[slow-cool firing program]

Is it true that using a slow-cool program is actually best for any glazes, not just crystal forming ones?

[Changing a firing program part way through]

I have an Excel 700 Select Fire kiln. Started it on slow cone 5 and later wished I had chosen medium speed...or maybe slow cool. Just curious, is it harmful to stop the firing part way through and restart it in another program?

[Chop design features]

Thanks!  That's a very clear explanation. I've asked him to make it raised, and he's going to try. If he can't do it, I will order one from 4clay.com. 

Once the chop is made I will post a photo of it, because it's a very clever design. Reads the same upside down!

[Chop design features]

Thank you, Bill!

[Chop design features]

Bill, when you say embossed stamps, do you mean the stamp itself has raised letters so it produces an incised design in the clay?   Or the  opposite!?

I am not great on spatial relations (not helpful in a potter!)!  I can see that if the stamp itself is incised, to give a raised design on the clay, then it needs to have a border around it, presumably a circle. And if the stamp has a raised design, the design in the clay will be incised, with the letters impressed into the clay, with n o circle around it needed.

Is that right??

Thank you for helping this old lady! Who has for many years just written her name in the clay with a pencil. At this late stage, I'd like to look sort of professional, even though I do not sell any of my pots!

[handles heating up in microwave after several years of not doing so!]

Several mugs I made some years ago now can not be put in the microwave for re-heating coffee because the entire mug gets too hot to handle.

The clay was B-Mix cone 5. Different glasses but I think they included Running Hot Chowder. (Back before the word Running was added to the name!)

Any idea why?

[Chop design features]

My talented kids have designed a wonderful chop for me, and one son will be making it from metal in his basement engineering shop!

But should it be embossed or incised? Raised letters or sunken (better term??) letters? It will be inside a one inch circle. (The circle is not necessary—maybe just the letters themselves!)

I don't want to have to put it in a circle of clay and then attach that. I'd like to be able to use it directly on the bottom of plates and bowls. 

(If I can have a second, smaller one I would use it at the base of handles on mugs, but that would come later!)

So my question is: which is better for a chop— embossed or incised?