Luster firing

[Potter3ee]

Im looking for some advice regarding luster firings. I use cone 5 clay and glaze. Can the wares be touching each other in a luster fire at cone 018? Not the lustered parts but the glazed parts. Or will they stick to each other even though its a low temperature fire?  Im trying to fire 30cm plates that have just one line of luster. Is there any way I can put stilts on a plate (avoiding the luster ofcourse) and put another plate on top of it? or will it damage the glaze?

[Callie Beller Diesel]

If your glaze is otherwise unaffected at cone 018, eg you don't notice any changes after a lustre or decal fire, you're probably ok to stack things using stilts, with caveats.

First, some glazes, especially if they contain zinc with its lovely wide melting range, DO begin to move very early in the firing, like in the 419C/907 F range. You should test your glaze before you go stacking 4-5 plates on top of each other because I went and said I thought it would work.

Second, you're  supposed to give lustres lots of room to breathe in the kiln and provide ample ventilation, because the carbon in the medium that burns off can mess with lustres, decals and China paints.  As long as you're providing enough air space for the medium to burn out cleanly, you should be ok. 

If you're trying to save kiln space, if you have plate setters, they'd be ideal to use.

 

[Mark C.]

I would not let them touch with testing first.

My guess is no on the touching but a test is in order .Plate sitters would fix this touching thing as Callie said

[Potter3ee]

Thanks for the suggestions. I suppose plate setters would be the safest option.