Picture of Walker Pug Mill, Brent Wheel, and Tests

Hi,

Thanks for checking in. A very successful night in the studio. I mixed clay in the Walker Pug Mill (see picture below), a machine made in Duluth, Minnesota back in the '70s. Josh Grenier, whom I met at a wood-firing at the Edina Art Center gave me the pug mill, and I'm so grateful that he did because it is getting constant use with all the scraps I've built up over the past 6 months. Check out Josh's blog if you have a minute; he's the Ceramics Teacher at Edina High School and one of my good pottery friends (http://joshgrenier.blogspot.com/). Josh and I also participated in an Urban Firing Project this past summer where we converted an old electric kiln shell, and fired it to cone 8 with a propane weed burner.

Tonight, I wedged about 100lbs of clay, made a few large-shouldered vases (I'll get pictures up soon), and called it a night. I have found that the recycled clay that is mixed in the Pug Mill and hand-wedged for a bit is very easy to throw, and has better plasticity than right out of the box. I think the reason it has better throwability (i.e. why it's easier to work with) is that the clay particles are being forced closer together and that facilitates air pockets being removed and greater overall strength. I'm looking forward to throwing more of the recycled clay.

Here's a picture of the Walker Pug Mill, which I have coined The Beast.

Here's a picture of my wheel and wedging table; the electric kiln is directly behind me in this picture.

These drinking cups are perfect for about 200 grams of glaze test, and I can easily mix it up with a handheld mixer.

I'm planning to have a sale in a few weeks (likely October 20th and 21st), and I'll be sure to let you know more about it as soon as I firm up the details myself.