Friday, January 13, 2012

Vessel Sinks, Part II


Couple of things:
  • I am throwing with Laguna's B-mix 10 with sand. It's the first time I've used this body and I am quite delighted with its performance: centers easily, doesn't sag. I only bought one box, though, to test it out, so won't have enough clay to make many samples.
  • I started using 12 lbs to make a 14" diameter, 5.5" high bowl, 0.5 inches thick in the wall. I was hooting for 16" diam, 6.5" high in the wet state. 12 lbs was not enough to do this; it fell short by a lot. 12 lbs was not even enough to make a similarly thick & tall bowl with a finished diameter of 12". Despite liking the shape, I wedged it up, because I didn't want to commit kiln space to a large piece that was destined to be not-quite-right.
  • To get the bowl that will eventually be the 14" sink, I needed 18 lbs, which is the pot on the wheel in the photo above. It's surprisingly small for 18 lbs, but of course it had to be thick. I am not convinced this one is thick enough, so I will try again with 22 lbs.
  • To that end: to save my poor median nerve (healthy, but I intend to keep it that way!) I center these large amounts in two equal chunks. When the first is on center, I scrape it dry with a metal rib, and then plop the second half on top. Much, much easier than trying to muscle the whole lot under control all at once.
...
  • After my third attempt, it seems that 20 lbs will be the right amount to make the (eventual) 14" sink. Which means that the 16" sink - 19 inches, wet - will need to be around 28 lbs. My mind has jumped ahead to pricing: I don't think I can possibly get less than around $280 for these -- and that's the wholesale price. Which means someone, somewhere will need to be willing to spend almost $600 for a lavatory. I need to talk to my client before I get too far into this, in case that is a deal-breaker. The vessel sinks I have found online have retailed for between $90 and $1600; not sure what range he had in mind.

2 comments:

Vessel Sinks said...

When it comes to bathroom décor, choosing a right vessel sink can unbelievably transform the image of your bathroom. Vessel sinks are either made of porcelain, steel or ceramic and are fixed right under the tap in most bathrooms, whether public or private. A vessel sink is almost identical to a kitchen sink with a tap extending over the rim to fill it up.

Lori Watts said...

Thanks.