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Advice Needed! Cone 06 Clay With Cone 6 Glaze - Yikes!


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Hi Y'all - I'm super stressing cause I don't know if I can reverse my mistake. The studio I work at uses a kiln that can fires to a max of cone 10, but regularly fires at cone 06 and uses EM342 whiteware clay. I somehow totally missed the memo and thought I heard them say we fire at cone 6 (!) so I went ahead and bought some really beautiful cone 5-6 glazes, covered a handful of pieces in them, and, to probably no one on this forum's surprise (but to my total dismay) they came out all kinds of wacky :( Is there any way I can salvage my pieces? 

 

One thought - could I fire the pieces again at cone 6? Would the clay be able to withstand that? 

 

Your ideas would be appreciated - thanks!

 

 

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I am not familiar with that clay but if it is low fire clay the answer is no.  I have seen low fire clay melt into a puddle when fired to high.  You could hurt the kiln, shelves and other peoples work.  You wouldn't have a good glaze fit between the 06 clay and 6 glaze, more glaze problems than I can list.  Sorry they need to be thrown away, all potters have things like this happen to them.  It is part of the learning process.   Denice

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Denice is right on with her advice. This is why so many studios do not allow outside clay or glazes. Whenever you fire a ^06 clay at 6, you are basically firing clay that is in most cases a ^6-10 glaze. Imagine the melt down in the kiln of all of that clay! I shudder to think of the bill for the repairs.

 

best,

Pres

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Bullocks - I was afraid of this! Denice you're so right, this is a great learning opportunity and one I'll be sure to double, no, triple check in the future!

 

I had another thought - do you think I could potentially clear glaze over my pieces (as they exist now, with the strange and incomplete cone 6 glaze) and refire them at cone 06? That way I hopefully wouldn't do any damage to anyone else's pieces, and no puddles would be created, but perhaps I can salvage some small bit of my work? 

 

Thanks again! 

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I don't mean to be obnoxious by asking yet another question about this - I think now I'm mostly curious what you all think would happen, as I've made peace with the fact that I'll more than likely need to part with these pieces- but would it hurt to fire them at cone 06 again? I have no clue what would happen...

Thanks again for all your insight! 

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You are not being obnoxious at all ... ask away!!

 

Think of it like a cake ... you put the batter in a pan and bake it at 120 degrees instead of 350.

No matter how long you bake that mix it is never gonna be a fluffy cake.

If you cover it with icing it it still won't be a fluffy cake.

If you bake it again, it will only be a harder, drier tougher lump of icky batter.

Best to throw it out and start again.

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The fluxes in a cone 06 glaze are first: usually different than those used in a cone 6. Secondly, a cone 6 glaze can have as much as 50% less flux levels compared to cone 06. So you could fire these pieces ten more times, and the result will be pretty much the same. There is just not enough flux, or the right kind of flux for low fire glazes.

 

I could fill many paragraphs with the mistakes I have made, the misfires, and the "dumb" mistakes I have made. The good news, dumb mistakes are easily fixed by learning. I will say it for the 100th time: you learn just as much by the mistakes as you do by doing it right....such is the learning curve of pottery.

 

Nerd

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but would it hurt to fire them at cone 06 again? I have no clue what would happen...

 

 

+1 to all above answers, but you will probably only believe the answers after you have experience them for yourself.  

 

Probably no harm will come to others work, you will just be wasting time, glaze and firing energy.  By all means cover with clear glaze, place on a cookie to protect the shelf and ask if they can be re-fired.

 

Some people can accept the "no it won't work" answers, the rest of us have to try it for ourselves.  You wouldn't believe how many times some of my stuff has been re-fired, then put back on the top of the kiln waiting for my next "what-if" moment. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello everyone! I'm happy to report that my little mishap turned experiment worked out a-okay! I buffed the pieces lightly with sandpaper so they had some texture, put one coat of cone 06 glaze over, and retired - I'm pretty happy with the results! The pieces definitely have some strange texture and coloring, but in an intriguing way - thanks again for all your help :)

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Hello everyone! I'm happy to report that my little mishap turned experiment worked out a-okay! I buffed the pieces lightly with sandpaper so they had some texture, put one coat of cone 06 glaze over, and retired - I'm pretty happy with the results! The pieces definitely have some strange texture and coloring, but in an intriguing way - thanks again for all your help :)

 

can't tease us like this without pictures!

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Of course! Ha my apologies, didn't mean to tease!

The first image is of one of the pieces before reglazing - it is a vase with the cone 6 glaze. The images of the mug show the same cone 6 glaze as the vase (on the same clay) but with a cone 06 glaze over. The texture was a bit more than I had wanted, but overall I'm pretty happy with the results! (Sorry the lighting in the room with the photos of the mug was a bit yellow, in person the glaze is a bit more matte and teal colored)

 

Vase with accidental cone 6 glaze

Mug - with cone 6 glaze reglazed over with cone 06

Mug - with cone 6 glaze reglazed over with cone 06, pic 2

Mug - with cone 6 glaze reglazed over with cone 06, pic 3

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Ummmm, really not trying to rain on your parade but…. please correct me if I’m wrong in following the chain of events here. Lowfire clay, glazed with cone 6 glazes but only fired to 06 then reglazed with 06 glaze and fired again? Did I get that right?

 

 

If the above is what happened I would keep those pieces for posterity sake but not use them as the clay and glaze are both imature. If you want to check my theory take the vase, fill it with water and stand it on a piece of newsprint for a couple days, I have a strong suspicion the paper will be wrinkled from the vase leaking. This isn’t that big a deal, you can always put in on a coaster to save your furniture. But, the green matte glaze on your mugs looks like it isn’t fully melted and therefore more prone to leach. If so you will be ingesting some of the glaze with your bevvy. I would take a slice of lemon or lime, place it cut side down on the mug, put a bit of plastic /saran wrap overtop and leave it sit like that for a day or two. Rinse it off, dry it well and see if you can see an outline of the lemon or any change in colour of the glaze where the lemon was. Also, the mugs, as is the vase, will be porous, overtime they will soak up water from doing the washing up or the dishwasher and the glaze will craze.  No biggie for the vase but the mugs will also get very hot in the microwave from the water that has soaked into the clay.

 

(Sorry to sound like a killjoy, I'll go hide for a while now)

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