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Hi, I am extremely new to the ceramics community and I recently purchased an electric kiln. I have been making stoneware vases in the shape of bodies which in places are particularly thick (1.5 inches maybe at the base). I had left the greenware for about a week before attempting a bisque fire. I had previously fired bowls in this kiln (cone 05) and none had cracked or had any issues. Unfortunately when I came to open up my kiln filled with these vases many of them had either cracked in linear type chips or seemingly exploded completely (small shards shattered around). I have researched and apparently it can be an issue with moisture however they appeared to be bone dry from colour and tapping them. I was wondering if anyone had any knowledge they could share with me over whether the issue is more one of thickness, temperature or potentially moisture content? I was in love with these vases and spent hours working on them and would be devastated if there was not a way around me making more of them. (apologies if this is not the correct place to put on this website- I have never used it before!) Thank you in advance!

Guys I'm having a serious issue, almost every bisque I have done recently in my new kiln sitter is having explosions. I have been letting my clay sit out longer and get even more bone dry yet it still keeps happening. I've made sure no air bubbles except for one piece had them however this is becoming an issue. Any help or something someone might recommend would be great! With the kiln being a kiln sitter I don't have much control to do holds I can only control the switches on the way up which I have lengthened a lot but once I hit the second switch everything goes boom, very discouraging