I came across some old handouts I made for my students this morning and was instantly reminded of a personal experience I had 8 years ago involving black copper oxide and my coffee cup. Here's a good lesson why one should never mix kitchen items with their ceramic studio.
Back in 2000, Jeff and I were living in our camper in New Mexico. I was creating some small clay pendants and brushing them with a black copper oxide solution I mixed in my coffee cup. You know I like coffee. With a limited amount of space and available water we did not always wash the cups. The next morning Jeff made coffee and poured a steaming hot cup into my glass. Oh, yummy. It tasted fine until 10 minutes later when I started to get abdominal cramps. I slowly crumpled into the fetal position as the cramping increased in severity to the point that I could barely breathe. The entire experience lasted only 15 minutes but it felt like an eternity. Needless to say the "coffee" residue in my cup was in fact black copper oxide, something I entirely overlooked.
Without daily access to the world wide web back then it took me 3 days to get the MSDS sheet on black copper oxide. Fortunately no serious harm was done. I learned my lesson painfully well and consider myself fortunate that it wasn't something more serious.
So, if you plan on using any kitchen items I strongly recommend that you go to the thrift store and purchase a second set for the studio.
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