ZDillingham

I’ve been told I should maybe start hand rolling my coils instead of using the extruding because of clay memory. A teacher once told me if I use the extruder I should have a board parallel to the extruded coil and immediately let us rest on the board straight so it’s never bent in any way. To be honest i haven’t been doing this so maybe that’s part of the problem?

Hi Pres, I’m in a community studio and I don’t believe they use any grog on the kiln shelves. I can ask about it though. With the vertical coils I join them after assembly of the planter by inserting the coil into the planter which is essentially a box. I think I’ve found that firing them horizontally and adhering after all firings is the best bet because if I join them vertically when building and it warps then the whole piece is ruined. Here is a picture of my topiaries: https://ibb.co/xFzbc4P

I use an extruder to make the coils. I then either fire them to cone 6 horizontally, or I mount them vertically to these small planter boxes I make to create miniature topiaries. If I fire them horizontally and unattached I then adhere them using epoxy once everything’s been fired to cone 6. In both situations the rod slightly warps.

I’ve been attempting to fire a straight coil, or rod, and 50% of the time it warps or slumps during the firing process. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to prevent this from happening? Many thanks!