Mark Cortright on thu 6 mar 08
My slow throwing time is coming to an end-fairs on the near future-salt fire next month so I
thought I'd share a few helpfull production tips that I have picked up from others over the years-
before I leave the board in the next few weeks.These can be applied to how you work or not-They
can work for you or not-they do work for me but may not for you-you can make them from
scratch or buy some of the components. You can grow your own sponges or choose to buy them
You get the point
Waxing lots of pots-for us we use on flat bottom forms up to 12 iches long a old electric fry pan
on lowest setting with parriffin in it to hot dip bottoms-we buy the wax by the case. We do this
outside on a steel surface as its a potential fire producer if not done carefully. I call it hot
dipping-you can control the wax depth easy.
All other waxing is the mobil white stuff bought in 5 gallon buckets-The only different thing we
do is never brush it on bottoms we add a small amount of water to wax and use a sponge to apply
it to pot bottoms-yes on detail work we use a brush say to resist small areas on glaze ware but
mostly its a sponge as its 99% faster to apply-This works well on bowl bottoms and other forms
with true feet.The sponge is the easyest way by far-give it a try
You can work thru alot of pots fast with these two methods used in conjuction.
I prep all galzes with a jiffy mixer in early am and then use wood sticks during glaze day to keep
them mixed. As we have a zillion small forms with hot dipped bottoms we also have a power
sponge which really speeeds up the clean up on waxed bottoms-you do not need this tool as its
costly but because of our volume here of small stuff its long ago paid for itself-you can view one
at Bailys site-its a slow rpm 12 inch sponge which rotates over a 5 gallon bucket of water picking
up clean water as it goes-It also works good to take off mold lines on slip ware but we do not slip
anything-I know this as I had a slip business on the side for 12 years awhile back-I'm a wheel guy
but have had many irons in the fire.
The other tips on glazing is layout of work flow-bisque in glazed ware out to kiln area-think it all
thru and put the right glazes where you need them with the claen up water bucket in the middle.
While on work flow I found out long ago that a seperate triming wheel is for me a real time saver-
as seperate place just to trim. I keep large bats there to trim big platters as well as all the trim
tools and several giffens set up for whatever is needed.Its easy to clean as its never wet there.
Over the years potters folded up and I'd buy them out or folks would call about wheeels there kids
once used-I have scored lots of materails and wheels and kilns over time-now I always say no as I
have 5 wheels and really only use 4.
Back to glazing we really use our glaze jets which drop into any bucket of glaze and pump it by
hand into small form interiors. I got my first one from Gordon Ward but he is out of that business
now and if you want to know how to make them -I did a detailed articile for Studio Potters tool
issue which will be the next isssue out this summer( I have subscribed to this mag since inception
in the early 70s and its a non-profit no advertising type of thing-its gotten away from its orginal
theme a little but it still is not influnced by ad money-sharing info is really what its about) It has a
step by step photo instructions on how to make this tool, This is also a huge time saver instead
of pouring 200 forms on glaze day we just pump them. As this was my Glaze day today I really
feel this tool is a must for studio potters who have lots of interiors to glaze-it whipped thru 150
mugs and 50 glasses today.
We unload the kiln onto bats about 15 inches round and rectangles-we unload simmilar forms on
bats say all small mugs together then all lotion bottles or honey pots or french butterdishes and
the like-they are easier to deal with later if like forms are all together-keep th ework flow idea
always in mind- we galze the forms in the same fashion-glaze and bisgue fires can be seen here
-some are on page two
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23813860@N06/
Mark Cortright
www.liscomhillpottery.com
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