u/brodyqat — reddlx

▲ 133 r/BurningMan+1 crossposts

Experiments with playa dust on porcelain at 2200 degrees!

As a hobbyist potter, I wanted to see how playa dust behaved when firing it in my kiln. After some experiments, here's the best I could do using JUST playa dust as a coating on top of the porcelain disks.

I found that by sifting it very fine and mixing with enough water to get two thin coats, I could achieve this surface. It's VERY finicky, too little (off to the left) and it's patchy, then the thicker it gets it's very glossy and beautiful, but too thick and it clumps up and fails. It's a very small difference.

Further experimentation is required, with other additives to get it to adhere a bit better, but it's actually pretty impressive that it melts into a glaze-like coating at Cone 6 (2200-ish degrees F).

The more you know! (Also, wear a fucking n95 mask in dust storms please, playa dust has a high silica content and that shit gets into your lungs and DOES NOT COME OUT.)

u/brodyqat — 1 day ago

▲ 102 r/dairyfree

I think this is the most disgusting thing I've ever tried to eat. Do not recommend.

I found them at the discount grocery store for $2 and they are full of lies and gummy fake spice nonsense. Truly unpleasant. It's neither fire nor hot but tastes of weird chemicals.

u/brodyqat — 9 days ago

▲ 21 r/sanleandro

Hey gardeners: save some seeds this year for the main library's seed library?

The main library has an adorable little seed library where you can take and leave little packets of seeds for planting. But it's always empty :(

I've put seeds from my plants in there a couple times and they're always gone by the next time I check.

Maybe not enough folks know about it?

reddit.com

u/brodyqat — 11 days ago

▲ 30 r/knitting

Thoughts on ceramic buttons with knits? (Questions from a ceramicist starting to make them)

Hi! I have started making ceramic buttons and I've heard that some knitters enjoy using them on their beautiful objects. I want to make buttons that people would enjoy using, perhaps you could answer a few questions for me? I'm a hobbyist potter and I like it when my clay objects can be used by other artists.

Would you use ceramic buttons? If so, what would you look for? Textured? Smooth? Patterns or carvings, or just various colored glazes? Big ones? Small ones?

Would you want buttons in even or odd numbered packs?

Anything else that comes to mind would be helpful. I currently have some porcelain buttons smoothed and drying in my studio before going into the kiln and then getting glazed, so I figured now is a good time to ask.

Thank you! You're all wizards! I've tried to learn knitting a few times and it's not something I've stuck with yet.

EDIT: everyone here is so kind to share thoughts and knowledge, I appreciate you all and this is why I still like Reddit even though the horrors persist 💜

reddit.com

u/brodyqat — 1 month ago

▲ 29 r/succulents

Lola looking cool from above

u/brodyqat — 1 month ago

▲ 2 r/Ceramics

Adding gum Arabic to clay to increase strength for delicate sculpture elements?

I'm watching the 2026 Great Pottery throwdown (no spoilers) and in one episode they're making delicate hand built flowers and have said they've added gum Arabic to stoneware to help with making the delicate lil flower petals.

I've never heard of this, and a brief internet search didn't get me very far. Does anyone have info about this? Like how much I would add, and in what form? I can of course do my own experimentation but no need to reinvent the wheel if someone knows :) thanks!!

Pottery is so great for my ADHD, there's always a fresh rabbit hole to go down...

reddit.com

u/brodyqat — 1 month ago

▲ 2 r/OlympusCamera

pen e-p3 screen dead but all works fine otherwise. Repair or?

Someone gave me a pen e-p3 because they know I like older cameras. The screen won't turn on, but everything else works. I got a new battery just in case, screen is still blank. I checked the card and it's making photographs, so I'm thinking it must just be the screen?

I was hoping to use this as kind of a knock-around fun camera but it's not sentimental or anything. Anyone have advice for me about sending it in for repair? Or trying to do it myself? Looks like replacement screen part is about $35 shipped from china but I've no idea what I'm doing.

reddit.com

u/brodyqat — 2 months ago

▲ 4 r/sanleandro

Where in town to buy rotisserie chicken that's not Costco or Lucky's?

Costco's rotisserie chickenworks was shut down when I went a couple days ago. Tried to slum it at Lucky's and they didn't have any chicken today either. Sprouts usually has them but they're stringy overcooked wee hippie chickens so I don't bother.

Where else can a person get a decent whole rotisserie chicken in this town? (Also, anyone have intel about the Costco chickenworks-- it looked closed off like construction or some kind of other issue!)

reddit.com

u/brodyqat — 2 months ago

▲ 359 r/succulents

Little baby Lola leaf props are looking adorable

Plant saucers make great succulent propagation stations!

u/brodyqat — 2 months ago

▲ 39 r/Monstera

Accidentally timed the early pandemic monstera craze perfectly...(first and latest leaves of my Thai con)

I bought this baby Thai constellation in 2019 for $80, long before they'd successfully tissue cultured these guys. It was the most money I'd ever spent on a plant. The pandemic hit and people were going wild for rare plants, so I rooted a couple cuttings from my quickly-growing Thai Con and sold them on eBay for what was to me an obscene amount of money. I don't even think the last one was rooted, I just sold it as a cutting.

My plant has been in retirement ever since, as they started tissue culturing and now you can buy one for like $30 at Costco. Those were the days, though!

u/brodyqat — 2 months ago

▲ 13 r/Pottery

Tar paper for stencils! Any tips or tricks?

I finally broke down and bought a 50+ pound roll of tar paper (roofing felt) to use for pottery stencils. I couldn't find it in smaller quantities, oops. Does anyone here work with this material and have tips or tricks for designing with it or using it? I love learning from folks with more experience.

I have a Cricut Maker that seems to cut it pretty well but with my first try here, I think I made the lines too delicate and the stencil fell apart pretty quickly once I pressed it into clay a couple times and then peeled it off.

At least I now have enough to share! Shipping costs are kinda high but it's cool to be able to get smaller quantities to other potters.

u/brodyqat — 2 months ago

▲ 9 r/AnalogCommunity

Friends like giving me cameras that they inherit, turns out

Once friends know that I use old cameras, I'm the person they call when a relative passes away and there's a camera. This is the second Yashica that I've obtained this way, and it's in perfect working condition. :) they're such beautiful cameras, imagine any modern thing still working perfectly 70 years later??? And the buttons are so clicky and the levers make such satisfying noises.

I stuck a roll of Fujicolor 160 in it that expired in 2012 (oops, time flies) and am gonna give it a test drive this weekend.

Anyone else use a Yashica C? They only made them for a couple years apparently.

u/brodyqat — 3 months ago

▲ 64 r/succulents

Mystery succulent, hybridized and grown from seed. Handsome!

Hand for scale in second photo. I can't remember what this cross was, as it was a couple years ago now. I know half of the parentage was echeveria cante, and from the coloration I'd almost guess Fred Ives for the second. There was a period of time I was just kind of running around with a paintbrush and pollinating succulent flowers for fun.

It looks gorgeous with the sun coming through the leaves, whatever it is.

u/brodyqat — 3 months ago

▲ 2 r/curlyhair

My thin hair is just...boring and limp. Style or cut ideas, I'd like to keep it at least chin length...help?

(edit: image not showing up somehow but I dropped it into the comments)

Routine, every couple days (I'm not tied to this, just kind of cobbled together with random stuff that seems to be ok):

shampoo with Native Coconut & Vanilla shampoo
condition with Pura d'or curl therapy conditioner
leave in: Kinky Curly Knot Today
product and process: Kinky Curly curling gel, got2b Ultra Glued Invincible Styling Gel mixed in hands and squished into hair before adding some Curlsmith flawless finish hairspray and diffusing.

My hair is thin and often limp and feels like it needs moisture after a day or so, though I'm generally happens . This photo is day 2 hair, and it just sort of looks like this most of the time. I'm due for a haircut but I'm also trying to grow it out a bit so I can do more interesting styles with it -- mostly it just hangs here and looks boring for the amount of time and energy it takes to maintain.

Advice welcome, styling suggestions welcome, haircut suggestions welcome but I'd like to keep it at least chin length. I have these lil scraggly curtain bang things, should I go all the way to real bangs? I don't knooooooow

i.redd.it

u/brodyqat — 3 months ago

▲ 832 r/Pottery

u/brodyqat — 4 months ago

▲ 84 r/Monstera

It's gotten too big for my space as I don't have time to maintain it properly. I bought it from an exotic plant specialist in 2019, which I believe means it's before the wave of tissue culture ones. It's always given spectacular creamy variegated leaves, I'll miss seeing what it wants to grow next...but honestly it should be chopped and propped and I don't have the space and time to deal with it. No spoons left these days...

u/brodyqat — 4 months ago