Chilly

ceramica hasn't been here since December. You might get a quicker response if you send them a message.

@F Crow Out of interest , what controller do you have? My Stafford controller also has the hold as part of the segment.

No, a domestic oven won't get hot enough to remove all the moisture from the clay, let alone turn it into anything sturdy enough to hold soil. You can pit-fire clay, where it will reach 700 - 800 deg C, but even that does not fully mature the clay. Most clay gets it's first firing at around 1,000 deg C, but that isn't usually hot enough to make the finished item frost-proof. Wait till the community centres and pottery studios re-open and book yourself some classes.

If I understand correctly, you are asking: Touch a piece of wood, then touch a piece of ceramics. If both have lived in the same room for a period of time, one will feel colder than the other at normal "room temperature". If when they get hotter, does that relationship of "feel"change? Is it likely to change sufficient that a ceramic pot could cause injury or merely distress?

Re-firing something that's been used can only have 2 affects. It works, or it doesn't. I re-fired a commercial pasta bowl that had a crazing glaze = perfect. I re-fired a home-made garden saucer, and had to sweep the crumbs off the catcher plate. Sticking a handle back is an almost certain fail.

I think they've all answered your questions, just to add: the first Lea that I met, I pronounced Leah. Now I know, I say it like Lee. Choose something that absolutely cannot be mis-spelled. I'm: Ann - without an e Allen - double L - e - n Thanks mum

What is coffee? Fruit tea here.

Take care working with dry powder. Wear a proper respirator.

Normal here. I have a plaster slab that sits out in a greenhouse all year, and when it's damp or cold it grows fur.

Does the swirl fire out? I get the same with both commercial low fire casting slip and home made stoneware and porcelain slips. But never noticed it on fired items.

Test, test, test. If your finished item will be a plate, test on plate shapes. If a mug or vase, straight-sided or bulbous, test on similar. Horizontal and vertical surfaces, inside or outside, all can affect end result. Oh, did I say test, test, test.

Have you though of contacting any of the Stoke-on-Trent potteries? Also the Clay College https://www.claycollegestoke.co.uk/

That means clay that has been bisque fired to ^04. Not ^04 clay. If you use ^04 clay you will get a puddle.

And use fewer posts, leaving some spare for more shelves.

With pots that's a fair way to price. I once bought some embroidery thread from a mail order Co. Postage price was based on selling price. 6 reels of embroidery thread weighed and needed same size box, as 6 reels of sewing thread. Embroidery thread was 4 x price, so the postage was more than double. Needless to say I thought twice before buying from them again. Have a rule, but be flexible and open to your customers comments .

This would worry me. Also, mixing clay and glazes is a recipe for disaster. My best suggestion would be to mix and match old and new as mosaic, not firing them together.

We call them gravy plates. And we've had lots of rain here too.

A quick google found this: https://suemcleodceramics.com/how-to-make-a-saturated-epsom-salt-solution-to-flocculate-your-glazes/

Depends on who/what/where you compare

I paid £25 for my kiln. Then new wiring, then new elements as other half didn't realise elements would be brittle. Several years later added a digital controller. Still less ££s than a new kiln.

Hi @cellaryx Welcome to the forum. My kiln is in my cedar greenhouse. Paving slab floor, and kiln is rolled to the centre away from the staging when I fire it. Most important thing is to get your wiring sorted properly. If, like me, you end up with a kiln that plugs into a standard domestic (UK) socket, do NOT use an extension lead draped down the garden. Get an electrician to look at wiring for you. I have a caravan socket on the outside of the house, wired from the fuseboard. The kiln has a long, arctic quality cable attached to it, and when I need to fire the kiln, I r

Correct, but twice !

This advice from Min might help: Posted December 21, 2020 (edited) Go by what your clay is mature at, if it can take a ^5 plus X amount of time in a soak and the glazes look okay then you're set. Since you are making functional ware test the claybody at the cone you fire to, be it 5 or 6 or somewhere in between. Glazes melt along a range, there is a spectrum of both time and temperature upon which they both melt on the way up and solidify on the way down. The reason the drop and soak works on a matured claybody is that some glazes have a surface tension t

Different shape, but I have problems with slip-cast handles. Constantly topping up, then bubbles. Probably why plates are usually jigger/jolleyed on a high production scale.

I'd like to add something, oh, lots of you have beaten me to it, so I won't.