The was a glaze fire on Friday the 30 of March. There were some issues with this. The beads rack that was used had some issues and most of the beads fell. Although there were very few total losses, we are working on a new/different process for hang firing beads.
Another disaster was a pre-bisqued piece that was purchased and brought in to be glazed. The piece warped and most of the glaze ended up on the shelf. I have discussed this with Evans Ceramics where we buy our clay. They conveyed to me that ALL of their pre-made pieces are “LOW FIRE”. We glaze fire at a cone 5/6. If the clay is not a high fire clay or the type of clay is unknown, we cannot fire it.
Is it possible someone bought greenware that was labeled cone 06, and that someone thought that 06 would mean the same as 6? Ceramic and glaze firing temperatures are about the only context I know if that leading zeros are very significant.
Mike that is good point. Cone is the term for the ceramic standard firing temps. Also the terms “low fire”, mid-range fire", and “high fire”. Always be sure to ask what things are fired at. Here is a chart to show the temperature ranges. On this chart 5 1/2 is the range in which we glaze fire. We bisque fire is at a 04 range.
