Roberta12

The majority of people who get into ceramics now are going to work in cone 6 if they plan to have a home studio. And for a large percentage of commercial studios it can be just as difficult to install a gas kiln because of zoning restrictions and cost, which was the case for my studio. In 2008 I moved my studio after 4 years at its original location, where I had a gas kiln, and it proved impossible to install a gas kiln at another location in my town because of landlords who didn't want it in their buildings and because of the cost. Those costs included making changes to the studio to increase fire ratings of shared walls, as well as the cost of upgrading gas lines and moving and re-installing the ventilation system. I already had the kiln and it was still going to cost me $35K+ to do all the other stuff. So instead I bought two electric kilns for about $6000, and I have never regretted it.
From the standpoints of running a community studio and producing my own line of work, firing electric has made my studio life much easier and freed up a lot of my time because I don't have to babysit the kiln. I can be at home with my family, or out on repair jobs, or at an art fair while the kilns are firing. I can have the kilns on while my students are in the studio, because they're so much quieter than most gas kilns. I can fire overnight while I sleep, and my students can load and run the kilns if I get too busy with repair work. Other benefits of electric kilns for me are faster turnaround times and more size options. Because they cool faster, I can get pieces fired and moved through the studio faster than I could with my gas kiln. My little test kiln allows me to fire just a couple of mugs at a time so I can get small orders out the door faster, and I do a lot more glaze testing than I did with my gas kiln.
It has been mentioned that people feel more connected to the firing when they fire with gas, but I have found the opposite to be true. With electric kilns I'm more connected to what's happening during a firing because I program exactly what's happening, with a precision that wasn't there with gas. I have far more control over what's happening every minute, and I put much more thought into my firing schedules than I ever did when I fired with gas. I also have to be more aware of how I load the electric kilns than I did with gas, as I don't have the benefit of moving air and pressure in an electric kiln. Even though I'm not turning up dials and adjusting dampers and doing the physical work during a firing, mentally I'm much more in tune with the firing than before.
After 29 years of making pots and working in all temperatures, I'm mostly just tired of the attitudes that one type of firing/cone is better than another. That attitude was instilled in me during my college years, and it cost me a lot of time and money and creative progress when I got out of school because I was so hung up on the idea that I needed to make cone 10 reduction pots in order to make good pots. The reality was that my situation was really better suited for cone 6 electric work, and instead of jumping into that I spent a lot of time more focused on trying to get a gas kiln set up when I didn't really need one. For most people, one certain type of kiln/firing is going to be the best option for their studio. That may be electric because of zoning rules, or it may be gas because of their production needs. Most people won't have much of a choice, but no one should ever be made to feel like they're making a sacrifice because of it. Everyone should feel confident that they can make great work no matter how they fire.
 
 

I originally fell in love with fuel firings of all kinds. When I went to college, all functional work was done at cone 10 reduction, and cone 6 wasn’t really a thing. Salt, soda, wood firing, even raku. Any time I could heat up some pots and throw something dirty at them, I was a happy kid. The chemistry is cheaper, and you could still build a small gas kiln in your backyard. I turned down a number of offers to come get a gas kiln out of someone’s yard when they were moving after helping a friend secure one. Sigh.
Ten years after graduation, I still hadn’t been able to set up a business though, because gas kilns are regulated under the same section of the code as industrial boilers and fracking equipment (custom built appliances). Because of a few workplace accidents, they started actually enforcing the rules around custom appliances.  If I build my own kiln, it’ll cost about 20K including a mandatory CSA approval sticker before someone will hook it up. I can’t even buy burners if I don’t have a gas fitter’s ticket. If I import a prebuilt one from the US, probably about the same cost, last time I priced it out. There are a couple of places to rent gas kilns available to me, but it’s prohibitive to do that as a business.
I wound up learning cone 6 chemistry because gas kilns weren’t feasible to use anymore. It was either not make on the scale I wanted to, or change chemistry. I resisted it for a long time because I had put so much work into making at cone 10, I didn’t want to loose that time investment. When it became unavoidable, I decided to challenge myself to build work that was durable, had rich surfaces that I could appreciate, and still had a focus on good form that is one of the strong points of atmospheric firing. A bad form with a brown glaze is (insert your own colourful euphemism). 
I have found that cone six presents some interesting challenges for me that I really enjoy. Before, I was making so that I could enjoy the process. Now, I’m interested more in the finished results. The clay is cheaper, but the glaze chemicals cost more. I have found that cone ten had left me a little complacent with my chemistry because I was relying on heat to solve a lot of problems. Learning cone 6 has made me a more technically adept potter. I have a lot more material knowledge now, and that really helps with testing. When I first began potting, I had to learn to love brown, and I was always a little sad there wasn’t more bright colours to contrast with the earthy tones. Now, I can shamelessly indulge in pink and yellow in addition to green and blue. I can have the contrast between the subtle earthy texture of my red clay, and highlight it with some bright colours that were previously a lot more difficult to achieve.

since you posted this for potters new to the process and english is an imprecise language, may i point out that the oxides are used on top BEFORE the glaze is fired.   believe me, we have had some questions over the years that indicate a complete lack of knowledge of any language.

I put a full shelf on the bottom because I am certain that is what the L&L manual told me to do.  Obedient, I am.  

Hope you know how much your creativity is appreciated!! I think about thinking of a question but it seems I can never think of one. But please, if it's not a burden, don't stop! 

Upon reflection, I am a little more structured with regular cleaning and maintenance than I would have given myself credit for.  I clean the glazing/firing area after a glaze cycle and I clean my little studio top to bottom once a year (pulling everything out and purging things I have not used and really getting in the corners)  and then of course I clean after throwing/trimming cycle.   As far as kiln maintenance, that is a once a year task and I do try to time it so it is not happening in the middle of show season.  Unless of course I get glaze on an element and it burns through or a relay burns out or some such.  
@Mark C.  Good job with the hand recovery!!!     I get a new hip on Monday.  Hoping it doesn't slow me down for too long.
 

My wife had a new hip two years ago at UCSF in San Francisco.
Had her walking within day. Had a walker a few days than a cane for a week or so-real speedy recovery. All good very soon. 1st few days are thw worst then all good.

Oh hip surgery!   Let me know how it goes,  I will need to have it done sometime in the future.    My hand doctor is finding out how slow of a healer I am,  he wants to do surgery on my other hand that I had worked on over 2 years ago.   I want this surgery to heal up before I agree to more surgery.  I had a friend that had both hips replaced at the same time,  he had polio as a child.  I think hip replacements were new at the time,  I don't think they would do both hips together now,  to hard to do PT.   Denice

Upon reflection, I am a little more structured with regular cleaning and maintenance than I would have given myself credit for.  I clean the glazing/firing area after a glaze cycle and I clean my little studio top to bottom once a year (pulling everything out and purging things I have not used and really getting in the corners)  and then of course I clean after throwing/trimming cycle.   As far as kiln maintenance, that is a once a year task and I do try to time it so it is not happening in the middle of show season.  Unless of course I get glaze on an element and it burns through or a relay burns out or some such.  
@Mark C.  Good job with the hand recovery!!!     I get a new hip on Monday.  Hoping it doesn't slow me down for too long.
 

I'm still doing Pt daliy at home on hand myself-I found throwing small sponge holders helped seed up PT recovery for me and I then worked up size wize to 2# forms and then tried to center using other parts of left hand on  6# bowls. My Pt pl;ace cut me loose last Tuesday and now my only restrictions is not to pug on thumb palm and I cannot pinch for 12 more days with thumb.Turns out I can make pots without pinching at all.Clay work really brought my hand back around fast.The hand will not be 100% until late July than zero restrictions

I clean up and reorganize between projects,  I started cleaning my studio before I hand my hand surgery.   I  go out their and move a few things around but my hand doctor wants me to take it easy.  He even cut back on my physical therapy to once a day.   I will see him again in a couple of weeks I hope I am ready to get back to work.  Denice

Maintenance for me putters along with the work/activity - there's some clean up and put away associated with every session, tools are touched up when they begin to show dull, inventory edited/updated when container requires filling, reclaim when there's sufficient amount in that clay's bin, order/wish list updated when supply is low, orders placed when supply/item will be needed soon, and so. I'm not quite able to remember everything; lists help.

It's not quite spring here yet, but I did clean both the glaze/kiln area and my little studio.  Throwing out and cleaning and rearranging.  I usually do that right after the Holidays, but it was pushed to March this year.  
That indeed was a slow boat @LeeU!  Wow!! 

Hey I have the same pie dish!

Lunch today. Pulled pork sammies on homemade “extra toasted” pretzel buns. My plate, Noel Bailey mug that was a gift from a friend. Apple pie in the background as it turns out my 9 year old daughter has a touch for pastry. And it was Pi Day.

Sounds like a fault with the clay, not with your methods.
You may be drying it out too much with your wedging.  If it's pugged clay from the manufacturer try just using it straight from the bag and see if that helps.  
Some clays are just short.

Nobody warned me clay was an addictive habit.

The only time I cover ware is if it will be too dry to work on within the timeframe I expect.
I use a cheap pop-up tent at my outdoor market. *ducks and covers*
(I weight the heck out of it though.)

Been part of a local ceramics guild long ago as it folded up after a 10 year run. I have stayed in touch with my collage clay  professors until they passed (one is still around locally)
I donated low fire glazes and a ton of magaizes to local schools and art center as well as materials over the dacades. Some of this was from my deceased  potter friend who's studio I cleaned out for his widow over the past years.
I fired some local elementary schools work for them years ago as well -I gave them the clay and glazed the work myself.
 
 

I have tried to get groups together in the past, but most people in this area are not interested.  However, I have sought out others in other places, some near, some far.  Just had a socially distant coffee in the park this morning with a friend in a neighboring town who is involved in setting up a ceramic studio in her burg.    It was great to talk about the planning.  That has been one of my goals since discovering clay for myself, to build community.  This Forum has been great for that, but yes, I do reach out to other people for just what you mentioned Pres, support, comradery, and problem solving.  

Pottery workshops!!! I can't put enough exclamation points after my response. I am so excited to be registering for workshops. 
I don't have oodles of disposable income for workshops, but with no vacations, no workshops and minimal work travel during 2020, I can afford a couple of workshops in 2021 that I can drive to. 
Betty

good, joseph, i miss your photos of what you are currently working on.

I am investing in time, I get up for work at 3:30AM on a few days of the week, and instead of sleeping in on my days off I am going to just get up on those days too and work in the studio before the kids get up. I have all the equipment I need, I just need more time. Some ideas for my work popped into my head and I would like to explore them!

They sure aren’t! Glaze isn’t quite the same as glass either, although it shares some ingredients. It’s like the difference between bread and cake. There’s some ingredient crossover and you need to bake (fire) them both, but techniques and times that work for a crusty sourdough will do something awful to a chocolate sponge. 

I'd never thought of sintering glaze! Thank you so much