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How Elizabeth makes a pot:

1. Make shopping list and drive to Bailey to pick up clay (6 hour round trip).

2. Unload and store clay in studio.

3. Wedge clay.

4. Weigh amount of clay needed for pot.

5. Fill a bucket of water for throwing, put a bat on the wheel head, center clay and throw the body
of the mug.

6. Remove bat off the wheel,let pot firm up a bit and then cut it off the wheel, invert, and let sit
several hours or overnight, depending on weather, till it's leather hard and ready for trimming.

7. Put mug back on wheel, center with Giffen grip, sharpen trim tool and trim as needed. 

8. Wedge more clay, and hand pull handle lugs.

9. Let the lugs dry 1 hr or more; depending on weather.

10. Attach lugs to trimmed pot and sign.

11. Re-mix previously made flashing slips which took an hour or so to weigh raw materials, add
water, mix and sieve, and dip pot in slip, wipe any drips, sponge off the bottom, then brush,
dip or spray second slip if using.

12 Mix and sieve decorating slip and draw design on pot if needed.

13 Clean wheel and bat wash tools, and sweep the floor. Put clay scraps in bucket of into clay
bucketr for reclaiming.

14. Let pot dry till bone dry (about a week, depending on weather).

15. Vacuum and load bisque kiln and fire about ten to twelve hours to over 1800 degrees F.

16. Let kiln cool a day or two and unload.

17. Mix and sieve glazes.

18. paint with lovely brush paintings and glaze inside of pot and outside as needed.

19 Wash buckets, sieves, mixer and sponges and store.

20. Let glazed pot dry thoroughly for a day.

21. Weigh out a batch of wadding, add water and mix, then form individual wads. Glue several
wads to the bottom of pot to prevent it from sticking to the kiln shelf. (This takes a whole
day for a kiln load of pots.)

22. When ware cart is full, wheel it to kiln room. If glazes or slips get bumped on the way or
while loading, set aside to redo later.

23. Wedge clay and make draw tiles, and cone packs for the firing.

24. Sprinkle and smooth oyster shells on kiln shelf before setting pots on shelves.

25 Sweep kiln and start loading.

26. Seal kiln.

27. Mix up kiln mud and use large pastry bag and large tip to mud up the cracks in the roof.

28. Turn the pilot burner on low, and let it slowly warm up several hours.

29. Prep wood.

27. While kiln is firing, brush painting demos.

28. Monitor firing - check kiln every 15-30 minutes, adjusting burners and dampers as needed, adding wood
and logging the firing as it progresses.

29. Toward end of firing, get the saw dust bags prepped, 150.

30. When cone 6 is starting, put saw dust bag and two sticks in firing chamber every 3-5 minutes for 1 hour.

31. When kiln reaches temperature (around 2200F), shut off chimney, push in dampers.

32. Clean up debris.  Store unused wood and sawdust bags.

33. Next morning sweep kiln room, tidy ware cart, put away unused wadding, kiln mud, and other tools used to prepare for and during the firing.

34. Next day, when kiln has cooled to 300 F slowly start slowly un-bricking kiln during the
day. When pots are cool enough to handle, start unloading.

35. Move ware cart full of pots into the studio. Examine pot. If it's looks good, remove the wads, wet it and sand with silicon carbide sand paper, rinse and dry.

36. Price mug and move it to showroom, or set it aside to wrap, pack, and deliver or ship.

37. Scrape and store kiln shelves and kiln furniture, sweep kiln room and clean studio, and plan
the next cycle.

38. When innocent person asks "Why does this pot cost so much?" Just smile, and show them this list.  (pot costs $18-24)

PS: If anything goes wrong between steps 3 -18, go back to step 3 and start over.

Hidden steps not included in the above list.

- Answer phone

- Promote work: work on website, blog, design promotional material, call galleries, customers.

- Order promotional material

- Order packing material

- Shop for other, non clay, raw material, studio supplies

- Book keeping, bill paying, filling out monthly sales tax forms and remitting collected taxes

- Sell pots

- Develop and test new glazes, slips and clay bodies.

- Come up with new designs.

- Re-cycle clay

- Attend conferences and/or workshops

-Spend 12 years learning to brush paint.

many times I hear

"You make it look so easy"

and sometimes it is! 

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