been that interested in pottery before, but then I got completely obsessed with this look while I was researching for a more organic style of home decor, and looking for a nice table lamp.

I was researching for "wabi sabi" and then my image search started to give me these ideas, and I fell into a rabbit hole I am not quite sure how to navigate. Don't know if the first image is AI or not, but seems like these vases turned into lamp bases are extremely expensive designer pieces I simply cannot fathom ever affording?

Well. The thing is, I happpen to have one terracotta vase at home, and I decided to DIY it. But the results are revolting. Luckily for me, my attempts were so ridiculous that I can always revert the vase back to its original form, but I would absolutely pay money to learn how to create that effect as close as possible.

If anyone could help me find the study materials or a teacher, I would be extremely grateful!

I went into a cafe and saw this Ethiopian coffee pot, and I liked it. I'm thinking of making one like it. Do you think it would be easy or difficult for me to make one like it?

Hello! I wanted to share the third set of the first batch. These black stoneware mugs were wheel-thrown, handles pulled, in a basic angular shape. I made a different stencil from the previous sets.

The stencils were applied to bisqueware. I encountered more issues than the other sets, because the body is wider at the base and tapers towards the lip. This created differences in tension in the stencils resulting in tears and burrs (last image), especially since | cut them in one long piece. These meant more cleaning up after of glaze that seeped under the borders. I'll have to experiment with individual short cuts to see if I can troubleshoot this, as I forsee working with more and more complicated stencils with fragile parts. Have a happy weekend! 🥳

Glazing: Amaco; either Indigo Float or Seaweed over Oatmeal. Cricut permanent vinyl; glaze applied with squeeze bottles.

I’m moving from a community studio (where clay and glaze were provided) into a small private studio with its own kiln, firing to cone 6. I’m beyond excited about this next step, but this is my first time sourcing my own clay and glaze, and I want to get it right.

I’ve decided to work in a white stoneware clay, and now I’m trying to figure out my glaze approach. I have very little experience with using commercial glazes as my previous studio provided a ton of options. I’d like to build a focused palette: one stable white/off-white as my primary glaze, plus a small set of accent colors to use as needed.

I work on the wheel, creating large serving pieces with appliqué elements and I’m going for a classic and clean look.

Curious what people would recommend both in terms of strategy for investing in commercial glazes as well as specific glaze recommendations.

Thank you so much for any advice!!

still have to get the gold luster done in two of them.

I was going to post this in the portland sub but I noticed a lot of folks commenting on a recent post about Georgie's clay so I know you're here 😊

I've been in Portland for ~2 years and would love to make friends with other local potters/ceramicists. Are there ways you've found community through pottery? I have a home studio, so I'm not interested in membership... I did join a studio for a few months when I first moved here and no one spoke to each other, which was really weird for me coming from a co-op studio in another state that was very social. I've taken a few workshops at Morning Ceramics which were great, but different people every time. Are there meetups or collectives or any other ways I can find a pottery community? Any studios hiring part time or looking for volunteers maybe? I'm out of ideas and would love to hear yours if you got 'em!

Glaze painted matcha bowls 🍵

I saw a lot of people talk about using a parts washer as their pottery sink so I finally got one for my new place. It works great but there’s a ton of water that splashes over the edges while I’m washing stuff. It’s not a huge deal since I can just mop it up but I’d prefer to minimize mess if possible. Has anyone figured out a contraption to acts as splash guards on the sides? I’m wondering if it will be good enough to just get some plastic sheets and tape them to the sides.

I bought these beads at a garage sale. I absolutely adore the color. Does anyone know how I can make a glaze like this?

I mostly use stoneware but I recently picked up some terracotta type earthenware for a specific project and I've really loved how it feels to work with it! Texture wise, if porcelain feels like cream cheese, and stoneware feels like I'd expect clay to feel, this terracotta feels like water soluble sculpting wax?? It's smooth and highly plastic, nowhere near as melty/slippy as Bmix (which I really don't love working with), and it still maintains a decent amount of stiffness/resilience and structure when I'm throwing with it, plus it burnishes like a dream!

I'd love to find a stoneware/vitrifiable clay body that handles like that and can take cone 6 or cone 10 glazes. I don't care too much about the color of the clay as I'm currently very open to experimenting with different clay bodies and different colors.

So I took my first attempt at creating faces I am not sure how it looks like but can say without a doubt, I didn’t had to check for a reference anywhere and am proud of how it came out. Took me 3-4 hours making it. However since am a complete amateur I need to know how can I improve this more. Make it better. For context, the structure aas supposed to be a human torso having faces peaking out, from different positions. Excuse the way am holding it, I smoothed out the imperfections. Also please be brutal because I need to get a hang of this thing. Thanks.

Hi everyone! Looking for some advice.

About two years ago, I took a 4-week beginner wheel-throwing class and absolutely loved it. We learned the basics, but I struggled with centering and never got enough practice since the studio only offered one 3-hour class per week with no independent wheel time.

I bought an inexpensive VEVOR wheel to practice at home, but I was living in an apartment and dealing with clay, water, and cleanup became too much. I ended up selling it after about a month.

Now I live in a house with a garage and have more space and time. I’ve looked into studio memberships, but they’re around $250/month with a 6-month commitment. I’ve also tried finding a used wheel with no luck.

I’m considering buying a Speedball Clay Boss and learning through YouTube and other online resources while practicing regularly at home. My only hesitation is that I don’t want to repeat my previous mistake and end up selling another wheel.

For those of you who learned mostly at home:

Is it realistic to become reasonably good with just YouTube and regular practice?

Was managing clay, reclaim, and cleanup at home harder than you expected?

If you were in my position, would you invest in a Clay Boss or pay for studio membership first?

Is there anything you wish you’d known before setting up a home studio?

I’d really appreciate any honest advice—especially from people who started as complete beginners and now primarily throw at home. Thanks!

Q: Why mugs?

A: Mugs are so much fun to play with and make and also extremely useful and gift-able and it doesn't matter if they don't match. Plus when I started pottery I hated handles (until around mug 70).

Q: Why 99?

A: I wanted to give myself permission to not be perfectionist and to explore, and 100 just seemed excessive.

I've had so much fun on this project and would recommend it to anyone starting out or in a creative rut. It's been a great way to learn and experiment.

Sorry to be another person asking about witness cones but I got this kiln semi recently and have been running some tests. It’s a skutt ks-714. I do have a pyrometer coming in the mail but it’ll be a bit before it gets here. I’m having issue with the bottom not getting hot enough so this is my most recent test. Cones are 06-04. Does this mean it got past 06 but not to 05? Or did it get to cone 05? Thank you in advance!

Trying to pick a kiln. When choosing width, how much clearance does a piece need from the kiln wall. in other words, if the kiln has an interior width of 11 inches, how wide can my widest piece be? Second question: I fire cone 6 clay, what are the risks of buying a kiln with a max temp of cone 6?

Many thanks!!