The skinny on plans for the studio - we need you to weigh in on glazes!

We know everyone has heard about the studio's move toward establishing new policies and creating new glazes. Hopefully this post will allay some worries and clarify a bit. The goal is that any changes will be first and foremost aimed at improving the TAC clay studio: making it self-supporting, having more consistency in the practical workings of the studio, keeping a variety of stable glazes and a good inventory of tools, getting in more students and potters, maintaining equipment we have, purchasing more and better equipment ... a second kiln, maybe a pug mill down the road, etc.?!

Policies: Various modifications are in planning stages re Open Studio schedules, policies, pricing ... you name it. But no changes are official yet, and nothing will be etched in stone. If we try something and it turns out not to work for us, we will adjust it. Please stand by for these.

Glazes: Simplifying our glazes will save a lot of money and help with consistency of glazing results, and make the studio a bit safer to boot. We are currently storing a number of chemicals we don't need, many of which cost a fair amount, and many of our current glazes have very few common ingredients. As most of you know, we also have had quite a bit of inconsistency over the years with how glazes have acted, etc., in the kiln. Some of the glazes we use would probably work better with special programming in the kiln (ramping up the temperature, for example). Such programming is not very practical for open studio firings since we have many different potters' pieces and glazes being fired at once.

Therefore, we plan to switch to a different family of glazes which have lots of common ingredients, simpler recipes, and some safer chemicals, and which will all fire consistently with the same kiln programming. With these changes, we can save money and make glaze results more consistent.

The test tiles many of you have noticed in the studio represent only a few of these new glazes, a couple of colors in matte and in glossy with black and white slips on the edges. Here is what we will consistently have in the studio:

Glossy:
white, black, clear, blue, green, yellow, cream

Matte:
white, black, blue, and one or two others (we can poll for everyone's
preferences)

We will also have the white and black slips for regular use.

In addition to these, we will continue to have two of our current glazes. This lets us keep a couple of particularly fun glazes that people have fallen in love with over the years, but we still would be able to keep the amount of necessary ingredients, and therefore costs, down.

Between all of these choices and counting the possibilities added by having the slips, we will have over 100 different choices of combinations of glazes. We will have this range ALL THE TIME because it will be easier to restock glaze since the ingredients will be more affordable and easier to manage in the studio. Potters will always know what to expect, both in what choices they have and in how each glaze will act with our standard kiln programming.

Everyone will still be able to use their own personally purchased cone 6 glazes just like now.

So! Now it's time for you to weigh in on which of our current glazes you would like to keep. Please click the link below and vote for your preferences. We will keep the top two favorites for sure, possibly three. Only monitors will see your answers, so please do fill in your email where it asks. This is just in case we have a question.

Please click here to vote 

A note about email notifications

Oops - some of the formatting of email notifications had changed since I looked at them last and I didn't realize. There were a few bits in the original post here that were not accurate - below is the new and improved, entirely accurate, version. Sorry to have confused people even further!

The email notifications have caused some confusion.

When you get a notification that there is a post on the blog, you are welcome simply to read it there in your email, or you can go read it on the blog by using the hotlink at the bottom of the message.

Please note that your email notification will only include the text of the latest post to the blog, nothing else from the blog. If the post mentions other parts of the blog (the sidebar, the other pages of the blog, or the tabs, etc.) they will not be visible to you in your email.

If you use the hotlink in your email to go to the post in the blog itself, you will see the other parts of the blog. Again, this is not absolutely necessary if you just want to see the latest news that was posted.

Please note that the hotlink at the bottom of your email will only take you to that particular post, not the homepage of the blog, so if you like to bookmark things, don't use that link. Click "home" once you get to the blog for the main page/URL or here it is if you'd like to copy/paste from your email: http://tacclay.blogspot.com 

Again, if you would like to be removed from the notifications list, just let one of the monitors know. Please be sure to check the blog regularly for info after that so you don't miss anything important. Think of the blog as an extension of the white board in the studio. Everything from kiln firings, to Open Studio cancelations, to studio problems, to celebrations (like: Have you seen our incredibly fun new shade on the window?!*) will be posted on the blog. It will be assumed that all regular Open Studio attendees and monitors and clay class instructors are aware of all blog announcements.

*No, seriously, have you? It is great! And should keep our plastic covered work cart cooler... now if we could just get everyone to close the plastic promptly and completely! Ahem...

Hi!

Hello and welcome to our new TAC clay studio blog. This will be a place to see any and all important TAC news and info without any sign-in or membership requirement.

Up to ten people can receive automatic notifications when something is posted on the blog. For now, this list includes monitors and the most regular OS attendees. For the moment, comments are not being forwarded to anyone but monitors. If you would like to be added to the comments notification list, please let the monitors know.

If you comment on the blog, please keep standard internet etiquette in mind when commenting and don't forget that this blog is public. Do not share any sensitive information on the blog.

The blog is not to be confused with the Facebook group. The Facebook group will continue to have more social and incidental postings, but necessary studio information will always be posted here on the blog since not all open studios potters are on Facebook. Monitors will manage the blog, and not all of them have access to Facebook. If you do have crucial info which should be posted here or which you see on Facebook and think should be shared here as well, please let Meredith or Mindy or Susan know ASAP. Their emails are linked in the sidebar.

Obviously certain things here are still in progress. Please explore the tabs above (for pending materials like policies, etc.) and the links to the side. Please send any links you'd like included in our list to Susan (link in sidebar). Eventually we'd like to create a photo page as well, and we will most likely use a photo of our own (one of our potters' or a studio pic) as the blog background, too. If you have photos you would like to share, please keep them handy and watch for announcements about this. 

Any and all comments and suggestions for the blog are welcome. Please let the monitors know via the links in the sidebar if you have general info or suggestions.