getting started at home

I'd like to get started making pottery at home. I enjoyed my class on
pottery when I was in high school, but they never taught us the ins and
outs of finding electric wheels, kilns, the different types of clays
and glazes, and where to find all the supplies for making it at home.
If anybody can be of help here, I'd be forever in your debt. Thanks
much. Jason

It would help to know more about what area you are in, what you enjoyed in
your class, what resources you have outside of your home (have you checked
into available pottery recreation classes with your local colleges or
community adult ed, or have you been to the library?), etc.

If you are in a rural area you can get away with doing pit fires and such
that will cost you little in the way of an investment for supplies. You can
do wonderful handbuild pieces and fire them in an old oil barrel or do a
sawdust firing in a brick bin. You can do lowfire work with an electric
kiln but the kiln itself is a major investment (electric work, the kiln, the
furniture will run around 2K). If you are in an area where there are a lot
of potters you can pick up used equipment. Do you want to do handbuilding
or are you set on using a wheel? Do you want a kickwheel (you can make it
yourself) or an electric wheel (again a cost of more than a few hundred $)?

Go to www.potterys.org and browse

There really is so much information to share that it is difficult to know
where to begin without knowing more.


wrote in message
oups.com...
I'd like to get started making pottery at home. I enjoyed my class on
pottery when I was in high school, but they never taught us the ins and
outs of finding electric wheels, kilns, the different types of clays
and glazes, and where to find all the supplies for making it at home.
If anybody can be of help here, I'd be forever in your debt. Thanks
much. Jason

Hi, I started my studio with about $500 and was able to get a moderate
sized electric kiln and a wheel that included 600 pounds of clay. We
found the kiln at an auction, but I often see them in the classifieds
in the paper, probably because people getting out of the molded
ceramics business sell them off. The wheel was a bit more difficult,
but with diligence, I found one through an ad on the bulletin board of
a local community center. The people answering the phones at these
center were very kind to check the ads for me when I called, so I
didn't even have to drive around to do it.

Good luck!

Well, I live in a small town in northern Iowa, and we've got pretty
restrictive laws on burning anything, so pit firing's probably out. I
didn't mind coil pots and other hand-made styles, but I prefer making
pots on the wheel. Kick wheels are out, thanks to a recurring injury to
my kicking knee. I checked my local public library, but since my town's
small, just about all I found was related to methods indians used
hundreds of years ago. OUr local art museum is closer to a house of
cheap knock-offs, and I think they discontinued any art classes they
offered a couple years ago. Shoot, the only few hobby shops in town
only sell that oven-baked or no-bake kids clay and pigments, and
there's no kilns or wheels to be had in this town. In short, the net's
about all I have to get the inside details that was never taught in
school. I'll give that site a visit though, and happy holidays to you.

The lowest prices I found for new equipment was bennet pottery but they
don't seem to exist on the web anymore. Their phone is listed as
800-432-0074. I found EBay to be pretty useless but if you watch it
faithfully you might catch a bargain. With used kilns you need to search
for one close to home.

http://www.bigceramicstore.com/ is listed as their web site which isn't what
it was when I dealt with them. This site however is a great place for
information. Do web searches for entertainment. Lots of information out
there.

I am very happy with my L&L e28S and my shimpo VL whisper. The Liberty Bell
strikes me as a good possible starter if you aren't going to build wide
pieces.

There isn't one aspect of pottery that I don't like. How can you possibly
get bored with something that has so many different facets to it. From
recycling, building tools, throwing, trimming, making handles, the art of
glazing and then the adventure of the fire you have completely different
worlds to explore. For anyone that is a natural scavanger, pottery is a
wonderful excuse for making something out of nothing. I made my own bats by
gluing two layers of scrap luan together cross grained, drill the holes and
coat them many times with polyurethane (it is especially nice because you
can put them on the wheel and draw ink rings on them before coating them
with urethane if you want to use them for centering). I never throw out a
credit card. They make great clean up tools (won't scratch your plaster
wedging board or bats) and can be cut to use for shaping rims or putting on
decorative edges. Garage sales always have useful odd and ends to make into
tools. Old buttons, seashells, weird cooking tools, toys, etc. can make
great stamps. Old silverware makes useful tools. I am a very big fan of
plaster boards but you can certainly live without one. A scap piece of
cement board (what you use for the backing of tile in showers) makes a
perfectly fine wedging board (it just doesn't suck up the moisture from the
clay so you have to let it air dry to the right consistency for wedging
rather than wedging it to dry it out). I will forever be grateful to Steve
for sharing his way of recycling clay which is to dump the wet clay into a
leg of an old pair of levi's that has been tied off, hang it up to then let
it dry to the right consistancy for wedging. I have plastic gunny sacks
that I put in a 5 gallon bucket which I put my broken up dry clay in. When
a bucket gets 3/4s filled I pour hot water in the bucket with a bit of
vinegar and let it soak. I then lift the sack out of the bucket, letting
the excess water drain away and hang the bag to dry to the proper
consistency for wedging. I would have never thought to do this without
Steve sharing his method. Speaking of buckets, I go to bakeries, food
stores, etc. and beg them for their emptied buckets (pickle buckets really
do eventually lose their aroma). Builders will have goop buckets you can
ask for.

Since everyone has different ways of doing things (which is in my mind what
makes it an art), giving specific directions seems to defeat the purpose of
you finding your own grove. I guess I would say that if you have room for
storage don't worry about being in a hurry to get you kiln and glazes
immediately but instead would recommend that you just start with clay and
start building up your work. If throwing is your goal, then you might get
your wheel right away. Don't be stingy about your work. Clay is really
easy to recycle. If the piece doesn't feel right, wedge it up, wrap well in
plastic and sit it aside to use another day. At the same time, if you know
you have lost a piece or it doesn't feel like something you want to keep,
don't just stop with it but push it to the limits. See what you can do with
collaring or compressing the clay. Cut it in the middle vertically so the
you can look at your walls and foot. The more hours you put into the work
the sooner your skills will develop. If you are feeling frustrated, change
what work you are doing. There are always chores that need done with
potting, whether it is breaking up your clay that has been dried for
recycling, oiling your tools, making tools, or just general cleanup.

Again, I really like my shimpo Whisper but you can get less expensive wheels
that are just as good, especially if you are not planning on throwing big
things for some time (though I find throwing big much easier than small (- I
have tiny envy compounded with HUGE envy).

As I said, so much to share (much more than you will want), so little time.
Donna

P.S. Welcome to the clan

wrote in message
oups.com...
Well, I live in a small town in northern Iowa, and we've got pretty
restrictive laws on burning anything, so pit firing's probably out. I
didn't mind coil pots and other hand-made styles, but I prefer making
pots on the wheel. Kick wheels are out, thanks to a recurring injury to
my kicking knee. I checked my local public library, but since my town's
small, just about all I found was related to methods indians used
hundreds of years ago. OUr local art museum is closer to a house of
cheap knock-offs, and I think they discontinued any art classes they
offered a couple years ago. Shoot, the only few hobby shops in town
only sell that oven-baked or no-bake kids clay and pigments, and
there's no kilns or wheels to be had in this town. In short, the net's
about all I have to get the inside details that was never taught in
school. I'll give that site a visit though, and happy holidays to you.

What if the original poster lives in Portugal??

Touche!

Although you won't have the same proliferation of suppliers in Portugal
that there appear to be in the United States or the UK for that matter,
there must be suppliers of Potters materials, as Portugal is not bereft
of potters, I have met several of them.
Searching in the Portuguese equivalent of the Yellow Pages will
undoubtedly turn up something or someone who can help.


Let us know how you get on.

Steve
Bath
UK


In article .com, Jack
Ouzzi writes
What if the original poster lives in Portugal??


--
Steve Mills
Bath
UK

They posted that they live in a small town in the midwest (USA). The
question was asked where they live because that is critical to some of the
info given.

"Jack Ouzzi" wrote in message
oups.com...
What if the original poster lives in Portugal??

I know a potter from Portugal that I can ask for information if the query
was meant in that way (I interpreted it in another way...).

"Steve Mills" wrote in message
...
Touche!

Although you won't have the same proliferation of suppliers in Portugal
that there appear to be in the United States or the UK for that matter,
there must be suppliers of Potters materials, as Portugal is not bereft
of potters, I have met several of them.
Searching in the Portuguese equivalent of the Yellow Pages will
undoubtedly turn up something or someone who can help.


Let us know how you get on.

Steve
Bath
UK


In article .com, Jack
Ouzzi writes
What if the original poster lives in Portugal??


--
Steve Mills
Bath
UK

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.crafts.pottery

Meant to post this link - google search questions that might come to mind
(this one for example was just posted previous to yours not that long ago).

That way you avoid me rambling on and on, which I tend to do when asked open
ended questions....


wrote in message
oups.com...
I'd like to get started making pottery at home. I enjoyed my class on
pottery when I was in high school, but they never taught us the ins and
outs of finding electric wheels, kilns, the different types of clays
and glazes, and where to find all the supplies for making it at home.
If anybody can be of help here, I'd be forever in your debt. Thanks
much. Jason