Ginny C

OH! Just make little balls of clay and put them underneath?! What fun! How far apart...I'm guessing about 1 inch apart...so 8-10 for a platter with about 4-5 inches diameter flat area on the bottom? ginny ( I love the interest in this, and the advanced scientific discussion some of you have brought into it!)

Are you saying you fast-fired to ^5 for a bisque firing? Or do you mean to ^05? If you fast-fired to ^5 from greenware I'm not surprised it cracked. Chilly, Oh good grief. Sorry ! I was just talking about my glaze firings there..and the fact that the kiln slightly overheats. The bisque firing under discussion here was to cone 04! Sorry for the confusion. ginny

Chris, Yes, it's sharp! Would take a lot of grinding to not look like just a broken piece! And, Babs...maybe a garden piece is a good idea. Nerd & Chris, thank you for all that explanation! I've never tried to use my kiln without just the built-in settings. It's an Excel with a Select Fire board. I set it for cone 5 (but when I use a witness cone it shows cone 6 was reached) and I usually choose slow or medium speed, but this time I used Fast...maybe that was the problem!!?? It looks like about 6 inches of the platter rested on the shelf. (No foot ring on this piece.) I will o

Chris...I guess I do not understand how to post a photo. Thought I followed the directions to attach files, but evidently I need to do something different! Or, can you see them now? ginny

Lots of work went into this large (15" diameter) agate ware platter, but it broke clean in half during the bisque firing! I had it sitting on sheets of Bullseye kiln liner paper to allow it to slide on the kiln shelf. I'm sure it is now headed for the driveway, unless someone can suggest another use, or even a way to repair it. (Ha!) Just to show what it would look like with a clear glaze, here's another piece I made earlier: FYI, the patterned clay strips are placed on a thin slab of the same clay (Laguna B-Mix for cone 5) and rolled hard until they are basically one uni

i would suggest separate wedging area, work area, and drying area for each color clay, you dont want white work that is pink (hey, you got chocolate in my peanut butter! are you old enough for that?,lol, anyway) often you still to wedge while other clay is drying, this is why movable drying 'vats' are the way to go, plaster....perfect moment to learn how to pour plaster! it's cake to make,and durable, my vats are at least ten years old plaster wedging surface too, whatever you were going to wedge on, put a 2x4 frame around the top and pour 3" of plaster in there I know it's awfu

What's a printers' mat?? Thanks! Ginny C.

Oh I love the phrase plug shuffle! What a variety of answers to this question...wonder what that proves, besides the obvious one that the impatience quotient varies among potters. Do those of you who open early get more crazing than if you'd waited?? Of course crazing is pretty, but isn't it bad on the inside of pots that will hold food? I'm a new potter, 72 years young and after taking classes I've now had my own cellar studio for one year. I LOVE making pots! Electric kiln in the garage, and I agonize every time about this kind of question. How about the other end of the firing cycleâ€