In a Hurry to dry pots -let the sun do it

[Lucille Oka]

To get back on the original topic-

 

Test this and see if it works for you.

 

You can also use your kitchen oven to dry your vessels.

Kitchen ovens heat up faster than ceramic ovens so your heat rise must be slower than slow and the oven door must remain open. Ventilation is needed if you do this. If you let the heat rise too quickly you may hear popping of the clay also known as explosions! Cleaning a kitchen oven of exploded clay can be a pain in the ‘whatsits’, so go slower than slow; give yourself about two hours just to reach 100°F; the vessels will probably be dry after that. Test them and see if they are dry, if they are not dry allow them more time and/or raise the temp about 25°F.

 

When they are dry turn off the oven and close the door and leave the vessels in the oven to cool down completely. Cool down won’t take long.

 

[Mark C.]

Careful doing ceramics in the kitchen-as noted above cleaning your oven up after 1,000 small clay pieces get into every crack if the pot explodes.

I try to keep all ceramics out of the house unless its a finished fired piece. The dust and all the rest are kept beyond the house-cat fur is all we have to clean up.

Shoes and pants stay in mud room-thats about as close as they get to inside..

While on this subject I also was my clay cloths in an outside old 25$ washing machine that drains outside. I do not use soap on these cloths and towels. The whole setup is behind my gas kiln and drains into a rain gutter downspout and takes it to a side field. Years of Clay can slowly clog ones washing machine trap.

Mark

[Guest JBaymore]

I try to keep all ceramics out of the house unless its a finished fired piece. The dust and all the rest are kept beyond the house-cat fur is all we have to clean up.

 

"Smart man", from the health and safety viewpoint! Good on ya'.

 

best,

 

..................john

[Lucille Oka]

Dear Mark and John,

I do not say make a regular practice of it but in a pinch it can be done. Also I do not suggest drying an entire production load of pottery in your kitchen oven especially if cleaning up your work space is not something you do on a regular basis you'll have terra sig in eggs. Production work is best in a separate studio space.

 

As for keeping it out of the house-

 

Jeremiah 18:1-4 NIV

 

At the Potter’s House

18 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.†³ So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. ⁴ But the pot that he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

 

Fascinating how the profession has changed.