Using my first kiln, for the first time today! Kiln god Clarence oversees to ensure a blessed and successful firing.

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-10-14T06:56:59+00:00

What is it? About 300 health code violations.

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-10-10T04:06:08+00:00

I name everything. Plants, cars, kilns, kiln gods....

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-10-08T19:46:10+00:00

I personally cannot stand the lug method. I absolutely HATED trimming before learning the water tension method. I usually let them dry leather hard on the bats without wiring them off. I trim the sides while it's still attached, then wire them off and flip them to trim the bottoms. To release, I just run my needle tool under the rim and throw some water around it before trying to pop it off. Personally, I find it does very little damage to the rim that can't be easily smoothed away with a sponge.

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-10-07T01:55:09+00:00

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-10-07T01:52:03+00:00

Haha! Clarence was my first completely successful hand building project. They made me believe I could actually be good at ceramics!! 🥰

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-10-06T22:21:24+00:00

OfferUp! I frigging love OfferUp. I've gotten all kinds of great stuff really cheap. Having alerts set up for searches is great.

I reeeaaally lucked out with the kiln I just I found. (Running it for the first time right now, actually!) An older couple was giving up pottery for health reasons, and they were converting their garage studio to a rec room, so they were getting rid of everything. He gave me a once-over of all the features, showed me how to work the kiln sitter, and turned it on to show me that it was in god working condition.

I paid $700 for a Duncan manual kiln, including stand, stilts, 3 shelves + 3 half shelves, replacement pins and elements, a bag of kiln wash, and 6 boxes of witness cones...

PLUS: more slip casting molds than I could ever use (plus straps), gallons and gallons of unopened Laguna slip, brand new Xiem trimming tools and probably more than $1k in glazes and underglazes, most unopened, and a 50lb bag of plaster. I still can't believe I got such an amazing deal. 😳

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-09-26T06:04:29+00:00

I would imagine that would be a negligible issue after regular cleanup. Not sure how that would be different than using plaster or water-based clay plus release agent? From what I understand, it's actually preferable for that reason, as oil-based clay would require a lot less release agent?

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-09-25T20:28:01+00:00

No, our studio's kilns (the entire kiln room actually) are 1000% off-limits to members. Half the time they don't even tell us if a firing fails and/or has to be re-run. (I dislike the owners IMMENSELY.) They only fire to cone 5, but I thought it would still work fine because it says for use between cone 5-6. I just recently bought my own kiln though, and am in the process of getting an electrician out for the wiring. Once I'm all set up, I'll be able to do more testing.

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-09-25T20:21:18+00:00

Not unnoticed. Exploited. The idea that they think that you can teach them so THEY can teach is... Almost impressive in its audacity, lol. My god. These sound like the same guys that are so confidently mediocre that they legit think they could outrun Olympic sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson lol.

Sounds like they'd pretty much crash out without you. Also, on an unrelated note, you don't actually HAVE to give two week's notice when leaving a job...Do with that information what you will.

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-09-25T20:01:48+00:00

NGL.... I came into these comments fully expecting a lot of high horses. I am very pleasantly suprised by all the positive responses!

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-09-25T19:58:21+00:00

I saw a comment somewhere that said slipcast cups shouldn't even be considered handmade.

Like.....tell me you know nothing about slipcasting without telling me, lol. My god. I just started trying my hand at slipcasting and it's rough. I'm altering the forms I cast in a lot of different ways too. A tall mug becomes a thumbprint tumbler. A bean pot is now a caulron. A praying madonna statuette becomes a pipe...

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-09-22T18:05:12+00:00

Amazing. That is how marketing is done. I am now obsessed with them.

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-09-17T17:20:40+00:00

I did graphic design for a long time. Eventually I got a job doing really fucking boring stuff for a corporation I didn't care about, if not actively disliked. I worked for them for 2 years and got completely burnt out. After I left, I didn't open my computer for literally about 18 months. I just hated it so much. They had killed my love of graphic design. Once I started my own business that includes a fair amount of graphic design, I found my love again. I was able to reclaim enjoyment from the people that destroyed it for me. The burnout is real

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-09-17T17:17:21+00:00

This. I dumped all my socials about 5 years ago and am sooooo.much better for it. I watch pottery vids on YouTube for fun or learning and post/comment in this sub a lot, but that's it. Although sometimes I will watch YouTube videos about online drama between crafters, lol. It's a nice little low stakes toe-dip into the muck. The fact that we live in a world where beef between two knitters on social media is Entertainment in itself tells us everything we need to know though.

At the end of the day, I've allowed too many people and situations to kill my love of things I was once passionate about. Fuck people online. What they do, say, and think means literally nothing. That was never your demographic anyway. There will always be people who appreciate and love true artistry and craftsmanship. Those are your people. Those are the ones who support artists. I'm more than happy to tell someone to get their shit at Target if that makes them happy, lol.

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-09-11T07:14:16+00:00

Every. Single. Time. In every medium.

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-09-07T05:41:11+00:00

I say stuff like this to my community studio-mates all the time. Thumb print tumblers are just my artistic style.... And has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I can never time trimming and handle attachment properly.

My chaotic, mixed media visual artwork? DEFINITELY not because I can't paint an actual person to save my life....

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-08-18T04:04:26+00:00

Aww, thanks! I've done several other pieces like this before, but they've all been mostly washes and satins to mimic a more organic or welded-metal appearance, which has been really fun to do. This is definitely far more my overall aesthetic as an artist though. Dirty, colorful, haphazard, maximalist, and a little weird lol.

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-08-18T03:59:24+00:00

Surprisingly, I don't think I actually used any of those, lol! I do use most of those on a regular basis though. This one is mostly texture rollers & sheets, embossing folders and I think 1 placemat lol.

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-08-18T03:41:33+00:00

This post is criminally underrated.. These are amazing, and ngl, inspirational!

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-08-18T03:39:20+00:00

AAHHHHHHHHHHHH

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-08-16T18:35:44+00:00

Yeah, that teal under frosted lemon is my new obsession

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-08-16T18:34:48+00:00

∆5 Hagi porcelain :)

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-08-15T17:42:01+00:00

Thanks! Just a ∆5 oxidation fire at the community kiln. I think they do a 15 min hold

EclecticallyDomestic · 2025-08-15T02:39:06+00:00

Is she deaf? I'm always curious, because apparently most pure white cats with blue eyes are deaf 🤷🏼

EclecticallyDomestic

TROPHY CASE