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Lowfire Clay Problems


rakukuku

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We have a group studio with 45 members plus 70 students at any give time. We fire to cone 10 weekly. we stress over and over to all users  that only high fire cone 10 clay can be used in the studio. The local ceramic suppler knows this and will only sell cone 10 clay to folks in our studio. 

 

Over the years we have a pretty good track record and have had very few clay puddle accidents.  However, twice in the past month we have had a piece of lowfire get in and both resulted in ruined shelves.  we have put up notices and emailed all and talked it up  but no one has confessed.

 

Our kiln is fired only by our two highly experienced kiln techs and they load it. Outside firings have to have the clay identified or we won't take it and all outside firings are accounted for.

 

Someone is inadventantly getting low fire clay in.   Any clues on how to tell the difference between the two?  I know there are some that look obviously different but most  don't.

 

As of this week the techs are taking smart phone photos of each shelf stack so we can at least tell what something looked like before it melted.  Anyone else have these issues?     Rakukuku

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There's no good way to tell just by looking. I deal with this by making all of my students buy clay from me, so I know exactly what's going into my kiln. If you do want to use two different temperatures of clay bodies, then one should be obviously different than the other, like a high fire gray and a terra cotta. I bet some rookie brought in some pieces that they or a friend made elsewhere but never got fired. I have my students ask about stuff like that all the time. I always tell them no, unless they can verify the firing temp of the clay, which they never can. Taking photos is a good idea.

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I have an idea: each piece with an identifier such as initials on bottom . Photo that : when you have a puddle you can figure out through a process of elimination. Aha! jt's initials are not here thus jt is the culprit . Tedious I think , but if they know you are doing it, they will stop bringing in stuff. Or the totally clueless person wil finally be caught.

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A few years back, the community studio I use to go to had a person put two matching items in a cone 10 gas firing; one became a puddle that surrounded its partner on the shelf. Seems the person used cone 10 clay for one and either e-ware or a true cone 6 for the other -- without realizing it. Sometimes accidents happen . . . although repeated incidents tend to point to someone who truly does not get it.

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