: Denice - Viewing Profile

I also was one of those art students who didn't play an instrument, sing or act. I have a good excuse, I was 60 percent deaf when I was young and had my hearing fixed but it seems to be out of tune, I can't even play the radio. We started our son in organ lessons when he was 5 they said it was good for math skills. It turned out he was very talented, had perfect pitch and could play any song he heard. He lost interest in it and is a chef, if I had that talent I would play everyday. Denice

Most young children have a short attention span so you will probably won't have her for more than a hour at a time. She will probably like wearing a light weight dust mast and gloves, what projects you make depends on how old she is. My son I started him with snakes around 3 and then dinosaurs at 5, I got a 4X4 piece of plywood and made a dinosaurs island with a volcano in the middle, this took quite of while to finish. When he was eight we made rock fossils, pressed out the clay into a slab and scratched the fossil design in it and then use oxides to color and age it. A little girl might want to make pendant and charms or maybe a tea set, I was a tomboy dinosaurs would have been my choice. I taught my son some throwing when he was 14 but them he lost interest in it, he was playing in a band. Denice

I am using a skutt enviro vent system, I have had surprising results. I bought it to help vent, and hoped it would help balance the firing in my Skutt 1027, I have a dual Skutt pyrometer set up. Before the vent system I would have between 50 and 80 degrees from top to bottom after installing the vent it was 10 to 15 degrees. I was surprised I wasn't expecting much and I was measuring top to bottom, if I had measured from the middle to the bottom the difference wouldn't be so drastic. I'm not sure I would buy it just for balancing the temp since I do that manually towards the end of the firing. Denice

I know I'm a rebel saying this but I would use them on non functional work. Lead glazes in general are beautiful glazes, the government banned them because people were getting lead poisoning from eating off of dishes that had a lead based glaze. As I remember it most of the dishes were bought or made outside of the US, it's a pity the government couldn't find a better way to control the situation. Wear a dust mask and gloves while working with it and you'll be fine. Denice

I'm straight out of the sixties and never threw in a dress.