Top products from r/Ceramics

The staple around our studio was the potters dictionary of materials and techniques. https://www.amazon.com/Potters-Dictionary-Materials-Techniques-Fifth/dp/0812238109



Some good recipes for clays and glazes by temperature:
http://www.alfredgrindingroom.com/recipes/


If you want a clay body that fires pure white and has good hand building properties you will probably have to mix your own. Honestly, just google clay recipes, there is no shortage of resources out there these days. For a good hand building body, make sure your recipe has some sort of grog or fiber in it like mulched paper or even straw and the like. This is going to help give strength as the clay body itself will most likely be super soft because you want a pure white color.


I find pre-mixed clays usually fire more of a buff /off white color, as pure white clays tend to not be great for hand building. It is the nature of kaolinite (the main ingredient of porcelain and the reason your clay is white) to be difficult. To sum up very vaguely and over-simplified, kaolinite cleaves too perfectly and is too uniform to be a great hand buildding clay body. It's why it's wonderful for throwing, very soft and maleable.


Look into glaze calculation resources. It will help you understand the nature of each ingredient. You have some ingredients that act as a flux (e.g. frit makes things more runny, calcium makes it less runny), some for color, some for strength, etc. Once you understand the broader principles you can make a better clay mixture to suit your needs.

I started 3 years ago again with a tax refund. I already had a wheel in storage so that helped. I bought a beat up used kiln with good brick for 225.00 cut a hole in the bottom and top. I used a 1 lb coffee can to measure. You can see my Kilns here. I bought an electric to gas conversion kit and fire in my drive with two 20lb propane canisters. If you don't want to bother with the kit go buy a weed burner and shoot it into the kiln. I have been firing like this for the last two years and have sold pots all over the world. You can get a high pressure gas regulator from Mr. Heater for 25.00 Buy your clay and glaze off amazon prime to save on shipping charges. You can also save money by hand mixing your own glazes. Now at least you can hand build! After that look for a use wheel someplace. I do all of this from my small basement. If you got question let me know.

Edit: Be sure to follow good safety practices as glaze mixing and clay dust can be harmful. Also see you state and local regulations for outside firings depending on where you live. Never trust gas.

My suggestion, pick up one of the books by John Britt based on how you fire:

Mid-Range Glazes : https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Mid-Range-Glazes-Ceramics/dp/1454707771

High-Fire Glazes: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-High-Fire-Glazes-Ceramics/dp/1600592163

These books are GREAT beginners bibles. He describes all of the equipment you need, what all of the various glaze components actually do, how to do various tests, and a HUGE collection of great glazes with photos.

I'm pretty good at reading articles and putting things together, but his books really opened my eyes, and for the low cost of the books, I think anyone who wants to learn about glazes is foolish to not buy them.

When I do tests, I do 100g batches. I make my test tiles on the wheel, about 3 inches high. Then, I'll apply it to my tile in various thicknesses. Lastly, I'll do a bunch of other tests where I see what it is like when it's layered with other glazes that I have. So one new glaze usually results in about 12 test tiles. I try to do at least one set of tiles every time I do a glaze firing.

I also stamp a serial number into each tile and keep notes in a log book - this is very important! Then, I put all the "ugly" ones into a box for future review, in case my aesthetics change. All of the nice ones, I hang from a small rack on my wall.

Sell the wheel and clay. You aren't going to use them in your apartment and they'll just sit around and take up space, are a pain to move around and every time you see them you'll feel like you abandoned your hobby. Sell them and take the money and enroll in a class or get access to a proper studio you can use. You can always buy another wheel and clay in the future when things settle down.

Btw, there is no harm in not touching clay for a while. It's like when you learned to ride a bike, you'll always remember how to throw. Yeah, you will be a bit wobbly for a bit but you'll pick it up.

To keep your creative juices flowing, I suggest that in lieu of clay you consider picking up a pencil and learn to draw. Go buy the workbook for Drawing on the Right Side of your Brain (https://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Right-Side-Brain-Workbook/dp/1585429228) and give it a try. Not only will it improve your drawing skills for pottery ideas but it will teach you how to see as an artist, an extremely valuable skill.

I think that sculpting portraits in low relief (bas relief) is actually harder than doing a bust. Here is a short tutorial giving the basics on bas relief and there's a bunch on sculpting a face There's a book out there that's pretty good about sculpting the face in clay

You definitely want to do more research on the firing and function of kilns. The Kiln Book is a great resource. If you want any control over the end product you're going to have to put a significant amount of engineering into this project.

Nothing works real well long term that I have found. If you hand wash and are careful this product might help you get some more use out of your mug.

https://www.amazon.com/Elmers-E1012-China-Cement-1-Ounce/product-reviews/B000MVTINW

If you google sculpting the human figure in clay you will get quite a few hits.

My personal favorite is anything by Bruno Lucchesi. You can find a few of his videos on YouTube. His book "Modeling the Figure in Clay", while a bit sparse on details, served me very well in college.

For anatomy, a copy of "Grays Anatomy" would not be remiss, however, I prefer Stephen Rogers Peck's "Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist"

It's a great one! The one I go back to time after time is Clay and Glazes for the Potter by Daniel Rhodes. https://www.amazon.com/Clay-Glazes-Potter-Daniel-Rhodes/dp/0873418638/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1536187998&sr=8-14&keywords=Ceramic+glaze+chemistry

You need to buy glazes, which depending on how much variation you want is probably going to cost you anywhere from 10-20 dollars a per color if you want the expensive stuff, however you can probably buy a set of 12 underglazes for about 47 dollars and a pint of clear glaze for about 10.

If you go this way, it's pretty similar to painting regularly, all you have to do is slap a few coats of clear glaze on it after you have the design on it and find a ceramics studio that will fire it, the place where I live charges about 2 dollars a pound for each peice or about 60 dollars to rent an entire kiln.

Here's some underglaze sets and a clear glaZe you could use, but you should check the nearest studio to see if they have any discount glazes
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0044SATSM/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1415905256&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX200_QL40

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003IGIDR0/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1415905406&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX200_QL40

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0044S97QW/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?qid=1415905420&sr=8-6&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70

This looks like an olson.

Very similar to the one on their kiln kits page.

As /u/dirtygremlin mentioned, "The Kiln Book" is an invaluable resource.

I have the 3rd edition but it looks like there is a 4th edition out.

There are some turn key gas kiln setups out there but they are all going to require more work to set up than an electric kiln.

Almost all of them will have some custom elements involved.

The Britt book is pretty solid if you are doing cone 10.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-High-Fire-Glazes-Ceramics/dp/1600592163

I got a book a few semesters into taking and found it helpful for a lot of what I did in class. It has instructions for skills of all levels and each skill had an accompanying project to practice with. It has handbuilding and throwing projects.

http://www.amazon.com/Potters-Complete-Studio-Handbook--Finish/dp/1592537464/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452727515&sr=8-1&keywords=potters+complete+studio+handbook

https://www.amazon.com/Kiln-Book-Materials-Specifications-Construction/dp/0873419103

Took a special topics kiln building class during my last semester of undergrad (ceramics/glass BFA) - this book is an incredible resource for learning why you might build one way or another, what materials to use, and how to construct the kiln itself.

I've used Critter sprayers for over a decade. Hard to beat those things for reliability and ease of use.

powdered plaster will not work. it will bond with whatever you pour into the mold and ruin the ceramic material.

the reason slipcasting works is because the cured plaster absorbs the water and deflocculant out of the ceramic material.

if you're really interested in learning about slipcasting and dont want to take another class on it from someone who knows a lot, I would recommend Andrew Martin's book -
https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Guide-Making-Casting-Ceramics/dp/1600590772

nobody here is going to go in depth enough to teach you how to do it

https://www.amazon.com/Ceramics-Handbook-Glenn-C-Nelson/dp/0030289378

That is far from the only reason why a a ceramic piece would crack. This book has 9 pages on different kinds of cracks and the reasons why they happen.

What about this book? Have you heard anything about it?

Not even close!

N100 or P100 RESPIRATOR is what you need, a paper mask or n95 will not protect you.
This is the studio standard: 3M Half Facepiece Reusable Respirator Assembly 6391/07003(AAD), Large, P100 Respiratory Protection https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001NDN29O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Fw3nDb3BJ2ST0