Panamax

I don’t recall this ever happening to my ware in 36 years of potting until I had to have some ware ‘emergency’ fired for a show. It never occurred to me that the potters in that studio would pick up ware with oily hands. I always assume that studio rules prevail. The ‘Do Not touch other people’s work’ is always the first on any studio rules list. On the day that I came to pick up my ware I saw that people were allowed to eat in the studio! On the clay forming tables! Near the wheels and near the glazing areas Yikes!! It is so very easy to transmit oils by eating in the studio. I am sure it was neither the underglazes nor glaze that I used that caused this problem. Only one piece out of 38 had this flaking and on a rim. Trying to figure out what happened poses a lot of questions. You can use these questions as a diagnostic. -Was the piece handled by anyone who could have placed natural body oils from their hands or even sweat from their face on the piece? Oils create a resist and affect glaze adherence. -Did anyone possibly splatter some food, oil or oily liquid or wax on the piece? Some of the areas on your image looked as if drops had been falling down at an angle. -Was the piece bisque fired and rinsed prior to glazing with unclean hands? -Was it possible that some critter walked or flew by and 'stopped' on the piece? They have oils also. There are a lot of variables but all we can really do is try to limit contact to our ware and be as clean as we can. Tell family and friends to be extra careful and Do Not touch the ware before it is glaze fired. Keep your ware covered in plastic until ready to be glazed and/or fired. Thank you! This is possibly what happened. I will be extra careful next time. As with everything, complacency got me.

It could be one of the first ones, now that you mention it. But what does the plaster do to the casting slip? Create some kind of barrier to prevent the underglaze from adhering? Interesting.

I made a plaster mold of a piece and cast it in a low fire white pouring slip. The pieces were handpainted using Amaco Velvets in the greenware stage. Fired to cone 05, applied a clear glaze and fired to cone 05 for the glaze firing. I made four pieces. Three turned out without any issues. The one had some parts of the paint flake off when I picked it up. I have never had this happened to me and have worked with molds and casting. Any suggestions as to what happened and why only the one had some areas that flaked off? Thanks in advance for any advise!

How about for a smelly glaze? I have a glaze that has bone ash in it and it stinks..the kids and other students take a smell of that and are disgusted..If I pour diluted bleach, like for the paper slip, will it affect the glaze?

I will do a single firing to cone 6. I'm leaving the clay body in its natural state.

Thank you! I meant to use the wadding only on those wares that I felt could cause damage to kiln shelf....If I wadded only those heavily glazed wares, shelf would be fine, and piece would be fine...thanks for the link!

Thanks! Will keep this!

Thanks!

Do you have a sitter/timer? If so put the cone in the sitter. Turn the kiln on very low, maybe just the bottom burner and let it heat over night. Slowly turn the other (Usually three in total) burners on but at a very low temp. Let them heat for 2-3 hours. Slowly turn the kiln up giving it plenty of time to heat very slowly. Do the entire process very slowly. Usually the slow over night heat will do the trick. It does have a sitter ..thanks for your help...

I need help firing a manual kiln for a project I'm working on. I have only fired an electric digital kiln and need some assistance. The project I need fired are coil built cylinders to be fired to a cone 6. I would like to go slow as these works were created by 6-8th graders. some have sculptural pieces incorporated on the cylinders. The size is 15" dia x 5"-6" tall. Thanks!

They are waxing and wiping, but despite this, some students tend to be heavy handed and they cause drips (seems to always be the adult students...I have no problem with the kids also after researching the wading idea, I agree more work than what it's worth. I liked the "cookie" trays idea. I could use those for those pieces that scream glaze overload. Thanks for the input!

Thank you!

Yes, but I hate the flakes it produces and sometimes the student's wares are glazed so heavily (even after demo and stating) they still drip and stick

Curious if I could use wadding for loading at cone 6 in electric kiln. Want an easy way of preventing student’s wares from sticking onto shelves. I currently use little trays, but find it takes up space. If so, any good wadding recipe? Thanks