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