Hulk

Looks like 1300 °C is well over Cone 10, excepting particularly (very) "fast" heating rates...

I am surprised pottery crafts said they wouldn't do it, probably just being lazy as they don't have the specification on file.
The few places I know who would probably wind them for you are
https://www.kilncare.co.uk/elements
https://www.kilns.co.uk/kilns/kiln-elements
https://www.cromartiehobbycraft.co.uk/Catalogue/Ceramic-Kilns-Electric-Kilns-Pottery-Kilns/Kiln-Spares-Kiln-Elements/Kiln-Elements-Element-Wire-Connectors

Hi Linda,
Welcome to the Forum.
Good question!
I'm sure it's proper for major appliances like heat pumps and ceramic kilns to run on their own dedicated circuits.
We were able to free up some space on both our subpanels by taking out some full width circuit breakers and replacing them with half width/duplex breakers (aka slimline, twin, half, wafer, double - lots of names for the same thing). We didn't add enough to worry about exceeding the overall capacity...
Would that work for your panel?
Is it a main or subpanel in question?
What's the rating on the panel, is it a 200 or 100 amp panel?
What's the load on the panel before the heat pump - the existing load (current load, heh, err, current current load)? 

Turn on the heater (natural Gas) let the shop warm up and go to work. For me my winter break ends on Valentines day-back to a large wholesale order.This is my biggest transtion year on my slow down plan. Sold a single burner Gas kiln today (west coast I have been storing for 35 years (never used) part of my downsize plan as well. Filled a Suburau outback with it and shelves.
Got the studio wet mopped/wet dusted all shelves and vaced it up with whole studio vac. system. Brought in 1,000 #s of clay to heat it up before Tuesdays work schedule.
sunny and 61 today as the rain stopped. Colder nights now but only
in the 30s.Perfect climate for clay work

the kiln was located in a shared studio called Brick Street Studio  in st petersburg.   it is in the warehouse arts district and there are other pottery centers there.   i cannot find a phone number for brick street so i tried the Morean Center for clay.   formerly known as the Train Station.  it is only 2 blocks from brick street.   there is a third one on first street south at 20th called the Clay Center.  
i left a message at the Morean but nobody has called back.  same thing at the Clay center.  i will keep trying but you might do a search and get better results.  the area is full of potters.   the train station has a history of fantastic workshops using many of their fuel burning kilns.   it is an ever-growing area for artists of all kinds.  the city is supportive.

My studio is the garage of my house, heated by regular garage heater (a radiator with a fan). I keep it around 50° when not working and crank it up when I’m there. Heats up fast. The humidity is really low here in the winter, if I leave the heat on things dry very quickly (sometimes that’s a strategy). I put in a shop sink a few years ago and that’s been wonderful, I don’t have to trudge back into the house for a bucket of warm water.
 I think the biggest change in winter is some things become so impractical I can’t do them. I can’t run a hose outdoors, so anything requiring a big wash down is out. Mixing new clay waits till summer. The studio doesn’t get a proper cleaning until I can raise the garage door, then I flood the floor and squeegee out the water. I don’t even like to vacuum without the garage door up. Mixing batches of glaze is easier in summer too, that’s preferred. If it’s colder than 20° F firing the gas kiln is out (I have some tricks for emergencies, but it’s way too much work to do regularly). And then there’s the snow. It’s my never ending opportunity for exercise. 

I get some heat from the house it is enough to keep things from freezing.   I have one of those radiator looking electric heaters,  first thing I do is turn it on in the morning.   I also turn on a couple of small fans to move the air around.   I am unable to warm it enough to work out there when it is 0 and below outside.   I catch up with chores in the house on those days,  fortunately the southern part of Kansas only has 2 or 3 weeks of intense cold  each year.  I know that doesn't sound that cold to some but we get strong winds with it.  Even people from colder states complain about the cold weather here.    Denice

Regarding the overall response here: we’ve had a LOT of folks over the past few years ask about how to achieve a similar aesthetic as in the pictures you’ve posted. Most beginners don’t realize the look can either achieved with photography edits by someone who is both a good potter and photographer, or with poorly fired/impractical ware made by someone who is taking accurate pictures. Without holding the pots in question, it can be hard to spot the difference. When someone doesn’t know badly fired ware is a possibility, they have no reason to think to look. 
Glazes that are dry matte can be made through a number of mechanisms, some of which are great for sculptural work, but aren’t durable enough long term to use on kitchen dishes. However some glazes that have a satin finish are extremely durable and ideal for functional use. You can’t tell which is which without looking at the glaze recipe in software or knowing firing temperature though. A glaze that is very dry to the touch is often underfired though, and falls into that first category.
If you don’t have a lot of glaze chemistry knowledge and are making pots for yourself and not for sale, using a commercial product that is designed for the purpose is an ideal solution, and will save you a lot of work. 
If you do want to mix your own glazes, you want to make sure your glaze is fired to maturity and formulated properly and involves a bit more testing. You’ve got some good starting points here, and we always appreciate updates!
 
 

Hello all :-)
thank you for the replies! There has been mixed responds, some calling them nonfunctional or not glazed at all. I disagree since I own work by these potters and they are great and definitely glazed! However, some of you were believers in the existence of this transparent/see-through matte(ish) glaze.

Maybe I didn't choose my words right, I'm looking for a non-high-glossy glaze that shows the character of the clay. ( a bit earthy ). Possibly a 'satin' does the trick. These pots by Denise Rijnen show exactly what I'm looking for. The marbled cups are definitely glazed because you see the orange line., but the glazes does show the character of the different clays underneath... that's pretty  transparent/see-through/translucent if you ask me.

I went ahead and asked the artists directly what they used.
Annemieke Boots didn't really want to tell, the response i got was : 'It’s a glaze I adapted to my use, a glaze of Lucie Rie. Just check, google and try!!'
I tried to google it and wasn't very successful. :-(  
I asked Julia, and she gave me a link to a ceramics shop that sold a transparent matte powder glaze! juhu! 
 https://www.keramikos.nl/aardewerk-poederglazuren/1743-matglazuur-transparant-1kg.html
And Denise Rijnen I still have to ask.
@Bill Kielb your recipe looks great! Thank you for taking the time to share it!
Thanks @Callie Beller Diesel for trying to figure it out with me :-) 

I ran an absorption test of the new 630- 44 hour soak with a 2 hour boil in the middle, the best I could do with my schedule this week. Absorption came out to 1.2%, which is great. My kiln fires to a strong cone 6, probably closer to 6 1/2, but even at 6 it should be well within acceptable range. I don't fire to cone 5 and my baby kiln is out of commission right now so I can't do a cone 5 test for a couple more weeks.
I gave some of the clay to one of my students yesterday and her initial reaction was the same as mine- it didn't feel at all like the old 630 and she didn't like it. However after throwing a couple of pieces she again had the same realization as me, which is that it still throws well, it's just different. I'm going to make a few pieces with it tonight and see if it's still as forgiving as the old formula. You could really abuse the old stuff without any problems- very little S-cracking and handles never pulled away.

Well, to make things more interesting, I found this when I removed a large chunk from the broken creamer. This is looking at the cross-section of the wall of the piece. I'm not sure what would cause this, maybe leftover organics? I couldn't find more examples of this in the other broken pieces of the creamer.

Hi y’all, hoping this forum is still alive! 
i just snagged a Cress FX23P off of Facebook marketplace for a very similar reason the original author of this post made, proximity. 
 
I’ve been searching for the past year waiting for an electric skutt kiln to pop up anywhere within 5 hour driving radius, but this one popped up just last week 20 minutes away from me and I had to just jump in it! 
 
Im looking forward to learning more about my new baby! 

If they were just slipcasting and glazes weren’t involved, most clay-based hazards involve inhaled silica, and can be easily remediated with a lot of wet cleanup. A proper respirator is still a must though, because even wet cleanup will stir some things into the air.
If there were glazes, possibly lead, involved, we’d need more info. I like Bab’s suggestion about having a cleaning stipulation before move in.
 
edited to add: I’m going to take the liberty of deleting your duplicate post. You probably want all the information in one spot.

Proviso before moving in that it is cleaned for you?
Renting or leasing? 
Any industrial cleaning service who would have all thr haz gear required for suvh a clean?
Fire hose , ppds and a floor drain with a clay trap?
If you clean you would have to have a way of disposing the sludge, clay water etc.
If totally suitable, cheap, proximity etc may be worth it .

@bees.and.stones, please let us know if any of the glazes linked work for you. Bill's glaze is a great example of how one glaze can work really well for one person and not so much for someone else and the importance of test tiles to try out a glaze before committing good work to a new untested glaze. Glaze recipes often don't travel well. Given that you are in Europe your materials could well have a different analysis from what's available in North America.
My test tiles of Marcia's Matte from Bill's link above. Ink stained and cutlery marked with a rough unmelted surface when I tested it a couple years ago. Black underglaze stripes on 3rd test tile.

Because I do spend an unhealthy amount of time on instagram, I sleuthed around all 3 accounts a bit more, to see if I could figure out exactly what was going on there. 
All of the accounts you linked to are using assorted speckled clays, not a plain clay with a speckled glaze. Find images and carousels where you can see the fired foot rings of the pots, and you’ll see the evidence. The speckled look comes from either manganese or iron impurities in the clay body, depending on whether they’re firing in an electric or gas kiln respectively. Also, the images you’ve chosen to link all appear to be very matte due to moody lighting, but product listings of the same items on their websites show the work more clearly. All the glazes on all the functional pieces are a satin or gloss. Most notably, the “balance” cup is remarkably more glossy on the artist’s website than in the image posted here.
Get a speckled clay body and use the glaze Bill linked, and you should get your desired effect. 
Edited to add links to the respective artist’s websites:
@annemiekebootsceramics: https://www.annemiekebootsceramics.nl/work/tableware
@sensitiveboi: https://cargocollective.com/sensitiveboy/index
@darc.matter.ceramics https://www.darcmatter.eu/shop/alle-items

They are available all over.
Dr google thermal heated jackets, rechargeable, up to 10hrs,can get sleeveless ones or full jackets.
Some washable. 
I wear homespun and knitted sweaters with sleeves to elbows, snug as a bug, but Mediterranean climate here so no sub zero days 

The Studio space here in Los Osos (Central California coast) sometimes gets into the 40s F during the wet season (aka "Winter"), which is workable with adequate clothing, protecting the feet from cold concrete and heavy alloy castings (the foot pedal sucks the heat right out ya foot, I'm telling you!), warm water in the bucket, and clay brought inside the night afore.
Mostly it's more like 50s F in the mornings though, and quite often we'll see 60s before noon, in which case I'll roll up the door to let some heat in.
Where we're going is a different story, as it's cooler in Winter, and much hotter in Summer four hundred miles North of here, and inland.
A heat pump is very likely in my future!
Meanwhile, our Son's house is more comfortable.
We've remodeled three bedrooms, both bathrooms. The exterior walls are cement block, which doesn't insulate well. We added R13 foam insulation and sheetrock on the inside.
R13 isn't a lot, but it's a big improvement from R2 or whatever cement block provides. It's much quieter as well.
Framing the wall, pulling new electrical, fitting the foam board, then sheet rocking, finishing, and painting are a bit of trouble, but it's not overwhelming.
The windows slowed us down some.
The foam board has gone up, it was about forty-five dollars a sheet.
Lumber went down some, was up to fourteen dollars each, then back down to about eight; we used 2"x4"x8' pressure treated for framing, which we ripped down to 2.75".

babs, i want one of those heated jackets!!   are they only sold in timbuktoo?   can you walk around or are they plugged in to the wall?
my studio has two huge radiators and the oil fired boiler in the back corner.  one radiator is next to the french doors and the other is a taller one in the opposite corner.  it has been too cold and i have not felt well enough to work out there except for a few small things.   yesterday the sun was out all day, i had forgotton what sunshine can do to perk me up.   the bay window makes it a pleasure to do small hand work like sifting through all the collected papers and business cards of potters i meet.  i think i filled an outside trash can with useless stuff.   i had no idea how many brushes i have until i sorted them out.   and i do not paint!
i turned up the thermostat in the studio to 68 and with the sunshine, it was a comfortable place to work.   cleaned most of the work table down to the tyvek surface and finished it today.   there are so many things in that space that i brought up when i sold the florida place.   things seem to multiply in the corners when i am not looking.  once the space is cleaned up, the floor washed and the bottles of test glazes are disposed of, i plan to make pots.  lots of pots.    hope the sun will shine again, i missed it for almost 2 weeks recently.
it is good to have 2 thermostats for 2 zones, the house can stay just a little warm while i work and the studio goes down to 64 when the sun goes down.

With wind chill we hit - 40 the other night at -17. Very windy!  I was really glad I had taken my Thermal-Lite shelves inside from the non-insulated screen porch! It has not been this cold in NH in the 22 years I've been up here-the lowest previous was maybe -28 w/wind chill.  I'm able to block the snow drift from coming in but I wonder about the effect of such cold on the kiln (L&L 23S)?  I have a kiln load ready to go but I assume I should not be firing it! For some reason my studio (former bedroom) stays warmer than the rest of the trailer so I don't alter what I'm doing indoors.

Not what I do but a quick thought, those Thermal jackets which have heating coils in them, crock pot of warm water for throwing. Insulated mats to stand on.
Found if my head, neck  back are warm I can withstand a lot.
Old days, gas kiln working away in corner, bliss.
Nothing like a bitta wedging to warm the body.....
But, needs serious responses as stopping work for months not good.

Hi folks, nothing new in the pool so I will pose a new question.  Lately, I have been thinking about the Winter weather, and though it has been relatively mild, the sudden chills like Christmas weekend, and the last couple of days do concern me. Mostly I shut down in the shop until April, using some heat then when I am working. However, all Winter long I shut down, let things freeze and then in the Spring have to reconstitute the glazes, and wedge throwing clay, to get back to work. It works out, as the brick garage is a beast to heat, and only has electric. So I wonder what others do to compensate for winter weather.
QotW: What are your Winter strategies for working in the shop or on pottery?
 
best,
Pres

Thanks for the comment Min. I'm familiar with segments you mentioned, and understand there's no "one size fits all" for a slow cooling routine; so to try and bound the context of my question I'm limiting myself to the Skutt "cool" function which only allows for a single segment.
So my question really has two parts:
 Is there a good single segment cooling function? What does that look like in practice when entering it on the controller? The goal here is really just a test run and to dip my toes before writing custom firing / cooling segments. I've spent the majority of my years firing wood kilns so wrapping my head around surface effects in an electric kiln is the path I'm on.
-------------------------
And thanks for the eye candy Peter, I'd been looking at that article and it was definitely a motivator to test out slower cooling!

Just eye candy:  glazes where slow cooling can have a dramatic effect.

From Super Cool! Slow Cooling in an Electric Kiln
https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/daily/article/Super-Cool-Slow-Cooling-in-an-Electric-Kiln

...and

There isn't a one size fits all type program for slow cooling. What works for one glaze won't necessarily give you the same results with another glazes. If the glaze is a high gloss one then slow cooling might not have any appreciable effect on it. If on the other hand it's one with fairly high amounts of one of the matting oxides (calcium, magnesium, alumina, strontium, barium, titanium or zinc) then slow cooling will more than likely have an effect. Getting the schedule is a bit of trial and error but a general starting place for a cone 6 glaze fire once it's reached it's top temperature could be 9999F to 1900F then ramping down at 150F an hour to 1400F then off.  (9999F is basically putting the kiln in a freefall without getting an error message)
If you do a drop and hold schedule for healing pinholes and blisters then I would suggest dropping your peak temperature at a rate of 9999F to 100F below your top temperature then holding there for approx 20 minutes then proceed with the 9999F to 1900F then 150F down to 1400F then off. 
If you find the glazes are too matte then increase the temperature it drops at (perhaps to 175F an hour) and/or raise the 1400F up and see how they turn out. If they are too glossy but might be matte with a slower cool (perhaps 125F and hour).