mel jacobson on wed 29 jun 11
i use this recipe as a slip. i use a cup measure.
i know that if it was going to be a throwing or casting
clay, i would use weight and adjust it to its original
recipe...( i would call ron roy and have him set up
a body for me..) but, as a slip, just a cup of
each is perfect. i have used it for years, and it sticks like
a glaze on leather hard pots. (in fact it is almost a glaze.)
i dip my teabowls in a rather thick solution. the porcelain
over/ slip makes for a perfect white raku. as many of you
know, using a red/iron body under raku can be dicey. makes
things pink, shadows etc.
most commercial raku bodies are sans iron...just a thick
gray body with lots of grog and sand.
my standard body has a high percentage of iron/grog and sand, so
it is ideal for raku...except for the iron. so, i cover it with
porcelain slip.
when doing bright red/copper red glazes the white under slip makes
for amazing brightness in the glaze. iron can tend to make the red
into a liver color. (ick.)
my rich iron bodies are made for my standard glazes...rhodes 32 mod.
iron reds, and brown and tan glazes with blue accent...perfect for me.
so, i adjust without making porcelain throwing bodies or other clay bodies.
simple solution.
i hate multiple bodies in one studio. the pug mill is always confused.
we are making a series of funeral urns now...colleen's grandmother is
in hospice, and i have a couple of friends in the same condition...so,
we are looking at rob's green and iron red as a new direction. planning
ahead, making some nice things to give to families as gifts.
when my friends die, i ask the family if they would like me to give a
urn as a final farewell...they usually accept. it is a nice gesture that
makes things very personal. giving a few urns a year is a great
way to cement relations with customers and friends...the loss in revenue
is always made up ten times in good will. they come back and buy pots.
but, the bottom line is: i love having people spend eternity in one of my
pots. makes me feel good.
mel
there is an amazing business opportunity out there for
a potter willing to work with funeral/cremation societies making
urns. (have you seen the prices they charge for junk urns?) i saw
a wooden box that i could have made in my studio with junk wood...
$300. and think of the personalized urn business...cremation is sweeping
the country...now over 55 percent of people.
think business.
from: minnetonka, mn
website: http://www.visi.com/~melpots/
clayart link: http://www.visi.com/~melpots/clayart.html
new book: http://www.21stcenturykilns.com
alternate: melpots7575@gmail.com
WJ Seidl on wed 29 jun 11
Mel:
You hit the nail on the head here.
I attended a funeral last week. Family member of one of our Town
officials. I had to go...political.
The urn they decided to send him off in was made from stapled together
wood-patterned vinyl-covered particle board.
I was appalled. It looked like the kind of "wood" you find in that cheap
"you-assemble" furniture.
I'm no carpenter, but I've made bird houses that looked better.
They paid over $225 for that piece of ...well, you get the idea. Ugh!
He was the head of a local college in his day...the family could afford
better.
I wonder if they had better choices?
Even sold at cost, or sold wholesale to funeral homes, a potter could
make a very good living
just selling thrown or hand built slab urns...not even personalized, and
not just for people either. Fur kids deserve no less, don't they?
Vets sell urns all the time to grieving pet owners...again, for big money.
I had better get busy and make my own...don't want to head into the
hereafter in a cheap piece of...
it would be like attending a red-carpet event and driving up in a rotted
out Pinto...or worse...
a Vega! Of course, I suppose it doesn't matter...I won't be there anyway.
Best,
Wayne Seidl
On 6/29/2011 9:31 AM, mel jacobson wrote:
>
> there is an amazing business opportunity out there for
> a potter willing to work with funeral/cremation societies making
> urns. (have you seen the prices they charge for junk urns?) i saw
> a wooden box that i could have made in my studio with junk wood...
> $300. and think of the personalized urn business...cremation is sweeping
> the country...now over 55 percent of people.
> think business.
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