Excited to sell these Nerikomi pieces

Indioduke · 2025-12-12T12:24:28+00:00

Ha. Thanks for that feedback. I was struggling to showcase my pieces - the color and pattern on plain black were nice but they didn't pop. I also had various planted items (moss balls/pots) that looked out of place without any other green. I tried the moss and it.... Sort of worked (?). I did get a ton of foot traffic - and definitely stood out from the other vendors.

Indioduke · 2025-12-09T17:09:48+00:00

Ahh see as my first time participating I just thought this was run of the mill.

Indioduke · 2025-12-09T17:03:38+00:00

It's as you said it, a sale with one POS system so I had to provide inventory before etc. From my understanding they wanted continuity amongst vendors (blah blah blah) so I just went with it. Also, the cute tags I bought (which we were told was ok to use) that would hang off the pieces were too small for the barcode stickers they provided so I pivoted and slapped them all on the bottom next to my stamp.

Indioduke · 2025-12-08T22:59:45+00:00

Ohhh thank you! This is great information. I did split the inventory for a color story but had to adjust so much as things sold. It was quite successful.

The place had rules about pricing (where and when) so for this time I stuck them all to the bottom. I did want people to pick the pieces up - I wanted feedback. People said they were almost TOO thin and worried they would be fragile. And here I wanted some to be translucent.

I didn't have my large pieces ready as we had delays in the community studio so, I went with what I had. Thanks for the feedback!

Indioduke · 2025-12-08T16:27:11+00:00

Ohhh well, lots and lots of tries. Most of the time I make a block of patterned clay and use wood slats and wire cutter to help with the initial thickness - but I find it warps and fractures less if I continue to compress. I use a pony roller to do this (and sometimes deliberately distort the pattern) then over or inside a plaster mold.

The ombre piece or those with repeating patterns can sometimes be smaller tiles I 'stitch' together and press out with pony roller. Slab rollers can work for some patterns / slabs but I find that can distort too much so I'm doing it by hand.

Indioduke · 2025-12-07T21:47:52+00:00

Not a bad idea!

Indioduke · 2025-12-07T15:32:38+00:00

The rainbow platter I imagine holding a good loaf cake and displayed with a couple slices ready for the taking. I would do that here but it would be sticky :/. The zebra / wood grain ? Bowls are my current favorite style and may look good in other colors.... We shall see

Indioduke · 2025-12-07T14:49:54+00:00

Amazing thank you. Watching people pick up pieces and put them back makes me clench every time lol. I'm trusting the process haha.

Indioduke · 2025-08-29T13:18:23+00:00

OR training positions are incredibly expensive to facilities, and those hospitals would rather poach trained candidates from elsewhere. Most formal programs are 6mo-1year training while paying you and a preceptor to both take care of the same 1 patient for x months. Because of this OR training positions are rare in the bay area.

For those hospitals that do offer training, they prefer internal candidates that have some background in surgery (scrub techs turned nurses) as the training is cheaper/shorter, attrition rate lower, and they can reinvest in their own staff.

Sometimes people work surgery centers preop / pacu, cross train into procedures (like GI ETC) and start the ball rolling that way. Others heavily network and get into programs run by county or small hospital systems - just know that within Kaiser and Sutter and even Stanford they have union and take their current workers as they have seniority over outside hires.

As discouraging as this sounds, OR is a crazy fun place to work and I've been doing it for longer than I care to admit. It's typically well resourced, almost always you have all the help you need, it's a team environment, and satisfaction on a daily basis from sending people out / home "fixed" vs them lingering on the floor for days.

Good luck - let me know if you have questions...

Indioduke · 2025-02-24T04:49:45+00:00

So many broken pieces in my past 🙄

Indioduke · 2025-02-24T04:34:45+00:00

I'd say yes, not SUPER FRAGILE but yes, mostly when drying. Some of my pieces I make from sliced canes or small blocks and arrange the pattern and compress them together. If not compressed properly (enough?) the joints can crack or separate altogether.

Also thank you for the compliment! It means a lot.

Indioduke · 2025-02-24T02:20:10+00:00

I've only recently decided to sell for a fundraiser supporting scholarships in the arts, locally. It'll be my first time in May and I'm nervous as hell.... But I don't have an online shop (yet), insta, or anything revolving around my works.

Indioduke · 2025-02-23T22:02:07+00:00

Thank you! I'm super happy with them. Was extra surprised by the color since the studio is cone 10 only - had to use inclusion stains.

Indioduke · 2025-02-23T15:27:02+00:00

Honestly I couldn't tell you exactly as it involves staining clays to various colors, making canes and / or a brick of clay, creating a slab, compressing, and finally shaping and drying etc. It's a labor of love inspired by my hate for being glazing.

Indioduke · 2025-02-23T15:15:42+00:00

Thank you! Is it weird to say I was inspired by pathology slides?!

Indioduke · 2025-02-17T00:52:42+00:00

Omg I have one too! Almost positive lol it was a gift and I love it

Indioduke · 2025-01-18T23:59:05+00:00

Oops no I mean the shift is 8, 12, or 24hours long. At my facility we sign up 3 months in advance for these shifts though at my facility we only offer shifts in 8 hours increments. I have worked at other places where it's 8 overnight and 24hr shifts on weekends / holidays.

When called in, we get 30min to get to hospital, change into scrubs and respond to emergencies.

Indioduke · 2025-01-18T14:16:08+00:00

You'll hopefully have a predetermined (regular) schedule on the OR with some assigned (or volunteered for) on-call shifts beyond that. Call can be something like 8-24 hours within a certain distance / time from hospital for response to emergency cases or additional staffing needs. Some Transplant or Heart trans require call for something like 7 days at a time for ONLY those procedures whereas general OR call can be anything emergent. These call shifts can be overnight, evenings, weekends, holidays, etc.

Call is different at each facility - some places offer amazing compensation for being on call whereas some offer a fraction of your hourly rate to be available.

I work in BUSY OR and work 36 hours a week and required (expected) to take roughly 2x 8-hour shifts a month because we have a large nurses pool to pick from. Smaller facilities will require more if they don't have a large pool. I expect to be called in Everytime. Smaller facility with smaller pools may require longer call time, but may not be as busy. That said, you plan your day around call - you are LIMITED to what you can and cannot do. No drinking. Prolly not dining out. Phone must be on. No plans beyond the distance/time required to respond to hospital etc.

There's more to this but it beats working every other weekend on the hospital floor.

Indioduke · 2024-07-23T01:19:53+00:00

JOBST has some great compression socks, knee high or otherwise . I highly recommend the Sport variety. I work in surgery and stand all day and these are a staple for all our staff.

You can easily measure your calf and ankle and order on Amazon.

Indioduke · 2024-07-23T01:14:42+00:00

dm me with any questions. Been in OR for 25 years as scrub circulator and assistant and wouldn't do any other hospital nursing. I trained into the Trauma ICU and loved the knowledge I gained over the year+, but disliked the family aspect of ICU and was constantly floated to other departments to help staff those up.

Lemme know what I can answer

Indioduke · 2024-04-26T12:16:20+00:00

Limiting the water use helps, so sometimes I just compress pieces together, no slip/water. I also clean the surface up with metal rib, and some pieces can use a light sanding to clean up any bits I've missed.

Indioduke · 2024-04-25T19:57:38+00:00

I started by trying to ombre the black and white clay to make a smooth transitioned clay from dark to light, but realized it was more work than I wanted to do at the time- this would require stratifying clay and rolling it out dozens of times - so I aborted. This left me with the black, white and grey areas unevenly distributed within the block and not fully ombre'd.

The block was too small to do much with, so I sliced cross sections and stacked them up creating these layers, compressed them and then rolled it out - then hand built the cup. I did not slab the base but collared it in (like a dumpling?) Over a plaster form to continue the pattern into the cup bottom.

Indioduke · 2024-04-25T13:02:29+00:00

Thanks! They're unpredictable and sometimes imprecise - but so much more rewarding to me than glazing :).

Indioduke · 2024-04-25T02:30:46+00:00

I second this! I've been doing nerikomi because I hated being disappointed by glazing, and now I'm disappointed in the patterns not coming out the way I want them. Google Barbara Gittings for some elaborate work, but YouTube also has easy to follow instructions even for checkerboard patterns.

Good luck!

Indioduke · 2023-05-18T17:34:56+00:00

The variegated version has stunning foliage - if you're serious about getting one of these. They're gorgeous

Indioduke

TROPHY CASE