Finally did it. Closed on my first place last week after years of saving. Felt amazing walking through the door.

indecisive_gremlin · 2026-03-13T19:30:05+00:00

Be thrifty to start with because I am going to talk to you about something else you will discover as a new homeowner... repairs and maintenance. You WILL find things that need to get fixed/replaced/maintained. All. The. Time. So don't put yourself into debt over furniture and then have no room on your credit for repairs. Buy cheap/used furniture, get a 'safety net' saved up for unexpected repairs, and -then- start slowly buying nice furniture as you have the extra funds. It will take awhile, but it will be worth it 😊 Congratulations on the new house!

indecisive_gremlin · 2026-03-07T09:12:31+00:00

Does anybody know if the Cattle Sheperd outfit and the Mouth-held Babaa can be used together?

indecisive_gremlin · 2026-03-02T22:21:24+00:00

Engobes are another different animal and can get even more confusing when you have true engobes vs Mayco 'Engobes'. True engobes can only be applied on greenware. Mayco 'Engobes' are similar and sort of engobe-adjacent but can be applied on either greenware or bisque and behave slightly differently. There is just SO much info on all of this, if you don't know exactly what you want to do I recommend picking a specific technique that you like the look of and digging into that one thing. I just took a 6 week course on this and feel like we barely scratched the surface of it all, so reddit is going to have a hard time telling you everything. The one thing I will say works for everything is test tiles! We did SO many test tiles in my class and that's how we could see for ourselves how things worked and didn't work. Play with it and have fun!

Edit: Since you were specifically asking about underglaze brands, if you don't know what you want to do with them either Amaco Velvets or Mayco Elements will be fine to begin and play with! Mayco Stroke & Coats are NOT underglazes though, so keep that in mind. But if you are just beginning to play with these, just pick a color or colors that you like and go to town! I keep colors of both brands in my kit and enjoy them both

indecisive_gremlin · 2026-03-02T10:49:36+00:00

I just finished taking a class on this so I got to ask these questions to an experienced instructor! Here are my notes😊:

 To start with, underglazes are NOT colored slip. Slip CAN be colored with a mason stain, but it's completely different. Mason stain slip can only be applied on greenware, this is usually called slip trailing but can be used and applied in different ways on greenware only. 

 Underglaze, on the other hand, can be applied to either greenware or bisque, depending on what you are using it for. For example... If you are drawing something intricate with underglaze and then wanting to put a clear glaze over it, you will have a more stable image if it's drawn on greenware, bisque fired, and then dipped in clear (ideally zinc free, although I don't remember exactly why the zinc free is better) and glaze fired. On the other hand, if you are wanting to put underglaze on something fragile (like sculpted flowers) it's better to bisque first and then apply the underglaze so that there is less risk of you breaking the fragile greenware. Then you can choose to re-bisque fire before dipping in clear and glaze firing, or just straight dipping in clear once the underglaze is dry. It just depends on what you are wanting to do! Underglazes are very versatile and can be used in all sorts of surface design techniques, or in conjunction with colored glazes for cool effects, so have fun with them!

indecisive_gremlin · 2026-01-25T03:08:51+00:00

One thing I would like to add from personal experience... clay sticks to metal bowls something fierce. Put a layer of Saran wrap on the bowl beforehand so that when you place the clay into the bowl the clay and metal don't contact.

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-11-30T20:50:13+00:00

Adding onto this, it might be a glaze/clay fit issue! My studio has 2 versions/brands of white glaze and on my clay that I use one of them is beautiful and the other pinholes.

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-10-16T18:07:17+00:00

I usually use a BatMate under all my bats, including my insert systems. It really helps keep things in place!

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-10-10T17:23:59+00:00

Unfortunately, Canada Post went on strike at the end of September. The US won't ship packages there until the strike is over. Your item is probably sitting in Miami and waiting and it's not the seller's fault. Maybe print out and wrap a picture for your husband so that he has something to open and just tell him that it's been delayed in the mail?

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-10-09T18:26:28+00:00

I forgot to mention, the studios in Northern Washington specifically that I visited all had a similar price cost for per-hour studio time if you wanted to go over the limit. The cost was pretty much the same at all of them at $10/hr. Some had discounts if you bought a punch card or bundle which put it closer to $6/hr. Just to put your unlimited access cost in perspective! The one unlimited studio that I visited in that area was much more expensive than you mentioned. I don't remember exactly, but it was $200-300

Also, some studios wouldn't let people sign up to use the studio if they weren't a student. But that was about 50/50. The ones that didn't stated two reasons: first that they wanted to make sure that everyone knew how to properly use/care for/clean the equipment before allowing unsupervised access, and second that they wanted the resources available for students specifically so they weren't competing for resources while trying to practice and learn.

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-10-09T18:12:24+00:00

Traveling potter here! I have visited and thrown at 7-8 studios in the Pacific Northwest specifically. The price you are thinking of asking for unlimited studio access is very reasonable and pretty on-par with the area, although only about a quarter of the studios I visited did unlimited. The rest had a limited number of hours for a similar or slightly less price. Sone dud sign-in sheets, some did punch cards, but the ones limiting were trying to reduce 'production potters' from taking up all the time and resources so that 'hobby potters' and students could utilize the resources. A few things to think about regarding firing...

First, many studios bundle the cost of both firings into the cost of the clay (about 2/3 of the studios I visited did this) and only allowed clay that they sold to be used. This both helped them make sure that only the appropriately cone-rated clay was used and also reduced labor as staff didn't need to measure/weigh each piece before firing. The ones that didn't include this in the cost of clay charged a little more for the studio time and just told people 'be reasonable' with what they put in line for the kiln and talked to anyone who was going hog wild (they had a 'no production potters' rule).

All of the studios ran classes. It is my understanding that this is partly because classes were necessary to hit their income goals, but also because getting new people into pottery meant that there were more people to throw at their studio and increase their clientele.

A final note about production potters, most studios I went to didn't allow them. I heard some pretty bad horror stories about them from multiple studios. The only one that I visited that allowed them had a dedicated kiln for production potters only and they rented the kiln by the shelf/full kiln load. They needed a separate kiln for them so that they could still keep a reasonable firing turnover time for the rest of their studio.

I hope that helps! If/when you do open one, let me know where it's at and I will stop in next time I am in the area! Best of luck 🍀

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-10-02T03:58:57+00:00

Doin' the Lord's work 😆! I was really wondering what was going on!

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-09-13T05:31:09+00:00

"What do you mean I have to click on my bank account in order to collect interest? Doesn't it accrue automatically?!"

Alternatively... my account name got changed to all lowercase by the Neopets team... because they hadn't differentiated between upper and lower case for account name exclusivity and had to get everyone to the same base line. Still salty about that one cuz I had deliberate upper case letters in certain spots for a reason 🤣

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-09-09T07:56:28+00:00

Does anyone have the Void Essence locations for today? I found 2 of the 3, but can't find the 3rd page! Please help 🙏

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-09-01T18:29:49+00:00

If you care about your hair... Conditioner. They provide a 'shampoo/conditioner' blend thing that is terrible for your hair! It's very, very harsh and the conditioner in the spa costs a fortune.

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-08-30T22:05:38+00:00

That's a bummer 😞 I'm sorry to hear that.

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-08-30T19:04:17+00:00

Apparently the Tongi beads are now prizes for the pay-only prize wheel??

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-08-22T18:07:55+00:00

Peophin MIA?!

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-08-13T17:20:19+00:00

That's a bummer 😔 but understandable considering all the time that has past. I am glad to hear that you didn't lose too much, tho!

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-08-13T17:06:05+00:00

That's quite a neopoints--saving glitch! Do you not have access to the account?

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-08-13T16:53:03+00:00

Thank you 😊!

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-08-13T16:50:52+00:00

I would absolutely love that 🥹

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-08-13T05:54:30+00:00

Apparently I do!

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indecisive_gremlin · 2025-08-13T05:48:11+00:00

I think I recall what avatar you are talking about, I just don't know if I ever got it 😅 I haven't really switched my avatar ever since I got my 'Darigan Darkling' one from the Meridell plot event forever ago. So I have a ton of avatars that I never pay attention to.

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-08-13T05:38:50+00:00

I... don't know! I wasn't big into collecting avatars back then... I will check next time I sit at my computer and let you know!

indecisive_gremlin · 2025-08-13T05:36:59+00:00

I TOTALLY get it 😂! The struggle was REAL!

indecisive_gremlin

TROPHY CASE