I volunteer with a group of adults with special needs. They have opened a coffee/PIE shop which is most amazing. One of the activities that they did was hand built all the coffee mugs. They turned out fantastic and the group really had a blast. I was talking to the director about their goals and such. He said that they were interested in making dessert plates as well. (Reducing their carbon footprint was important to the employees). I think the price of where they did the mugs was much higher than what he wanted to spend however.
Anyway, I would love for these peeps to come to DMS-check out the facilities and make some dessert dishes (my guess is 200 tiny plates?). I am not sure about how to go about it since these peeps would not be makerspace members. My first thought was it may be easier to slipcast a bunch of dessert plates and have them paint them. However, they had the best time hand building, I hate to not give them another opportunity to get dirty!
SO-can someone tell me how I can make this happen while following the rules? there is no timeline for this. The director was just dreaming of less plastic in the world! Thanks in advance for everyones’ input.
How many people would actually be doing the creating?
You could potentially hold a public class on how to make the plates and have a hands on exercise.
I love the idea and I dig being able to work with other cool groups. The first thing that pops to my mind is that firing 200, even small, plates would take a lot of kiln loads. Bisque not so much, but glaze, whoa. Especially as we are back down to one kiln at the moment.
I’d pm Brenda to see if you can get a line on when the other Skutt will be up and operational, that could move it from ‘logistical nightmare’ to ‘hmmmm, maybe?’. 
Alternatively, have you checked in with Conor to see how much they might charge? You could make them in a classroom at DMS and then transport for firing. You’d have a certain percentage loss, but you could account for that.
A cou if they were being transported to Trinity for firing it would be real nice if we could at least biscom first will lose a lot last once their best. The other thing that I was thinking is that for plates even dessert plates that either making them with a hump mold are Slip casting would be easier than trying to throw on a using a hot mole what allows you to use slaps and that would be quicker because you could make several plaster hump molds rather than having to let a slip cast mold dry
I was kinda thinking: They buy clay, and handbuild here. We could bisque them (as Cairenn said), and then they’d move over to Trinity to fire the glaze. They’d also need to buy the glaze they wanted, and that could be applied anywhere.
It might be possible to use a cutter and drape mold for the plates? Slip casting would be another option. I might have some small plate molds or you could find a plate mold on debmark or eBay. I would be happy to help fire these in my kiln.
I would like to see us figure out how to make this happen. One of the things I think Makerspace can do is to help with this type of projects that helps other nonprofits in the area. We may not be raising money for him but we can help them with their projects getting them done and such. I think this is an important way for DMS to add two the local community
When they made the mugs, there were 2 classes with about 10 participants and 4-5 volunteers. Most were ambulatory (I think we had 2-3 peeps with wheelchairs). Here is the thing, we can spread it out as much as we want. There is no rush on this.
That is what I was thinking. When you say hand building-were you talking about coil pots or hump molds or something else fabulous?
You are awesome!
Just roll out some slabs, cut out circles. Maybe a bit of hump mold to give it some curvature. It probably won’t be nearly as much fun as the cups, because there’s less to do. They could put on a small coil, just to have something to do. Maybe a bit of decoration…
I’m happy to help - let me know if there’s anything I can do.
Thanks-will let you know when they are ready to roll!
I feel so lucky to be apart of such great communities!
I think the decoration will be the most fun for the participants in this case. I was thinking about maybe using underglazes and stamps. Quick question: Can you add extra clay on the slip casted plate? I was thinking of adding their logo or something.
You could add their logo with underglaze and a vinyl mask. I’m not sure if you can cut clay shapes and add it to something slip cast due to different shrinkage rates - someone told me that it’s possible though. Even if it cracks you may be able to fill in cracks with bisque fix.
You can 3D print cutters for custom shapes, 3D print stamps and even use something 3D printed to make a mold for slip casting.