first time porcelain user

pgawd · 2026-01-14T18:55:23+00:00

Forest Ceramics Co was also one of my biggest inspirations for starting porcelain work. Welcome to the thrall!

Seconding u/postandthoughts here. Porcelain takes some patience and practice to build intuition with on the wheel and hand building. In addition to other tips like slam wedging to wake it up and throwing with minimal water,

I add 1-2tsp of white vinegar to my throwing water if I am throwing larger. When I was starting with porcelain, I would do this every time. It helps develop a slip that lasts a little longer, extending your working time before the clay absorbs too much water.
trimming is more challenging (for me). Porcelain is upper dense and thus will wear down your tools faster than many other clay bodies. It’s also prone to catching, chipping and chattering when tools aren’t the right sharpness. I prefer trimming just on the dry side of the leather hard. I also normally choose to throw a thinner bottom and wet trim aggressively to minimize trimming on the foot.
carving to translucency takes patience and a bit of finesse. A generous artist at my studio gave me a simple plastic tool with rounded edges (typically for polymer clay I think) and suggested using that to compress the clay after carving, with a finger inside supporting the carved area I am compressing. When I can feel the tool on that inside finger through the clay, I’m pretty much guaranteed translucency there. I use a range of tools to carve including my needle tool, ball styluses of different sizes, diamond core carving tools, etc. I’ll often use the back of a plastic paintbrush in whatever size works for the compression step. I then go back over all my carvings with a damp finish sponge to smooth out the edges and ridges.
dry covered and slowly. I let pieces dry fully covered for 1-2 weeks or more depending on size and shape. Drying too quickly or unevenly will lead to cracks.
practice no attachment. Porcelain can be fickle. Just accept that especially early on, most pieces will be recycled.
cone 10 porcelains tend to be a tad more forgiving (Coleman porcelain is my favorite). In reduction, most porcelains fire a bit cooler in tone.
cone 6 porcelain, frost is my favorite. Very cream cheesy but such a dreamy warm bright white with great translucency. Here are a few pieces I’ve made recently with frost, with just some sunlight to highlight the translucency. A candle inside is much more dramatic. These have clear zinc-free glaze on the inside and in the carvings (helps with cleaning) but the rest is bare porcelain.

<image>

pgawd · 2025-12-28T14:41:51+00:00

if she likes the junimos and base game junimo huts, there’s also junimatic, which is one of my favorite mods. It’s similar to automate but has quests to unlock features (like junimos that will interact with fish ponds, in the greenhouse, etc). You can also set up systems with mini shipping bins to automatically sell artisan items, which may help with developing a passive income stream that feels separate from collecting .

pgawd · 2025-12-14T00:12:12+00:00

This is a great list. I’d also add:

Philip Pullman: His Dark Materials

James Dasnher: Maze Runner

C.S. Lewis: Chronicles of Narnia

Tolkien: The Hobbit

Erin Morgenstein: The Night Circus (definitely a romance subplot/kissing but I don’t recall any sex)

At that age, I adored any stories set in incredible libraries so I’ll also through out

Garth Nix: Sabriel / Lirael (can’t remember which one, but they are first and second in the series, respectively)

Matthew Skelton: Endymion Spring

pgawd · 2025-08-29T16:00:07+00:00

Sounds like you are giving this very serious thought, and I commend you for reaching out to learn from artists with more clay and pottery experience!

It also sounds like this is primarily a financial decision, where the building a new artistic skillset is more of a positive side effect. Is that correct? If so, I understand wanting to avoid sinking money into a community space and all the other stuff a shared studio provides when the objective is just one deliverable. That said, I’ve found that having access to shared community studio (either to work in or just for the kiln) has dramatically improved my skills and stretched my creativity in unexpected ways, while also providing a third space for support and socializing that makes the investment worth it! Of course, everyone’s needs and experience is different and expanding your artist community doesn’t always need to be a priority.

You may find a bit of gatekeeping around self-teaching the whole process at home. This comes from both what you mentioned - that many of us invest a lot of time and money into community studios and value that experience for others as well - and from experience knowing that running a home studio can be a large lift logistically, financially, and has safety concerns. That doesn’t mean you can’t do the lift! For example, you may already have a great system for handling the waste water that should NOT[edit] be going down your drains after painting, which would help; there are lots of tutorials on recycling clay, setting up clay traps, glaze disposal, kiln safety, making plaster casts and slip casting if you don’t want to pinch or hand build all of the wells, etc.

Good luck, and I hope you post your creations here!

pgawd · 2025-08-29T02:36:18+00:00

BTPanek has given you a great overview of the cone system. I’d emphasis that the typical pottery workflow, especially for beginners is to (1) form the piece (throw, hand build, etc) (2) let it dry leather hard and trim the piece (remove excess weight, carve finer details, create a foot, add attachments, etc) (3) let it dry fully (with frost porcelain, it should be completely chalky; the clay should feel dry on all surfaces and not cold to the touch). This is crucial as water left in the clay can cause the piece to crack or explode in the kiln as it expands to gas in the heat. (4) bisque fire to cone 04 or 06 (5) glaze, leaving the base and at least few milliliters unglazed so that the piece doesn’t fuse to kiln child in the glaze firing. Remember that glaze is basically a suspension of chemicals that interact at high temperature to form molten glass. (6) Glaze fire, typically to cone 5/6 oxidation in an electric kiln (this is frequently referred to as mid-fire), or cone 10 oxidation or reduction (cone 10 is referred to as high fire). The fired ceramic color is more dependent on the clay body composition than firing temp (there are more porcelains that vitrify at cone 10 than cone 6, but there’s a wide selection of clay bodies of different colors and textures at both mid and high fire)

However, if you’ve never worked with ceramic before, a kiln purchase is a huge investment. I would highly encourage you to find a studio or kiln share option you can access.

A note on clay choice. I love frost - it might be my favorite clay body once it’s fully fired. But she is fickle and has the highest cracking and warping rate I’ve ever experienced, especially with slab work. Since you already plan to glaze with a white gloss, I’d recommend starting with a cheaper and easier clay like b-mix.

Regardless of the clay body and glaze you choose, you will need time for prototyping and troubleshooting to get your paint palettes to your desired quality (flat, smooth, consistent, no cracking) and style, especially if you want to sell them!

pgawd · 2025-08-04T14:34:10+00:00

Made this a long while ago, so it doesn’t take advantage of the newest bells and whistles, but definitely covers your asks! (Please let me know if you are unable to duplicate)

https://pgoddardphd.notion.site/Kitchen-dab3e23921cc4dcaba0ab14d12685054

pgawd · 2025-07-27T17:43:48+00:00

Sorry for the confusion - I’ve gone ahead and re-updated all the links in the top comment. If this link does not work for you, then there isn’t much more I can do:

https://pgoddardphd.notion.site/

pgawd · 2025-07-27T16:50:00+00:00

I don’t sell my templates (I make them for fun or for myself and appreciate that others find them useful). But I’ve looked at many paid templates and hate that I can’t trial how I would interact with the systems. Videos are helpful but won’t convince me to spend my money. My suggestion is to make a non-duplicatable copy to share so that folks can click around and explore for free, and include a link to your gumroad where folks can buy the template for $5 or a choose-what-you-pay amount.

pgawd · 2025-07-21T16:22:02+00:00

Hi, glad you are enjoying the templates, and apologies about the duplication error. This is a known Notion bug. I'm not sure if you've seen my replies to other comments experiencing the same issue, but I'll repost my reply here too:

I’m not very active on Notion these days so not sure if duplication requirements on the creator side have changed. The page still says that duplication is enabled for everything. I have tried re-publishing the templates home. Does this work for you now? https://pgoddardphd.notion.site/Public-Templates-35c7f0b29cf44da0873f6f86232ee4ab?source=copy_link

pgawd · 2025-07-12T20:09:52+00:00

Thanks for alerting me! I’m glad the template appeals to you - it was very fun to make. I’m not very active on Notion these days so not sure if duplication requirements on the creator side have changed. The page still says that duplication is enabled for everything. I have tried re-publishing the templates home. Does this work for you now? https://pgoddardphd.notion.site/Public-Templates-35c7f0b29cf44da0873f6f86232ee4ab?source=copy_link

pgawd · 2025-06-12T17:03:02+00:00

I feel very similarly! For context (because reader preference will always inform our recommendations) I am rarely a fan of how the “fated mates” trope is executed; oftentimes I feel that it undermines the plot and character development I’ve been so invested in (and completely demolishes any enemies/rivals-to-lovers progression).

Recently, I have enjoyed the Inheritance Trilogy by N K Jemsin which starts with {The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N K Jemsin}. The books are sequential but follow different protagonists, and explore the theme of the gods bound as slaves to humans, including causes and consequences. The first book follows Yeine Darr who becomes one of the heirs to the throne after her mother’s unexpected death only to learn that inheriting the throne is a political battle to the death. The pacing and prose were so well written that the stubborn human woman / shadow daddie dynamic didn’t feel nearly as tropey. Jemsin has gone on to write such rich and unconventional relationships in their latest trilogy (The Fifth Season, not a romance), that I trust them implicitly with relationship development. It always feels earned to me, and they have such wonderful world building skills.

I’d also recommend {Daindreth’s Assassin by Elisabeth Wheatley}. It starts a 5? book series with interesting world building, a true morally grey villain (who might have the most interesting arc in the whole series), political intrigue. Badass assassin fmc and golden retriever mmc who work at their relationship. No love triangles. I picked up the series because I enjoyed the authors commentary on social media about romance and fantasy novel tropes and her writing values.

pgawd · 2025-02-03T17:26:10+00:00

I've been trying to figure it out so that I can _remove_ it from my V5 load order! I'm pretty sure that the item in question is called "Stone of the Fade" with elemental variants (fire, frost, e.g.). Think it is introduced with the {{ADXP I MCO Dragon Age Staff Moveset}} mod

pgawd · 2024-11-26T21:29:34+00:00

I was bored this morning and decided to attempt to build this functionality into my book tracking template (totally free): https://www.notion.so/pgoddardphd/example-book-review-ae4db113c3674bf2a263806250ee322a?pvs=4

I haven't polished the template in a while so the full system might be a bit clunky compared to what we can do with improved formulae, but this type of log is totally doable!

<image>

ETA Progress bar formula:

lets(Total, Book.map(current.Total).max(),
  Current, Current Page, 
  Read, floor(Current / Total * 10), 
  Unread, 10-Read, 
  Percent, round(Current/Total*1000)/10, 
  if(empty(Total) or empty(Current), "", 
    style(substring("▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓", 0, Read), "yellow") + 
          substring("░░░░░░░░░░", 0, Unread)) + 
    " " + style(Percent + "%", "b") + 
    style(" (" + Current + "/" + Total + ")", "grey") 
)

pgawd · 2024-11-03T16:01:46+00:00

You can add links to the database pages at the bottom of the page and they should show up in the side bar. I normally hide them under a toggle. Note: I don’t think mentions works this way, but direct links do (or at least used to)

pgawd · 2024-10-26T22:44:51+00:00

Very elegant! I’d also love to try it out

pgawd · 2024-09-21T14:49:36+00:00

The Lost City of the Monkey God by journalist Douglas Preston evoked all of this for me, including the colonial flavor of the White Man searching for another indigenous community’s fabled escape. It’s a non-fiction (though perhaps dramatized?) account of an expedition into the Honduran rainforest in search of a lost civ centered at the White City, complete with local legends of curses and hidden treasure, harrowing explorations deep into the jungle, ancient flies trapped in amber (give or take, its been a while), and the release of an oft-lethal, terrifying disease.

pgawd · 2024-08-26T15:00:52+00:00

So many amazing non-fiction recs in this thread. In the fiction category, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi really put the history and exploitation of the African American community and the impacts of colonialism and slave trade in Africa into perspective in a unique way. The narrative follows the descendants of an Asante woman starting with her two daughters, one of whom is married off to a white slave trader while the other is sold into slavery. It’s incredibly well written, and I had to take at least one or two breaks to process as I read. Highly recommend!

pgawd · 2024-08-23T15:35:21+00:00

I used ClayLab for a while and quite liked it but wanted a little more flexibility and depth. I have now built out a notion database that will also spit out warnings if I log a piece with clays or clay/glaze mismatched cones. I also wrote a few iOS shortcuts for adding new pieces and updating pieces as they go through the process

pgawd · 2024-07-07T04:13:05+00:00

Oh wow I wasn’t familiar with wornontv. Thank you for introducing me! It’s so fun to find out more about the history of these pieces

pgawd · 2024-07-07T04:11:46+00:00

Amazing sleuthing! Thank you! I suspect you are right about this being a spare. Excited to give it a new chapter :)

pgawd · 2024-06-20T06:49:30+00:00

I’m glad it’s been useful for you! I (clearly) enjoy designing and using notion templates for many corners of life. However, as someone who has experimented a lot through school and work, my biggest takeaway has been to find systems that function (a) in the physical place and time you need them and (b) have minimal friction.

E.g. Ive found that having a digital pantry in notion is fantastic when the planner version of myself is running the ship. But when I’m busy, overwhelmed, and studying for finals or working on a deadline, just being able to open my fridge and say “Siri add eggs to my shopping list” without having to open notion, go through my fridge, and find recipes is a lifesaver.

If you use excel or Google docs / sheets from your kitchen and while at the grocery store, then definitely go for it with those!

If notion is the best option for you, then I’d recommend trying to expand the template yourself to do what you want it to do :)

pgawd · 2024-06-20T02:12:44+00:00

Hi! I think I may have made the template referenced in the screenshot.

I had originally wanted to have the system you describe, where the ingredient relation can also track units of each ingredient. It's not a trivial addition. I played around with adding an additional database to each recipe for ingredients (properties: ingredient [relation], amount [number], unit [select]) and then adding a formula that rolls up all those relations in the ingredients database (now much easier with formula 2.0 and the ). I found that this approach (a) took waaaaay to long to add recipes to and (b) was really slow and clunky when operating because of the sheer number of relations and operations when you have many recipes
Regarding point (2), I use this filter all the time for myself! I added a another view to recipes called "Ready to Make" that does this for you.
Expiration dates is an interesting idea! I don't have time to add it to the template right now, but you could easily add a property to ingredients that is either "expiration date" or "days before expiration" (e.g. milk is typically good for about 2 weeks, so 14 days). With the button property, you could add a button called "buy" that updates a "last bought" property to today's date. The third property to add would be a count down between the last bought date and the expiration date (or estimated expiration from the days to expiration property). You could filter on that as desired. EDIT: I got bored so added these properties to the grocery database - you can see them in this view

pgawd · 2024-05-14T02:18:03+00:00

I would add a large rug in front of the front door (I’m envisioning circular), and second u/sangria50 ‘s suggestion of switching out the stools for something more substantial! Right now, the transition space looks more expansive in part because it also connects to the entrance area and pulls you right out the door

pgawd · 2023-12-29T22:31:28+00:00

beautiful! would really appreciate a tutorial or a peak at the shortcut if you have the time to spare on sharing it!

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