I’m hoping to get my first kiln later this year and trying to figure out what size to go for. I’m looking at a 60 litre 15amp as the electrics are more straightforward but wondering if in the long run I’d be better getting the electrics sorted for a bigger option? It will be in a shed at the side of my house. I’d love to hear about people’s experiences and if your first kiln has been your only one? 😁

Grand kids! It's Aero's 3rd birthday. He wanted donuts. The younger one is Kodiak, Kodiak for short. My daughter, Kitty, made the cake from scratch.

I would love to know from everyone what 3 pottery tools would you chose that you can't live without if you could only have 3 for the rest of your pottery life? Mine are : Mud tools red rib , Mud tools white sponge , DCT pear shaped trimming tool.

People seem to fall into exactly two camps: 💚 “I could put cilantro on everything.” 🤢 “It tastes like soap!” Fun fact: That “soap” taste is actually linked to genetics. So… where do you stand? 😄

So today was the day I finally used my brand new, pristine condition, very cheap pottery wheel! I am pretty good at hand building (though a large pinch pot sphere yesterday made me question this 😅) but I have only a little experience with wheel throwing. I know the basics, but am not good at any of it. Centring clay is sometimes still a challenge. So here I am with a wheel I’ve never used before and then I decided to add to the challenge by using a clay I’ve never used before!! A speckled clay that I bought more than a month ago and told myself I couldn’t use it unless it was on the wheel. To add to this, we are in a heatwave here in the UK. The temperatures might not seem high to those of you from hotter places, but everything in the UK is built to keep out rain and keep heat in, there’s very little air conditioning. So that meant getting up at 6:30am so I could cut and prep the clay and be done throwing before 9am when the temperatures really start to rise. It was, to say the least, challenging 🤣 But it was good to try, and I’ve balled up enough clay to try again either tonight or tomorrow morning again. I wasn’t trying to keep anything, which is why the photo is of a bunch of pots cut in half. The one pot I did keep had a nice round rim until I ripped off the newspaper lid too cavalierly for the photo and bent it out of shape. Some challenges truly are challenging! 😅 But I am happy I finally started on the wheel, so it’s all good!