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Firing Glazed Plates


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Hello everyone

 

I've searched through the forum but didn't find the answer to my question:

 

If I want to make handbuild plates (so they wouldn't have any foot) and then want to glaze them top and bottom, can I use any kind of stilt to prevent the plate from wrapping? The plates would be made with stoneware fired between cone 8 and 10. I red about plate setters but that means the plate can't be glazed underneath, right?

Is there any way to support the plate even though it's glazed? I know for low fire we can use metallic stilts but I wonder if they would wrap at such high temperatures. And what about clay stilts?

 

Thanks! :)

 

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Often times you fire twice ... Once all the way to high temp with matching glaze on the food surface ... then the second time at a lower temp with a low fire temp glaze on the back. You leave the center of the bottom unglazed and since the temp is lower ... Say 05 ... you don't need any support for the work.

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All Ceramic stilts (not metal points) will leave the points stuck into the glaze which you grind off and will leave a mark.

Just give up the no foot idea or the glazed all over idea at cone 8-10 and leave it unglazed or a foot that is unglazed.

what is the diameter of said plates?This may be the biggest factor.

Mark

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yes, I was asking cause I have a friend who's a potter and people complain about plates not being glazed on the bottom. They say it doesn't feel nice, even though she uses smooth porcelain that she sands after the firing. I find it super smooth but some people disagree.

Mark, that would be a dinner plate size.

 

Chris, if you leave the bottom unglazed, I'm not sure I understand why you need to fire it twice?

 

I feel that handbuilding plates is more efficient than throwing them but then if we have to add a foot, we're wasting quite a bit of time and then I don't know if it's still worth it to handbuild them.

The plates you all make, do you leave them unglazed at the bottom?

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I meant that you leave the surface that comes in contact with your shelf unglazed ... the rest you glaze.

Yes, that's what we've been doing until now but since people were complaining about the unglazed area, we were looking for another solution.

I guess handbuilding is not the correct one since it seems that we need to have a foot, which totally makes sens technically :)

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judith, how many people are complaining?  are they in general terms, complainers?  are they simply vocal? if there was a general complaint from a majority of buyers, i would care.  for a few who are hard to satisfy, i would not.  tell them the facts, let them take it or leave it.   

 

i have been selling plain bottomed white clay trays, platters, tiny things, etc for years and have not had any complaints.  if a complaint is valid, i would try to do something about it.  i actually finished some trays recently with underglaze wash on the bottoms of a few things as an experiment.  it was ok, but i can see how someone would scratch through the color into the white anyway, so why bother?

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This is doable ... Use a low firing temp clear glaze ... Say 05 ... Coat the whole bottom and fire upside down using stilts on the outside rim of the plate. The higher firing glaze should not melt much so you could lightly sand any resulting blips.

Oh I see, now that make sense! :)

 

Yeah I guess the people complaining are not really educated about how ceramics and everything works.

Thank you all for your insight, now I can see that many of you do not bother about that! Oldlady, you're absolutely right, you can't always change everything for that one customer!

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One possibility for slab plates is to use three small feet applied to the bottom.  Take 3 small balls of clay and attach them.  Very stable, and then the bottom will be glazed everywhere but the bottom of the feet, which can be sanded and even polished.

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