Piedmont Pottery

Wollastonite is not hygroscopic.

As long as none of your ingredients are wet there should be zero problems with this.  Ive done this for years with -20f temps.

Have you explored the Digitalfire web site for information on your problem, or even downloaded their glaze calculator?  Altering a glaze is a tough situation and takes lots of understanding. If you are just getting into glaze mixing I would try finding a glaze that meets your needs without making changes. Try Glazy or Digitalfire.
 
 
best,
Pres

You can also try a "candling" program.  I run the kiln at 180 degrees for 8 hours.  Do not go above 212 degrees (boiling temperature), and be aware of any offsets your kiln may have.  Make sure your work is not too thick.  Sometimes I touch the piece to my face and if it feels cool I let it sit for a while longer.  It's humid now in Indiana, I can't imagine what you go through in Florida!

Epson salts are basically magnesium sulfate. 20% +/- magnesium; which is the clay world is a body flux. The sulfates will burn out. Given the amounts used; nearly zero effect. At most, the magnesium will change a high white body to an off white body; and that would require larger additions than what is being discussed. 
Tom

In addition to using smaller buckets, adding a bit of Epsom salts to flocculate the clay will make the fine particles settle much more quickly, allowing you to remove the clear water above the clay layer.

I think that Tony Hansen's demonstration of the fallibility of ChatGPT is worth posting.
ChatGPT is completely wrong about the cause of glaze crazing!
https://digitalfire.com/picture/3159
... a fine example of ignoring the elephant in the room.
... a fine example of ignoring the elephant in the room by ChatGPT
PS It reminded me of a very old software engineering joke (1970s?).
A man was been taken on a cross-country flight in a helicopter. During the flight the ground became completely covered in dense fog, and the pilot became lost. The eventually came across the top of a office tower sticking above the fog, and they hovered nearby. The man attracted the attention of somebody in the office and held up a placard saying "where are we?", and received the answer "in a helicopter hovering 60ft above the ground".

The pilot said "OK I know exactly where we are, and set off towards their destination.
Later he explained "the answer you got was technically correct and not the slightest help, so obviously we were at the Microsoft help centre whose location I know".
Maybe ChatGPT is another help centre.

In addition to using smaller buckets, adding a bit of Epsom salts to flocculate the clay will make the fine particles settle much more quickly, allowing you to remove the clear water above the clay layer.

It appears that the pits go all the way through to the body, so the bubbles are starting there. You say the body is rated for cone 5-10. That means it is immature at cone 5/6, not mature until 10. An alleged  wide firing range is one of the unfortunate fallacies perpetrated by the clay industry. My guess is that there is still stuff outgassing from the body at cone 6. If you are using a kiln with a digital controller, you can try a controlled cooling to allow the glaze to heal over any bubbles that are coming up.
As for the unexpected color, I'm not familiar with that glaze.

If the timer shut it off before the cone dropped, then it didn't reach temp. Turn the kiln on high for a few minutes and see if all the elements glow. If one is out, then it's probably just a fried element. If two in the same section are out, then you probably have a bad switch. Or in both cases it could be a wiring connection fried out somewhere, which should be easy to see when you open up the control box (with the kiln unplugged). If they all glow, then they're probably worn and need to be replaced. Post a pic of the elements so we can see their condition.

Definitely check out everything Bill recommends. If everything looks good, then I would replace the wires going into and coming out of the switches. If they're old they can cause overheating.

As far as a clay being vitrified at cone 6, it depends on the clay you were using. A clay body that is sold as a cone 6-10 clay will be a lot more porous when fired at cone 6 than it is at cone 10. For food dishes, I find it’s best to aim for your porosity to be less than 1%. Even if your clay body is a true midfire clay, it’s always a good idea to do a porosity test to confirm against manufacturer’s specs. Your method of firing may be different than what the manufacturer used to supply that info.
The colour seems unusually vivid for mould growth, and usually there’s other colours involved as well. What it cleans off with will possibly also give you more info. 
If it cleans off with hot soapy water, bleach or peroxide, that would indicate bacteria of some kind. Or maybe something it picked up from the counter? I have kids, so my mind goes to something like drink mix, or dye transfer from some kind of wet packaging. 
If you need something like vinegar or CLR to remove it, that would mean it’s probably from the water.

Hi @John Flores, welcome to the forum!
This happens when the wires get old, and those wires are old. They are white when they're new. Old wires can burn out a brand new relay very quickly.
1. Get a new terminal strip.
2. Assuming the feeder wires are connected to the elements with the standard Skutt crimp connectors: Cut off all the slip-on terminal connectors on the ends of the feeder wires that connect to the terminal strip, and put new connectors on them. No sense using corroded connectors on a new terminal strip. Replace the feeder wires next time you replace the elements. If the feeder wires are connected to the elements with removable connectors, then replace the feeder wires now. In the future, replace the slip-on terminals any time they show signs of overheating.
3. Replace the relay.
4. Get a new wiring harness (for inside the control box). It has all the wires going into and out of the relays and all the red control wires. I don't usually replace the control wires unless they really need it, but yours are looking fairly corroded so I'd replace them. Be really careful removing the wires from the transformer. Those connections are really delicate.

I'd be mad. They should have installed the outlet to match your kiln, not modify your kiln without asking you. It's pure laziness, and because they modified it, they may have voided the warranty and/or UL listing. Make them replace the outlet with a 6-50 and make them buy and install a new power cord.

I would get the larger kiln. 8 sided kilns are fairly limiting in what you can fit in them.
You can get a wall mounted digital controller from Skutt or others, which basically turns your kiln into a digital kiln. You'll still have to turn on the Sitter, but the firing will be controlled by the digital system. They're not cheap, but you'll still be saving about $1500 vs the cost of a brand new kiln.
With a used kiln, make sure the bricks are in good condition- only small chips, no large breaks. Also check the lid and floor for cracks that go all the way through. Hairline cracks are normal. Also, if the bricks are very yellow in color then that's a sign that they've been fired a lot and are near the end of their life. White/cream colored bricks are what you want.

I don't do a lot of throwing but I have learned that keeping the  thickness of the clay the same is the key.   I even try to keep the turns in sculptures  the same,   If I can't I will make the area angled to ease into a area with varied thickness.  My throwing teacher in college would walk behind our wheels hollering (compression, compression, compression)  especially on a flat platter.   Denice

Have you tried using a rib and compressing the heck out of the bottom while on the wheel?

Crazing has very little to do with your cool down rate. If you slow your cool and it appears to get rid of a crazing problem, you’ve likely only caused a crazing delay. A shock test will still bring it out. Crazing is caused by COE values that differ too greatly between clay and glaze. If this is your first test of using Frost instead of the Standard 365 clay and all your usual glazes have crazed, that just means the 2 clays have different COE’s. That’s not unusual at all. 
If you want to keep using the same glazes, you’ll have to adjust them all to compensate. If the crazing is slow to emerge and the crack pattern is a larger one rather than a covering of fine lines, chances are the glazes won’t need a lot of adjusting. That which bodes well for keeping the character of the glazes intact. It’ll be a little bit of work with a test sieve to hone in 10 glazes, but it’s doable. 
If you’re going to use glaze software to help narrow the project down, some notes about comparing COE values:
1) Using calculated COE values won’t eliminate physical testing, but it’ll cut down the work and materials used. 
2) COE values aren’t absolute numbers. They’re only a snapshot of a measurement taken under a very specific set of circumstances. If you change the circumstances, you get a different value. They’re good if you’re adjusting a glaze without adding or removing any ingredients, only changing quantities. Also worth noting that because of this, different glaze softwares use slightly different COE values in their source tables. If you’re looking at a clay manufacturer’s suggested COE range for glazes, make sure you’re using the same software they are. Many manufacturers have stopped offering these suggestions though, because they tend to cause more confusion than they help with.
3) You don’t want to match coe values of your glazes to your clay. That results in more glaze flaws. Knowing that you need to move your existing glaze COE values higher or lower is the important bit here. 
 

You can accept Apple Pay on Square.    Even some other payments, I think Cash App.    When someone asks we just enter and ppl tap their card or phone and it works.   So far, haven't had anything that didn't work with Square.   I like Square.  Seems price competitive and they charge a straight 2.6%.     No difference on reward or corporate cards.   Those reward cards are really high with some CC businesses.   My business is about 70% CC and 30% cash.   We enter both on square for tax record keeping.  oh yeah Square has 25 cents transaction fee ... on less than a certain amount I think it's 35 cents.

Throwing direction is not a matter of being left or right handed. Western cultures typically throw counter-clockwise, and eastern cultures typically work clockwise. I recommend she learn to work counter-clockwise as she may encounter wheels that only go that direction if she attends workshops. Plus most instructional videos will be done that way.

Every decision the controller makes is based on information from the thermocouple. If it's not reading correctly then the firing can't progress normally. I would change it, it's cheap and easy.
Typically when kilns stall out at 1850-1950 degrees it's because an element is out or a relay has died or is sticking. I know you said you replaced the relays, but did you replace the wiring in the control box? If the power wires going into and out of the relays are worn then they can cause a relay to overheat and stick or fail. I've seen brand new relays die on their first firing due to the wiring.

Suggestion: if everything is in order for the next test fire, your FTL or firing too long error implies that the kiln was not able to make 27 degrees per hour rate which implies not enough thermal power. So if everything is in order and you can measure actual voltage AND amperage while it is running that will reveal if in fact it has the power designed. Excess voltage drop will show up when a circuit is loaded up and the amperage will tell just how much power the kiln is able to deliver.  Really good data to know but best known while operating.
It would be good to check the deviation temperature set TeDe - pg. 24, default is 100f. Thermocouple is set to match type: R,S,K… also record the total time taken. It typically will be approximately 8 - 12 hours.
and your final segment or last 200f of the firing is 100-108 f per hour to match the Orton cone chart. Many kilns, just make this rate at very top temperatures when new, so 140f for the last segment (last 200f) aligns more with a fast firing schedule than slow.
The last 200f is where the major reactions occur or there is enough energy for the flux, silica and alumina to melt. The last 200f - 250f is really the most important part from a predictable heatwork respect.
All those measurements should tell the story

Crazing, crawling and pinholes all on one pot.  Beautiful. Glaze marries with the pot to fit in harmony. In the case of the rabbit do the pinholes add or detract?
Shino Tea Ceremony Bowl by Suzuki Tomio

 

I make my stamps using a 3-D printer.  It's a fairly simple process to design the printer file, and the cost of filament is only a couple of dollars. Of course, you do need to have access to a 3-D printer.

Congrats Gray!
Likely much better to transport fully disassembled, where the lid, bottom, and both sections are isolated from each other and resting on a cushiony flat surface.
Somewhere here in the archives is a write-up on kiln moving by Neil...
There's some advice here:
Long distance moving a kiln - Equipment Use and Repair - Ceramic Arts Daily Community
No doubt you'll get more responses soon...