Thread: started my first scuttle

Very nice looking scuttle! Really. I hope you are going to set a price on the scuttles soon? Well, good luck, and nice scuttle.

I really wasn't planning on selling scuttle's, but I'll throw a couple more and test the water. I have no idea what to charge. Before I do anything enterprising with this I will work out the little details in the design.

Originally Posted by jerryjtr

I brought my first one home today, and it works like a champ. The lather stays hot forever. There are a couple of things I am going to try with the next one. I'm going to make the walls a bit thinner on the smaller bowl so that it heats up a little faster, and I think I'll make the lip a little lower. Once I get the design the way I want I'll do something a little nicer with the glaze, but for now it works with just the tranparent colorless glaze.

I couldn't get the image to embed in the post so here's a link.

Jerry congratulations on your first scuttle! That's mighty gorgeous mate! Very nice and simple. Look forward to seeing more!

Nice design Jerry.

I finaly got this one fired an picked up. Class was canceled one of the weeks so it to a bit longer to get ahold of it than I hoped. I may have time to do another. I only have 2 more classes to work on projects befor the end of the semester. I figured not to bad for someone who hasn't taken an art class in 15 years. I spend most of my day making metal shavings as a gunsmith.

Ian I know what your talking about on the publick speaking classes. This school only offers 2 sections of it and it's a mix of everybody from Vet students, business majors, ag majors etcetera. The prof worked as a civil litigation lawyer prior to teaching. I have the benefit of having been out of school for about 12 years so I can pull from a lot of different areas for any given speach. I just have to watch that I don't try to put in to much info so I can stay within time limits.

very kuhl design bruh i like it....i was given a georgetown pottery scuttle and i love it! but i think that originality and love of what you do will make you a hero on this site...like a few have said so already there isn't much or anything about making a scuttle from scratch...a step by step with good commentary and pics!...i'm waiting like everyone else...

once again looks great keep up the good work!

Wulfgar

It's very nice looking. I like the simplicity of the two bowl design. Have you thrown before this class? The wide rim on the inside bowl is really nice. It doesn't look too heavy, and that's tricky for a new potter. Does the inside bowl have a lip to hold it on center with the outside bowl?

Can you pay a studio fee to use the facility after your class is over?

Thanks for the inspiration to throw my own. It's funny that in all of this time that I've been throwing I never thought of throwing a scuttle until your post. I guess I had thought about it years ago, but I didn't follow through.

Never touched a wheel prior to about 4 weeks ago. The clay we're using is just a general purpose clay, fine texture, no grog, builds slip like crazy. The class is being taught as an outreach class at the local junior high. There is no lip specificaly for centering. the outer bowl has that rim, and is then under cut wo there is a fair bit of clearance for water around the second bowl once it gets about 1/4 into the outer bowl. At the top the two only have about 1/8 clearance total. this holds it close enough to center.

I tried doing a one piece the other night, and almost got it. As I was joining the two walls the outer one colapsed as thin as I had it. I'll give it another shot, but I think it would work better with a clay that has a bit more back bone to it. I have done a couple butter bells as well. One piece just holds a small amount of water, the other holds the butter, and inverts into the first piece. The water seals the butter off from the air allowing it to be kept at room temp without going bad. I'll get some picks of them this week as well.

The instructor has been trying to talk me into getting my own wheel after I finish the class. That wouldn't be a problem for me to make fairly cheaply, the problem is the kiln. That thing is pricy anyway you go about it.

I'm impressed. Very nice work for only a few weeks on the wheel. I have students who can't seem to center their clay consistently in the same amount of time.

Kilns cost a lot, and it doesn't stop with the purchase. Then you have to feed them, and they are hungry.

I've done some pit fired stuff that is pretty cool. For that you really just need a fire pit. You can do it with a cover for your pots and it traps the carbon which sets it into the pottery. Depending on what you include, and how you trap it you can get black, and a bunch of other colors coming through the pottery. It's a cool method which doesn't cost a lot. The actual finish is unpredictable, but beautiful.

From the sound of it your clay is something like the CT-3 that I used for my scuttle. It's very forgiving, and you can be aggressive with drying it without it cracking, but it doesn't hold up as pots get bigger. I used it mostly because I had a bag of it open at the time. Later I remembered that it heats up in the microwave, and combined with the water inside it makes for a very warm (hot) lather even 20 minutes later. Have you tried filling yours and heating it in the microwave? I wonder if it will do the same thing.

I used a coarser clay (4010) for our dishes because they don't heat up in the microwave. It's nice to heat up a cup of water, and still be able to hold the handle without a towel. I was planning on making subsequent scuttles with the groggy clay, but now I may continue with the CT-3. We usually fire it low, but I've heard that some potters fire it high. I may try that to open up glaze options.

CT-3 is exactly what it is. I didn't know if that was an industry standard lable or just a manufacturers lable. First I will get to try it is in the morning. At the time I made this one I had about 3-4 hours actually on the wheel. I know this is being fired in the 1900+ neighborhood. I did a bit of looking and have seen a few kilns made from 40 gallon drums lined with ceramic wool. There were primarily being done for Raku. I think it would be awsome to do one of these in Raku as I really like the different blue, green and copper collors I have seen in this type of pottery.