Post #789680 by danlovestikis on Tue, Sep 4, 2018 7:24 AM

The Sacramento Crawl mug production. Here are some misc. photos from June 9th to June 15th, 2018.

Every step is repeated 3 times to get three layers. The air compressor jar is heavy for me to lift as are the mugs.

I put five mugs in place upon the metal spikes. Then I squirt all the sides with water to get the "capillary action" going so the glaze will stick well.

Then I did a layer all the way around the volcano. I had a black insides and a dark grey outsides and so it was fine to have overspray into the volcano.

Three layers done wasn't fast but once done Dan carried

them to Couroc trays so dry. I love these tray because they stack so well in a cupboard.

If I didn't have the volcanos on these spikes when spraying the turnwheels would get gummy with glaze which would stick on the bottom of my mugs making a mess. I learned this with the first mug I made. At the end of each glazing day we completely wash everything otherwise the glaze dries on hard and it's difficult to get it scrubbed off.

More days and more spraying.

I was lucky that these were not triple digit days. The air compressor is loud so we wait until 8 am to start.

I did figure out right away that keeping my arm at one height as I went around was faster. I would do all the tops, then the middle and then the bottom. Having them on a turn table made this possible.

The air compressor would clog up frequently so I kept a wire handy. Also the three bottles started upright and with each layer I would lay one down. It's easy when tired to lose count. Dan thought this up.

6 days to do around 90 mugs.

Dan carried them in and out of the house

He also set them on the spikes. These are so big and heavy they wore me out.

Slowly over the days they filled the hall tables back up.

They are NOT done. This was the base color next up all the detail work. I do love doing these crawl mugs each year. This one is number nine.

Wendy