Saturday, November 22, 2008

Warm Throwing Water

Here in north Florida we have already a few nights in the high 20s and one night in the high teens. A nice chilly morning, a nice chilly bucket of throwing water. 

My solution is to put one of those coffee heater uppers in the water when I get to the shop, and by the time I am ready to throw, after my normal putzing around, the water is nice and warm. 

Meghan is holding the coffee doo dad. Be sure not to let it get near the plastic of the bucket. I hang mine over a throwing stick. 

4 comments:

klineola said...

Hey John, You reminded me that I used an aquarium heater to heat my clean-out bucket at my drafty Penland resident studio. It was the bucket I washed off in and rinsed brushes and tools.
I haven't needed one since but still have the heater, just in case. It had a handy suction cup that kept it at the right height. Also, it would build up a layer of crusty stuff, not sure what that was, but it didn't bother me too much.

Alex Solla said...

Alright, now I am jealous. I will be getting running water to our studio in the next few months, but even then it will still be COLD. So, this idea of an aquarium heater sounds like the way to go. I am off to the petstore to get one! Thanks as always for the cool ideas.

John Tilton said...

Hey Alex,

An aquarium heater would be good for a large bucket of water, but will be too big for your throwing water.

I used to have a 75 gallon mini reef salt water aquarium in the pottery shop. It was really amazing and I was able to grow invertebrates in it. People who visited were just amazed. But it was expensive and it also could dictate that you must spend 8 hours right now or you will lose the whole thing.

It was really beautiful. But very expensive.

Chris Powell said...

Hi John, You can always run a pot or two of water through your coffee maker as you sip the last cup of coffee before starting to throw. That is an easy way to get some hot water fast. Thank you for the Holiday sale card. Wish I could get down to visit.