Dear Aunt Mary Jo,
No, I cannot just "whip up" the piece you are asking for.
clay (wet) costs about 50 a pound. it shrinks 12% in firing and loses a respective amount of water. glazes are between 50 to $1 per ounce. underglaze pencils are ridiculously expensive, generally running around $10 per pencil-- and it lasts about a third as long as a regular pencil-- about 12 miles. carbon paper is between 10 and 40 per sheet. I don't really care to add up the math for my printer, ink, and paper. any piece that is thrown and glazed requires two trips in the kiln. running a 2100 oven is not insignificant on the electric bill. in fact, it costs about $20, and I can generally fire 8 - 12 pieces at a time-- on average, it costs $4 to fire any piece.
none of this includes the equipment costs for the wheel, kiln, shelving, cabinets, bats, or tools. AND the time doesn't take into consideration developing the design.
to throw a bowl, not including failed attempts, requires between 5 and 10 pounds of clay and 1 to 2 hours. trimming the foot takes at least an hour. glazing can take anywhere from several minutes to several hours depending on the complexity. single-color dipped pieces take about 10 minutes. on the other end of the spectrum, carbon paper transfers require gluing the image onto the carbon paper, graphing both the image and the bowl so that I can place the image, and then placing the image itself, one square inch at a time.
the particular piece you want me to duplicate is 14 inches in diameter and 8 inches deep, and the foot is delicate. the underglaze pencil line adds up to around 4 feet. the image itself is somewhat intricate-- a fiddle with text around the edge. I spent between 3 and four hours throwing and trimming the piece, not including failed attempts. I can't remember exactly how much time I put into glazing it, but it certainly wasn't single digits.due to its complexity, this piece required three firings.
so no. I cannot just whip it up for you. the bowl I brought to the family gift exchange was meant to be a treasure, and you showed no interest whatsoever. you can pay enough to cover my expenses if you want it that bad.
No, I cannot just "whip up" the piece you are asking for.
clay (wet) costs about 50 a pound. it shrinks 12% in firing and loses a respective amount of water. glazes are between 50 to $1 per ounce. underglaze pencils are ridiculously expensive, generally running around $10 per pencil-- and it lasts about a third as long as a regular pencil-- about 12 miles. carbon paper is between 10 and 40 per sheet. I don't really care to add up the math for my printer, ink, and paper. any piece that is thrown and glazed requires two trips in the kiln. running a 2100 oven is not insignificant on the electric bill. in fact, it costs about $20, and I can generally fire 8 - 12 pieces at a time-- on average, it costs $4 to fire any piece.
none of this includes the equipment costs for the wheel, kiln, shelving, cabinets, bats, or tools. AND the time doesn't take into consideration developing the design.
to throw a bowl, not including failed attempts, requires between 5 and 10 pounds of clay and 1 to 2 hours. trimming the foot takes at least an hour. glazing can take anywhere from several minutes to several hours depending on the complexity. single-color dipped pieces take about 10 minutes. on the other end of the spectrum, carbon paper transfers require gluing the image onto the carbon paper, graphing both the image and the bowl so that I can place the image, and then placing the image itself, one square inch at a time.
the particular piece you want me to duplicate is 14 inches in diameter and 8 inches deep, and the foot is delicate. the underglaze pencil line adds up to around 4 feet. the image itself is somewhat intricate-- a fiddle with text around the edge. I spent between 3 and four hours throwing and trimming the piece, not including failed attempts. I can't remember exactly how much time I put into glazing it, but it certainly wasn't single digits.due to its complexity, this piece required three firings.
so no. I cannot just whip it up for you. the bowl I brought to the family gift exchange was meant to be a treasure, and you showed no interest whatsoever. you can pay enough to cover my expenses if you want it that bad.
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
mydogfarted:
I'm so glad my family doesn't suck.
giggles:
oi