Fired Arts Committee Meeting - Thurs 7/6/17 @ 8:45

I was looking through the calendar today and happened to stumbled across an entry for a committee meeting for next Thursday. I haven’t seen a post here announcing it and I thought I’d give folks a heads up so anyone interested in attending and being involved can plan accordingly.

I’ll cross post to the facebook group as well so we can reach as many committee members as possible. If there’s somewhere else that the meeting should be announced at, I think it would be awesome if it was.

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Be aware – it’s just there to be there. There is no agenda, and the meeting will be over by 9pm.

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I’ll be there! Looking forward to meeting other committee members and talking about what all cool projects we can get up to for the future.

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Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the meeting. What transpired from it aka what kind of cool projects do you have in my mind for the next few months?

It was a small meeting but lots of content! I’ll cover the handful of things I’m slated to work on and let others discuss their plans.

  1. Going to sketch out plans for a revised clay recycling system to accommodate a larger volume at a faster clip. It will also, hopefully, reduce the number of slaking buckets needed. I’m going to include a different class/free clay storage method in the proposal that should improve the condition of the clay and keep it more generally workable. As soon as I finish it, I’ll put it up on Talk for people to discuss and weigh in on.

  2. Looking into pricing for adding a small payment box to put near the glazes in case folks feel like dropping a dollar or two in when using consumables. It doesn’t take very many of those before you have enough to buy a whole new glaze! Also looking to add a bit of location specific signage as I’ve had multiple people tell me they weren’t sure what they could use when they first started. Easy enough to make a small sign. I’ll run the proposed donation sign text by the committee as well to make sure we are on the same page.

  3. Shirley and I have been dragging our feet on getting the one-page infographic sign on how to clean a wheel done. We have members using so many different clay bodies that this is important and we need to knock it out.

  4. We talked about the clay extruder and making it mobile (so it can be rolled to a classroom for projects). This idea came from @MrsMoose and I need to hook up with her and maybe get some photos of the one she has in her classroom, etc.

  5. Asked if there was going to be another slow cool Macro-Oil Spot firing in the future and the answer is absolutely yes. This time around, since it is our first, I’m personally sticking with commercial glazes (Coyote Macrocrystalline and Coyote Texas Two-Step Oil Spot) to get a general feel for it. Next time I’d like to mix up one or two more ambitious options that will give us that super large crystal growth kind of thing.

Both groovy and useful things are afoot!

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I’ll sketch it out next time I see you. I learned a few things from this first iteration that I would improve on for a second build

Bear in mind that we have minimal storage room for such a thing. Christy seems to have overlooked this in her exuberance.

lol I know which is why I told her the slab roller extruded combo would be a bit much. Otherwise the footprint is the same as what we’d have to give up to use it on a wall anyway. If we got real fancy and used it a clay cart too like I do it can save a little room too.

Actually, the one time I used it, we clamped it to the big shelves, extruded our stuff into a basket (a bucket would work too), and then took it to our area to work. Seems like a perfectly maker-ish thing to do. And, given that space is at a premium, probably still the best bet.

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I wonder if we could make the dies that allow vor hollow extrusion on onw
of our tools?>

We have cut dies using the laser cutter.

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Good, its been a while since I checked

Yes making dies is simple

Actually, I had considered the space constraints and I mentioned a modification that would significantly decrease the footprint of the mobile set up at the meeting. After I post up the starter idea, I definitely welcome people to pick it apart with glee. Part of the proposal will be a strong look at the exact dimensions and possibilities of how and where it can be stored within our limited space.

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Awesome, thank you. Making the tool easier to use would likely increase the frequency of said use. If you teach a coil class, I’ll give it a shot and promise to not mention a word about how much I hate making coil pottery (I do, I so do). I’m ready to give it another swing and change my tune!

@dryad2b

Have you spoken to Connor about the non-functioning kiln? Please shoot us an update regarding this and if the news is good, I can nail down an exact date for the macrocrystalline firing. If we’ll only have the larger Paragon, I’ll work with you to schedule it in so it interferes the least with classes/regular firings.

I let you know when I know. Patience is a virtue.

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It has been two months since you first told me you were going to call him about the kiln, I’ve offered twice to be there if you were having scheduling difficulties and at the FA committee meeting you said you would call this Monday. I’m not trying to be rude, I’m trying to get a resource repaired. If there is some difficulty with this the committee doesn’t know about, please just advise us.

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Conor had a conflict this Saturday. He will be able to look at the kiln next Saturday.

Now – this isn’t particularly useful information. Until we know what is required to fix the kiln, this doesn’t predict when the kiln will be repaired.

Thanks for the update. I’ll get with you on Sunday to work out the best time to run the macro/oil kiln load as to interfere the least with the handbuilding and throwing classes. The throwing class will have greenware ready for bisque after the 30th and will be glazing them on the 6th. The glaze firing is of course less critical on timing, I can email them when done.