Firings and Glazing

TL;DR: bisque is running, some pieces were on the wrong shelves, please read suggestions below for glazing or risk that your glazed pieces may not be fired.

I have a fresh bisque load running as of this morning. There was just enough on the shelves for a full load.

@tonyreid, you had several greeware pieces on the glaze shelves and one glaze piece on the bisque shelves. I didn’t notice until after it was loaded so they unfortunately didn’t make it in. I did move them so they can get into the next round.

Regarding glaze firing, I think we have enough for a load. There are some pieces with glaze on the bottom or right to the bottom. There are also some that are fully glazed without stilts. Please take the following into consideration when glazing:

  • make sure to leave at least 1/4 inch of raw bisque at the bottom of your piece. Leave more if you’re using a runny glaze or layering flux. Make sure excess glaze is fully cleaned from the piece using a wet sponge.

  • If your piece is fully glazed or has glaze to the bottom please add a stilt (or multiple) while on the staging shelf to validate stability - best practice is to glaze so that we are doing as little stilting as possible but they do exist for a reason so please use them if needed.

  • If you’re dealing with a new glaze (or combination) that you suspect may run i would suggest making a test piece and glazing the top 2/3 max to get a feel for it. If your using a combo, glaze just the top 1/3 with your top coat on the first try. You can alter the strategy on later pieces once you have a feeling for how it reacts.

Failing to follow these best practices puts extra work on those who are firing and risks your piece sticking to the kiln shelf.

If you’re new to the craft, I’m happy to meet you here to go through it or to help you find a good strategy for tough pieces. Just hit me up and we’ll find a good time. I’m sure Russ and/or Thad will do the same.

Happy making!
/mike

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