Electric Mid&Hi Fired Ceramics
George Lewter
75, Male
Lansing, MI
United States
Profile Information:
- What is your experience with ceramics in general. (Long answer encouraged)
- Now that I've retired from my day job, I'm hoping my work in clay will provide a little secondary income, or at a minimum, pay for itself. I studied ceramics at San Francisco State University in the early 70s, and then tried to scratch out a living as a potter for several years, and finally went on to other pursuits where I could actually earn a living. For the next 30 years I never touched any plastic clay.
In 2004 I took a 10 week class at the Greater Lansing Potters Guild in Michigan, and discovered that I still really enjoy working with clay. I have taken several more classes and slowly put together a basement studio with an electric kiln, a small slab roller, and a used electric wheel.
My early experience was in the cone 10 reduction, gas-fired arena.
I founded the cone6pots network in the Spring of 2008 to provide a rich, highly interactive, online meeting place for mid-fire potters. The first couple of years saw very slow growth of membership, but now we're adding members at about fifty a month. - What is your current involvement with electric fired ceramics? (long answer encouraged)
- The switch to cone 6 oxidation has led me in a whole new direction of glaze development, and it took me the best part of a year to start getting some results that I felt were acceptable. I have tested several hundred glaze recipes off the Internet, and from the books of Michael Baily, and John Hesselberth.
Using an aftermarket programmable kiln controller has allowed me much more control of my firing cycles and improved my results immensely. My introduction to single firing in 2009 has been a great boost my creative energy by compressing the creative process and making glazing more integral with the forming process instead being divorced from the raw clay processes. Attending a Steven Hill workshop in the fall of 2009 helped refocus my work on glazes that interact in complex ways and hover on the edge between chaos and control. - All our content is viewable by the public. Why do you want to be a member, when you can already see everything as a non-member?
- Great interactions with other members. An online community of friends that will spill over into the real world.
- Where do you work on your ceramics projects?
- home studio
- How did you find this network?
- other
Maggie Jones
Dangit...I really let this bookmark fall to the floor. May be some email alerts would have helped but that may have been something on my end. I will miss this great resource, but I can understand. It is a load that I surely could never have handled. Thank you!! stay in touch some how and let us know how!!
Jan 20, 2022
George Lewter
I worked at a great community ceramics and glass studio for 2 winters before making Tucson my winter home. MIY Ceramics and Glass in Hollywood, Florida (just south of Ft. Lauderdale) is being dislocated by a new landlord. Denise Mendez has a go fund me campaign to help defray some of the moving / new building expenses. I have donated and invite you to do the same if you care to. https://www.miyceramics.com/wearemoving
Feb 16, 2022
Jim Alexander
Hi George,
It's been a long time since I last logged on the Cone 6 site. I saw you are "retiring" after hosting everything for 13 years. I just wanted to say thank you for everything you've done to promote pottery over the years. I've always known the site was available to me as a resource and I just appreciate your kindness and willingness to help so many people. Both you and Tony Hanson have been very cool. Best regards and I'm glad to see that you fond some folks that want to continue keeping the site going.
Mar 11, 2022