Sue McLeod Ceramics
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How to Calibrate Your Kiln Sitter for Accurate Firings

How to Calibrate Your Kiln Sitter for Accurate Firings

Firing, Studio Tips

If you’re anything like me, then your first kiln wasn’t or isn’t going to be the digital programmable kind. Many of us start out with a manual kiln that we got second hand. I have 4 different sized kilns in my home studio and none of them are digital or programmable.

Learn to Mix Glazes from Scratch

Free Download

Inconsistent Glaze Results? Download this free guide

Download a pdf of my Understanding Cone 6 NCECA presentation

Recent Posts

  • Glazy Demo – Adding Recipes and More

    Glazy Demo – Adding Recipes and More

  • Why Specific Gravity Isn’t Listed on Glaze Recipes

    Why Specific Gravity Isn’t Listed on Glaze Recipes

  • 5 Reasons Why Your Large Batch of Glaze Doesn’t Match Your Test Batch

    5 Reasons Why Your Large Batch of Glaze Doesn’t Match Your Test Batch

  • A Potter With a Paycheque?

    A Potter With a Paycheque?

  • A Clay Reclaim Process Using a Pugmill/Clay Mixer

    A Clay Reclaim Process Using a Pugmill/Clay Mixer

  • How to Make a Cone Pack

    How to Make a Cone Pack

  • Commercial Glazes vs Mixing Your Own – A Cost Comparison

    Commercial Glazes vs Mixing Your Own – A Cost Comparison

  • Troubleshooting Commercial Underglazes

    Troubleshooting Commercial Underglazes

  • 99 Cone 6 Glazes You Can Try

    99 Cone 6 Glazes You Can Try

  • The Air Bubble Myth

    The Air Bubble Myth

  • What Glazes Can You Make with Limited Materials?

    What Glazes Can You Make with Limited Materials?

  • How to Measure Specific Gravity – Clay Week 2020

    How to Measure Specific Gravity – Clay Week 2020

  • 12 Tips for Managing Glazes at a Busy Pottery Studio

    12 Tips for Managing Glazes at a Busy Pottery Studio

  • How to Fix a Hard-Panned Glaze with Epsom Salts

    How to Fix a Hard-Panned Glaze with Epsom Salts

  • How the Water in Your Glaze is Affecting Your Results

    How the Water in Your Glaze is Affecting Your Results

  • A Week in the Life of a Ceramics Studio Technician

    A Week in the Life of a Ceramics Studio Technician

suemcleodceramics

🤓 I teach online courses about glazes. Join my Facebook group - Understanding Glazes with Sue for glaze troubleshooting 🤓
👇Click link for details👇

Sue McLeod
Inconsistency is the #1 cause of glaze frustration Inconsistency is the #1 cause of glaze frustration. It can be disappointing to try a glaze and not like the result. On the other hand, it can be completely infuriating when you use a glaze and love it and then use the SAME GLAZE and it comes out looking hideous, or not what you were expecting. In Mastering Glaze Consistency, I share all the reasons for inconsistent glaze results, how to be diligent with your glazing/firing processes, and my system for developing a repeatable process to get the best possible results with each of your existing glazes. You don't need new glazes, I'll help you improve your results with the glazes you're already using. Registration opens Aug 26 (mark your calendar!) and the course will run over the month of Sept. I only run this program twice per year. You don't want to miss this chance to level up your glaze results before the holiday season is upon us. September is a great time to learn some new skills! Join the waitlist to get notified as soon as registration opens. Follow the link in my bio.
I crashed my bike 10 days ago. I was towing my pup I crashed my bike 10 days ago. I was towing my puppy Leia (like the Princess) in a bike trailer and we took a corner too fast, the trailer flipped over and took the bike down with it. I had a pretty deep and nasty gash in my ankle, combined with gravel filled road rash on my leg. 1 ambulance ride, 4 hours in a waiting room and 6 stitches later, I came home to recover. I don't know if you've had road rash before, but let me tell you, I'll take a deep cut over a wide abrasion any day. It hurts like a 🤬 and continues to hurt, even after 10 days. I'm anxiously waiting for it to stop hurting so I can get back to my busy, yet fun and rewarding life. I am resting. My body is at rest, yet my mind is not on board with this plan. Taking a break from life to rest and heal is really hard for me. It almost hurts me mentally more than the physical wounds themselves. I'm a very productive person who has unrealistically high expectations of myself and all I can think about are all the things I would have been/"should be" doing but I'm not. My house is messy, my clay recycling is probably drying up, I'm launching a glaze course at the end of this month, there are things to do! My boyfriend is also injured and he and I are both hobbling around, taking turns doing what needs to be done and resting. Each morning, I wake up with severe anxiety about all the things I didn't do yesterday and probably won't do today. I want nothing more than to ignore my injury, take some pain meds and jump back into my busy life, but I have learned that lesson before. If I don't rest now, I will be forced to rest for longer, later. So every day, I have to make myself take it easy. And even more importantly, I have to try to be kind to myself for needing a break.
Bought some number stamps to label my test tiles w Bought some number stamps to label my test tiles with the # of the clay body, so I can tell them apart later. White stoneware and porcelain can look very similar after bisque. #testtiles #plainsmanm370
I always use the blunt end of a pin tool to poke h I always use the blunt end of a pin tool to poke holes in my test tiles. I just squish it into the clay against a hard surface and rotate back and forth. This creates a hole that is large enough to fit over small nail heads or if I want to string them together with cord. Once the clay is bone dry I use the pokey end of the pin tool to poke any leftover thin clay out of the hole. It's much easier to clean them up before the bisque firing and the little bits can be recycled. I prefer this method over a hole cutter. I find hole cutters require the clay to be a specific firmness or they get all warped and then they get full of clay and you have to dig it out. Maybe I'm not doing it right but hole cutters definitely slow me down. Pin tool for the win! #testtiles
When you don't have number stamps, only letters... When you don't have number stamps, only letters... If you blur your eyes, do they look like they say "370"? OLE! 😵‍
Today is the last day to register for my online Gl Today is the last day to register for my online Glaze Mixing Essentials course. When you sign up for Glaze Mixing Essentials, not only will you learn the foundational skill of how to mix a glaze from scratch by following a recipe, but you'll also get: 🤓Instructions for where to look on the internet for glaze recipes, plus I share a list of tried and true cone 6 recipes you can try 🤓A list of all the supplies needed to safely and effectively mix and store your glazes, with video explanations of all tools 🤓"Sue's Fully Stocked Glaze Lab" - a list of all the glaze ingredients and quantities I regularly keep stocked in my studio 🤓Glaze batching sheets that you can print out and use when mixing a glaze 🤓My handy "Bucket Sizing Equation" so you know what size glaze batch fits in what size bucket 🤓Instructions that you can download and print and keep in your studio 🤓Colour Run demo - how to take a base glaze and test it with multiple colourants of your choosing 🤓Examples of glazes made with different colourants to help you decide which colourants to use 🤓A Colour Run worksheet that you can print off and fill out that will help you organize your colour run 🤓A monthly Zoom call where we can get together face to face and I can answer your questions and help you with your glazes. 🤓🤓Bonus: "What Do the Glaze Materials Do?" doc - an intro to the chemistry of glaze materials Are you tired of the high costs and low availability of commercial glazes? Have you experienced issues with commercial glazes that couldn't easily be solved because you don't have the recipe? Do you wish you could tweak the colours of your glazes to be slightly lighter/darker or find that perfect shade? Do you want access to thousands of glazes and infinite combinations? Do you want to increase your knowledge and understanding of the materials you're using to create your clay creations? Do you wish you had the support of someone who is knowledgeable about glazes as you get started? Sign up now before the doors close. Follow the link in my bio to register. #glazeworkshop #glazemixing
Having fun with my new extruder and my recycled po Having fun with my new extruder and my recycled porcelain. I cut out my first test tile die and this is the result. Didn't turn out exactly as I had planned but I learned a lot making the first one, and now I have test tiles! I can test this shape and see what I like and don't like about it before I try making another die. #testtiles #extrudedclay #porcelain
I'm still recycling clay over here. Almost done wi I'm still recycling clay over here. Almost done with the porcelain. Next, onto the stoneware! Do you have buckets and buckets of accumulated clay to reclaim like I do? Or do you stay on top of it? Do you have a pugmill? Or do you even bother recycling it? Do you give it away? Is it worth the effort? How much time does it take to reclaim a $40 box of clay? Or in my case with the Laguna Frost, an $80 box of clay. Things to consider... 🤔 Maybe I'll keep track of my time next batch to find out. I'll let you know how it goes! Read about my Low Tech System for Recycling Clay Scraps on my blog. Follow the link in my bio. #lagunafrost #porcelain #clayrecycling #clayreclaim
Hey everyone, registration closes this Friday for Hey everyone, registration closes this Friday for my online Glaze Mixing Essentials course. LEARN TO MIX YOUR OWN GLAZES FROM SCRATCH Not sure how to get started? Are you tired of the high cost and limitations of commercial glazes? Have you recently started your own home studio and don't have any glazes yet? I would love to teach you how to safely mix your own glazes from scratch AND do your own colourant testing, so you can broaden the possibilities for completing your work. This first step of learning how to mix and experiment with glazes will open up a whole world of exploration for you. Get ready to learn: ✔️where to find glaze recipes for your temperature ✔️reading a glaze recipe/recipe notation ✔️which glaze materials to buy ✔️which glaze materials are known by different names ✔️how to convert a recipe to any batch size ✔️all the tools and equipment needed for safe glaze mixing ✔️how much water to add to your glazes ✔️which materials you should add to the bucket first and why ✔️how to take a base recipe and test it with multiple colourants ✔️which colourants to use to make the colours you want ✔️✔️BONUS LESSON: What do all the materials do? An introductory lesson on the very basics of glaze chemistry for those who are keen to start down the glaze chemistry rabbit hole (my favourite!) Each student will have 6 full months to access the workshop including a live Q&A session on Zoom every single month! This gives you plenty of time to acquire materials, start mixing and experimenting, fire some tests and then come back and ask questions. I'm here to support you through this amazing journey. Price is $127 USD. Last day to register is Fri, July 29. All the details and registration can be found by clicking the link in my bio. #glazemixing #ceramicglazes #glazeworkshop
I made a few rough extrusions with my new extruder I made a few rough extrusions with my new extruder. Took a few tries to get it to extrude a straight tube. My porcelain clay recycling seems to be holding up well so far. I don't have any number stamps so I used the code ABC and wrote the code + date in my glaze journal for reference. The reason I'm keeping track of the date/batch is because the last time I extruded test tiles with my porcelain recycling, they all cracked when they dried. I think the clay might have either been too wet, or just not wedged well enough, or both. We'll see what happens when these ones dry. #extrudedclay #porcelain #lagunafrost
Inside the barrel of a brand new extruder, about t Inside the barrel of a brand new extruder, about to take its inaugural plunge. #clayextruder #baileyextruder
Installed some pegboard in my studio this week. I Installed some pegboard in my studio this week. I think I'm hooked! (pun intended 🙃) I do love me some evenly spaced holes. Best organizational tool I've bought since my label maker 🤓 #pegboard #potterystudio #organization
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Recent Posts

  • Glazy Demo – Adding Recipes and More

    Glazy Demo – Adding Recipes and More

  • Why Specific Gravity Isn’t Listed on Glaze Recipes

    Why Specific Gravity Isn’t Listed on Glaze Recipes

  • 5 Reasons Why Your Large Batch of Glaze Doesn’t Match Your Test Batch

    5 Reasons Why Your Large Batch of Glaze Doesn’t Match Your Test Batch

  • A Potter With a Paycheque?

    A Potter With a Paycheque?

  • A Clay Reclaim Process Using a Pugmill/Clay Mixer

    A Clay Reclaim Process Using a Pugmill/Clay Mixer

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