Raelynn Posted July 31, 2011 Report Share Posted July 31, 2011 Hello I hope someone can help me. I have some Aardvark cone 5 porcelain clay and was wondering if I would be able to treat it as if it were a cone 06 clay - meaning a cone 04 bisque firing and then glaze with cone 06 glaze and fire at cone 06. I have an old second hand kiln, an when we fired yesterday at cone 5 the kiln was so hot we could not even see the cone through the peep hole with goggles! I would hate to waste all of this clay. It is a joy to work with! Sincerely, Raelynn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pres Posted July 31, 2011 Report Share Posted July 31, 2011 Hello I hope someone can help me. I have some Aardvark cone 5 porcelain clay and was wondering if I would be able to treat it as if it were a cone 06 clay - meaning a cone 04 bisque firing and then glaze with cone 06 glaze and fire at cone 06. I have an old second hand kiln, an when we fired yesterday at cone 5 the kiln was so hot we could not even see the cone through the peep hole with goggles! I would hate to waste all of this clay. It is a joy to work with! Sincerely, Raelynn Sorry to say. but your clay will not be vitrified at 06. As it is a porcelain type body, it would be pretty brittle and have a high absorbancy. At the same time I doubt if your glazes would give you a decent surface. How did you set up your conepack? I fire completely with cones in an electric kiln and have adjusted the way I create my cone pack. I use the cone pack perpendicular to the kiln wall right at the view hole with the cones going to the right and left of the cone pack. I am able to see cone 5 easily, and cone 6 with a little work, and see the shadow of 7 at the rear. You might try this to see how it works for you. Yes the kiln does get hot, I use a thicker lid to help with slowing the cool down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raelynn Posted July 31, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2011 Thank you for the answer! My husband is knowledgeable about temperature gauges and was thinking about using a high temperature gauge on the kiln when we fire. Is this a reliable technique? Also, I have another question. Would it work to fire my clay from raw to cone 5, and then glaze it with cone 06 glaze and re fire it to 06? Sincerely, Raelynn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Campbell Posted August 1, 2011 Report Share Posted August 1, 2011 First of all, when your kiln fires to cone 5 it will get too hot to easily see your cones. This is not a malfunction. Did it make it to cone 5? Second, sometimes people purposely fire a cone 5 body at a lower temperature to get specific effects from an open, under fired clay. You could not do this for a piece of functional work but you could for decorative pieces. The downside is that they will not be as strong and will absorb water and leak too. Third, yes you could do that kind of firing schedule. Many porcelain artists work that way. The downside is that it is more difficult to get the glaze to stick to a fully fired piece. Some potters solve this by preheating the work in their oven as low as you can set it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raelynn Posted August 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2011 Hi We got lucky. The kiln made it to cone 5. We estimated the time we thought it would reach that temp, and then turned it off. When it cooled we saw the cone was perfect for cone 5, and my pieces were perfect as well. We are only using 1 cone, not 3. Is it essential that we use the 3 different cones to fire? By the way, I am making beads and small pendants. Thank you Sincerely, Raelynn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Campbell Posted August 1, 2011 Report Share Posted August 1, 2011 The reason for using three witness cones is to help with your exact issue of temperature control. If you want Cone 5 ... you put in witness cones 4, 5 & 6. That way you have a more exact idea of what temp it fired to ... with only one cone you know it got to 5 but you might not realize it overfired to 6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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