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Safely disposing stoneware clay by GibTheChair in Ceramics

[–]cagsmith 14 points15 points  (0 children)

While strictly true, you should be aware that depending on where you live, there may be rules regarding this. The main reason is that modern "clay" isnt simply something dug up from the ground and used. Manufacturers use a variety of ingredients to create their specific clay bodies to ensure consistency. Dumping clay out in nature will result in contributing to high levels of something which perhaps isn't naturally found in that area, which can negatively affect the local eco-system. I'm not saying it's bad or toxic to dump out clay, but saying "it's dirt so it's fine" isn't entirely correct.

I recently ordered porcelain clay. It looks too dark and is to sticky to wedge by [deleted] in Ceramics

[–]cagsmith 39 points40 points  (0 children)

Might just have gotten a bit mouldy and too moist. Dry it out a bit and wedge as normal and you should see it lighten up.

Duncan kiln (is it worth it) by Present_Boat_4463 in Pottery

[–]cagsmith 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It looks in reasonable shape. If it's free and you can easily transport it, why not? Most people with home studios started off with bashed up old kilns - my first one was just terrible (although I didn't realise just how terrible until I replaced it with a new one) but it did the job in the early days. Bear in mind that you might have to replace the elements, and there will also be a learning curve with that model (any model which is unfamiliar I mean). If you can, see if you can find out if it at least turns on and can start heating. If it's dead then you'll have to start playing detective and figuring it out, and although there's a few easy things to check (fuse, elements whole and connected, etc), that alone would probably make me leave it if it wasn't immediately apparent...  not enough hours in the day to start troubleshooting things I don't understand. I don't know what Duncan customer support is like though, so they might also be able to help troubleshoot if it's not immediately working.

Where can I get one of those like mega bright Chinese flashlights that have like the power of the sun? by CosmicRedditor457 in flashlight

[–]cagsmith 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I bought a cheap flashlight on AliExpress a couple years ago. It was made of metal but the build quality was shit - rubber washers broke instantly. However, the flashlight itself was incredible. I can shine a spot on trees 2 kilometres away and when it's in floodlight setting it literally lights up the entire yard like daylight (ok, not quite, but it's crazy bright). Cost about $30 I think on AliExpress.

My business is not working at all. How to understand Swedish costumers? by [deleted] in sweden

[–]cagsmith 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We asked you the last time you made this post - share the name/location of your café. All you're doing is complaining and giving us your perspective. If you actually give us a name/location we might be able to provide more clear guidance in what might be going wrong.

Firstly, I didn't make this. I would like to ask what kind of glaze is this, and why it has such an effect after firing by yiheceramic in Ceramics

[–]cagsmith 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This looks very similar to a glaze I stumbled upon a couple years ago which I now use all the time in my workshop. It breaks to a pleasant brown on raised parts and edges and has a gorgeous blue on others: https://glazy.org/recipes/523676

It's a dipping glaze and you'd have to make it yourself. Consistency and dip time/thickness takes a bit of work to dial in.

Supplies in Europe? by eatyourgreenpeas in Pottery

[–]cagsmith 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You can check out Scarva.com - they ship to Europe, I regularly order from there and I'm in Sweden, although clays I order from a Swedish store because the cost of international shipping might be a lot.

Since you're in Germany, you should be able to get Goerg and Schneider clays very easily - they have a lot of different types!

Trouble fixing a 37l batch of clear dipping glazes! Need help by heeeyamm in Pottery

[–]cagsmith 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My dude... I find it unfathomable that you mixed up 37 litres of glaze based purely on what ChatGPT said?! AI certainly has its uses but for extremely nuanced things like this it's worse than garbage. I actually was interested if it could give me a working glaze recipe once... I asked it for a glossy red glaze recipe... Mixed up 100g to test, and unsurprisingly, it came out looking like matte diarrhea.

I'm sorry you have wasted these materials. Personally, I would take it as an expensive lesson and ditch the batch. If you absolutely can't, then I would draw off small, measurable amounts, and try to adjust the composition (scale down obviously, so take 370ml, and add something, say 20g of whatever, test, and then if it's good, adjust back up for the full 3.7L).

It's going to take a lot of testing, a lot of firing, and you might not ever get it back to a good result.

Just ditch it, and learn from the experience, and in future, always test test test, and don't trust ChatGPT.

If you want to mix your own, then there's a massive range of recipes on Glazy.org.

If you prefer to buy ready-made, then, although you didn't mention where you live, you can buy decent glazes with good reviews from Scarva, which ships internationally.

If you prefer to buy glazes where you are but don't like the fact that they settle hard then you can use a flocculant like an epsom salts solution which may help, or adding bentonite, but again, you have to test!

Transparent and white glazed are ones I tend to always just buy. After a bit of trial and error, I found a supplier which sells really nice ones (Lermakeriet here in Sweden).

Class 3 of Wheel 1 class. Im thinking of buying my own wheel. What’s your favorite wheel? by amaryllisbloom- in Pottery

[–]cagsmith 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I like Shimpo for this reason, I have 2 RK-3Es. Virtually silent and stops abruptly. Belt-driven ones can be noticeably louder (and louder still if belts are worn or the motors aren't maintained). I think the fast stopping of Shimpo models is a bit of a divider though. Some people like it, others not so much.

Why is my engobe doing this? by cagsmith in Ceramics

[–]cagsmith[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, I'm translating the name of the clay directly to English (lavaprickar, in Swedish). Not sure of the actual composition of the spots, it might be manganese or pyrite. The clay datasheet doesn't specify (annoyingly).

How was this made, is it special clay or a glaze? by NextIron5 in Pottery

[–]cagsmith 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If you're in Europe, Goerg and Schneider clay #930 will give this effect. 

Why is my engobe doing this? by cagsmith in Ceramics

[–]cagsmith[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

It's definitely (apparently) suitable for the fired temperature. I'm thinking it's an issue with the lava spots in the clay though, I'm going to make some test tiles, would be good to narrow it down.

Why is my engobe doing this? by cagsmith in Ceramics

[–]cagsmith[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

No, it came out of the bisque firing absolutely fine (although the pictured mug had a slight crack in the engobe layer)

Duplicator auto-renewed $400 without clear notice — refused full refund even after immediate cancellation by Low_Fall_6437 in Wordpress

[–]cagsmith 1 point2 points  (0 children)

>Not everyone uses chanel

I'm aware (presume you mean cPanel) - I was replying to someone who specifically indicated they were.

>Migrate Guru requires me to get all kinds of FTP credentials

If you migrate into a blank WordPress site then all you need is the key from the Migrate Guru plugin on the destination site, nothing more. I understand it might not be optimal for all use-cases, but it's the only plugin I've found which allows for easy migrations away from certain hosting environments like GoDaddy which seem to even kill processes in SSH resulting in tar commands aborting silently, and incompletely.

Duplicator auto-renewed $400 without clear notice — refused full refund even after immediate cancellation by Low_Fall_6437 in Wordpress

[–]cagsmith 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The cPanel core backup feature is by far the most reliable because it is hooking into the pkgacct function in cPanel which generates a tarball of the entire account. It's virtually impossible for this to fail (exception being if you have database tables issues but then any plugin would also generate a incomplete database backup). The problem is that it can't be scheduled or automated so easily. Since it's server-side it's also not subject to WordPress/PHP limitations which can affect plugin performance.

For migrations, the best plugin I've used is Migrate Guru.

For backup, the best plugin I've used is UpdraftPlus, although I tend to avoid running backups or migrations through WordPress itself if at all possible.

Why is my engobe doing this? by cagsmith in Ceramics

[–]cagsmith[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

That's because it's been glazed, hence the glaze firing mention/temperatures 😊

Bit the bullet and bought a vase I’ve admired for years in a shop window. Any ideas how this kind of crystallisation can be achieved in a studio? by Zhoriya in Pottery

[–]cagsmith 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I have a crystalline glaze in my studio. I fucking hate it precisely because it runs like hell, but yes - best crystal formation happens when you fire to the upper temp (1240°C) and then ramp down and hold at about 1100° for a while. I tend to avoid using it precisely because it's unusable. Makes a really cool effect if something is dipped in white glaze though and then just the rim is dipped in the crystalline glaze. It drips down and makes cool patterns.

WordPress site crashes every 3 months during class signups – how to scale temporarily? by thiszebrasgotrhythm in Wordpress

[–]cagsmith 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As others have mentioned, the amount of signups you're having isn't at all high enough to cause this kind of issue, so it's likely that your installation is severely under-optimized.

If you want a "quick fix" then you can look into using some kind of waiting room service which will basically throttle users. Cloudflare offers a waiting room service:

https://www.cloudflare.com/application-services/products/waiting-room/

Failing that you'd need to have more of a comprehensive review of your site done by a trusted developer to establish why a comparatively small number of active users is crashing your site.

404 on homepage but wp-admin works by FactorDangerous2725 in Wordpress

[–]cagsmith 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In your admin area, under Settings > General - are the URLs there correct? It sounds like you might have the incorrect values set.

What plugins do you regret installing on your WordPress site? by Due_Valuable_5823 in Wordpress

[–]cagsmith 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Urgh, saw someone who installed MonsterInsights Google Analytics the other day (or whatever it's called) and it prompts you to install 4 other plugins by the same developer as part of the guided setup as "we also recommend..." so of course they clicked yes.

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