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If you are just firing test tiles, made from white clay and nothing else, then once the tiles are bone dry the firing can go quickly allowing that they are not stacked solid in the kiln. If you take a room temperature test tile (or pot) and put it against your cheek it shouldn't feel cool. If it does then you need to either let them dry longer outside the kiln or do a candle (preheat) in the kiln to dry them out. If the tiles are still damp then a candle of 200F an hour up to 185F with a 2 hour hold should be adequate then I'ld just run the preprogrammed fast bisque program.

@LeeU, thanks for the elaboration on your thoughts. Your input is appreciated.

Try a tiny bit of it in some fresh slip and see what it does. I'ld try about a cup of slip then add some Darvan drop by drop and stir it up and look for a change. I know they say 2 years but I've got some that is older than that and it still works but perhaps yours was getting old when you bought it. Does it have a manufacture date on it?

This could be the key to the problem. Darvan has a shelf life so it could just be the efficacy of it has deteriorated. I work it out to being 56 grams being the ballpark figure you would need so I think this probably confirms the Darvan is shot.

May I ask what you find troubling about it?

I'm thinking that too. Post pictures of it so we can get a better idea of its condition. Is the size going to be big enough for your output and are you okay with firing a manual kiln? If it's in decent shape with furniture and a kiln sitter the most I'ld pay would be $200 but there are always used kilns available where I live.

Maybe your wax isn't all that it could be, shouldn't be much to clean up. What wax are you using?

@GoodKarma, I would really suggest testing the claybody and the glazes you are thinking of using before doing this. To prevent staining look for a body that has a low absorption figure (1 1/2% or less) and then test it in your kiln with your firing methods and measure what absorption figure you get. If this checks out okay then make sure the clay can take the added stress of having only one side of the pot glazed. To do this take a thin walled cylinder and glaze the inside only with the glaze you are thinking of using as the liner glaze and glaze it as thickly as you would an actual pot. Freeze the test cylinder(s) then put them in the sink and pour boiling water in them. If you will be doing some glaze on the outside then do a test cylinder like this also. If the clay is vitrified then it will be food safe but chances are you won't be eating off the outside of a pot so no worries there.

Perfect! I sent the info along to the gallery manager, much appreciated. The only hurdle I can see is getting vendors to print the barcoded price stickers but I'll let the gallery figure that one out. I think the worst case scenario is the gallery prints them off for vendors who can't do it themselves, which should be doable.

I was wondering about barcoded labels, each vendor getting a supply of those with their pricepoints. Gallery scanning the codes at POS so the customer can get out the door quickly then scanned barcodes getting directly put in software file for each vendor. An app for smartphones that can scan barcodes maybe? Does a system like this exist?

There is a fair bit of spam, we try and get it removed quickly. Members and guests can report a post if they think it's spam then the mods and admin get notified via a report of it. If it's obvious spam then we delete it straight away but there are times when a spammer tries to work the forum in a roundabout way so in those cases it sometimes takes a bit longer to verify that it's coming from a spammer.

Thanks OldLady, I should have been more clear in my post. Tags and inventory on a spreadsheet isn't a problem, it's the time the staff at the gallery need to spend getting the sales to the correct vendors that's the bottleneck.

I'm participating in a 1 month Christmas gallery sale where there are multiple vendors (approx 45). The gallery manager used QuickBooks last year but found it too time consuming to enter the sales data for each of the vendors. They are trying Square this year, but are looking for other options going forward if Square doesn't work out. Basically they need to be able to upload our inventory sheets and keep track of the sales for each vendor. Does anyone have any alternate recommendations for accounts software?

Hi Margery, I'll pm you @Jennifer Harnetty's contact info and she will help you with this.

Frank Gaydos was generous enough to allow us to post his Frit Substitution Chart here on the forum. It contains a chart of some common frits with substitutions plus a lengthy list of frits with their composition. Included are Ferro, Hommel, Pemco, PotClays and PotteryCrafts. I've added a link to the DigitalFire reference list of frits to include Fusion and other frits not included in the Frank Gaydos pdf. (direct permission from the author, Frank Gaydos, obtained prior to posting here) Frank Gaydos Frit Substitution Chart Frits.pdf DigitalFire reference list of frits edit: posting pdf's is new here, it looks like you need to be signed in to open the pdf link