You're making me blush!

Oh, wild and wandering copper carbonate, why must you create such a ruckus inside of a kiln during a glaze firing? Why can't you just stay put, happy to be suspended within a glaze matrix?

If I sound a little weirdly poetic, my apologies - I'm just always astounded by how much copper (and other colorants) can move during the firing process. Have you ever cracked a glaze kiln and noticed that the glaze on one piece has seemingly cause the glaze on a different piece to blush, or turn a different color? Yeah, that's not just in your head -- that's pretty much exactly what happened. And copper, it seems, is a particularly guilty party to this. Here's a great sample that we just pulled out of a kiln that demonstrates just how intense blushing can affect your glazes:

They were so much alike, until the tile on the right had a run-in with some errant copper.

So believe it or not, the two tiles posted are the exact same glaze - The Ceramic Shop's Cotton Candy, to be exact. This is a light pink translucent glaze - but that's clearly not what the tile on the right has going on.  THAT tile was placed next to a copper-heavy glaze test in the kiln, and it caused enough blow-off during firing that copper deposited on the surface of this tile, reacting as the green colorant that it is, overpowering the pink colorants and turning the whole test a pretty decent shade of green. Kind of shocking how legit this looks - like a classic celadon! However, if that is NOT the look you're going for, blushing can be quite the surprise when you unload your kiln. A note about the firing -- these results occurred in a Cone 6 electric firing, but blushing can easily happen in reduction firings, too.

Avoiding this effect is pretty easy, though -- if you have any green glazes, make an effort to fire them on a shelf together. Light- or white-colored glazes, as well as translucent and transparent glazes, are particularly susceptible to blushing, too, so just keep those away from their over-friendly coppery counterparts in a kiln and you should be all set.

Just as we love to see examples of your work with our glazes, we also love to see your weird experiments and glaze tests, too! Got any good blushing stories? Send them along as we'll post them on our FaceBook page.

Hello, summer!

Or, how to maintain your studio practice when you no longer have a studio... 

 Goths on the beach. Yay summer!

At The Ceramic Shop, we deal with schools of all kinds -- from elementary art programs to university ceramic departments, we spend much of the academic year servicing these programs in Philadelphia and beyond. When school ends for the year, though -- no matter if it's college or pre-K -- ceramic work doesn't have to stop, even if you no longer have access to your school's art studios. We often speak with students who aren't always sure about how to proceed with continuing to make work without a kiln, or a large array of glazes, or that ever-abundant studio clay.  Granted, that's one aspect of ceramics that can, indeed, be difficult -- your work and progress can be so access-dependent. Well, many of us on The Ceramic Shop staff have been there, and as such, we have plenty of suggestions for keeping your practice alive during those moths when school is out.

In the first place, keep an open mind here -- you may have to get creative! Luckily, if you're embedded in the arts, you probably ARE creative, so that part won't be hard. Also, be willing to alter or expand your practice to materials/spaces/scales/etc. Below, I've posted a quick guide to products, home-studio suggestions, and resources (focused on Philly, because that's where we're located) for the ceramic artist on summer sabbatical. 

1. Consider using materials that do NOT need to be fired.

This Marblex self-hardening clay is just one of several self-hardening clays that we offer -- in general, these are air-drying clays with a decent working time, and once they SRE dried, you can paint or sand them. As its name suggests, Marblex is fairly hard, which makes it a durable choice for the artist who may be used to working with hearty fired clays. This clay in particular is nice for jewelry, beads, smaller sculptural works, and other projects, and it comes in a 2-lb. block. Check out our other self-hardening clays here. (Look for products labeled 'self-hardening'.)

Depending on the kind of work you typically make, you may hit some limitations here -- if functional wares are your thing, self-hardening clays really aren't the best materials. Also, if you work on a larger scale and are accustomed to purchasing clay in the standard 25- or 50-lb. bag or box, self-hardening agenst are sold in smaller amounts -- usually 2-5 lbs. However, if your goal is to keep your hands busy during the summer months, it's a decent solution.

2. Catch up on your mold-making.

This, of course, only really applies if you use molds in your work, or plan to use molds, but the summertime is a wonderful time to build up your mold library. Even if you have a small space in which to work, you will be able to make some small sprig molds, which can be used to apply ceramic decorations to pottery once you re-gain access to a studio. We actually carry several already-made sprig molds, just to give you an idea of what they look like:

The mold pictured here is by Creative Paradise -- check out their other molds here.

Mold-making supplies can be reasonable affordable, depending on the type of mold you'd like to make; a spring mold like the one pictures above requires a fairly minimal amount of materials, though. First, you need something you want to cast -- I went through a big kick a few years ago where I made spring molds out of all of my old pencil toppers from the '80's, and now those creepy little plastic figures are committed to clay, permanently. Next, you need some No. 1 Pottery Plaster. This is a very fine-grained plaster that we sell by the pound or the full bag, and it's great for capturing tiny details on small (or large!) objects.  You will also need a clay that can work as a bed or a base for your mold. If you have any clay laying around -- say, reclaim-level stuff, as the mold-making process may leave plaster chunks in your clay, making it unusable -- you can use that. You can also use plasticine, which also serves as a sealant for when you pour your plaster into the mold. Hey, we sell that too! I like this stuff.

You will also need something to pour your mold into -- for smaller projects, a tiny Tupperware-style container is usually fine. As far as further directions for mold-making are concerned, that's a whole 'nother can of worms -- and there are, of course, several resources available online. There's a great quick video tutorial from Ceramic Arts Daily -- you may have to register (for free) for the website to view, but it's worth it. Check it out here.

3. Re-fill your brain bank

Making good ceramic work isn't just about doing, of course -- it's also about reading, looking, and learning. Being 'forced' out of a studio for the summer can be a great opportunity to use a different part of your brain moreso than you might when your hands are constantly in clay. Have you been particularly resistant to, say, learning about glaze chemistry? It might be easy to brush that off when you have access to a studio -- after all, you have to take advantage of that time, right?!? No studio means no excuses! Be hard on yourself in the nicest possible way. And, hey, it's summer after all, which means that in many parts of the world it is AWESOME outside. Catch up on your reading in the great outdoors! 

At The Ceramic Shop, we stay stocked with ceramics-focused books covering a wide variety of topics -- from the technical to the aesthetic, beef up your clay library here.

4. Temporarily join a new art space

It can be really easy to get super comfortable in your school-based studio set-up, but one really wonderful thing about the ceramics community is this: No matter where you hang your clay-encrusted hat, chances are there will be like-minded people who are also just as interested in 

Resources for this suggestion vary quite widely from region to region, but here in Philadelphia, for example, I can lay out what a temporary studio join might look like. One of the most awesome resources that we have in town here is The Clay Studio. This is a ceramics education-based nonprofit here in town that offers a VERY wide range of classes and workshops. In the summer, programming is expanded to offer even more options for both adults and children of all ages. Registering for a wheelthrowing, moldmaking, or handbuilding class comes with studio access -- and a great reason to hang out with brand-new studio pals. 

If class when school is out isn't really your thing, though, and if you just want studio access, plain and simple, The Clay Studio does also offer studio rentals, which can be a nice solutions for your summer productivity.

Although The Clay Studio is kind of the cream of the crop, plenty of local art centers and community centers feature ceramics departments that may have similar summertime offerings -- check out the resources in your area to see what's out there. In my experience, the people you tend to meet in these settings are an incredibly varied group -- from my own days in community studios, I have friends that I have NOTHING in common with aside from a mutual love of clay -- and that's pretty awesome.

5. Really can't stand to be away from a kiln? If you're in Philly, use our firing service!

That's right. Sometimes, you just need a kiln. Maybe you have the time and space to continue your ceramic production but you don't have a place to fire work. If you're in the Philadelphia area, come to us! We have several different kiln sizes in which to fit your work, and we can carry out any type of oxidation firing you may need, from decal to high-fire cone 10. Check out our firing services details here and please feel free to give us a call at 215-427-9665 if you have any questions at all about how we can help you to finish your work. 

So there you have it -- these are just a few suggestions to help you stay creative during the summer downtime months. If you've found some tricks that work for you during times when studio access might be limited or non-existent, we would love to hear from you! In the meantime -- stay cool!

In ceramics, zero DOES have value!

This blog post is intended for anyone new to the field of ceramics and pottery - it's just a quick explanation of how to interpret cone-speak. 

When I first got into pottery, I have to admit that a very specific (yet very important!) corner of pottery jargon tripped me up -- the use of the word 'cone' to describe heat accumulation. I seem to recall thinking that saying you fired a kiln to cone 6 was kind of like asking someone the time and having them tell you 'banana'. Until I understood cone calibration, there was just a total disconnect between the words and the meaning.

So why the blog post? To reiterate a very important point that is VERY important to those new to ceramics to grasp -- that Cone 06 and Cone 6 are NOT the same thing.  See that '0'? That makes all the difference, and this blog post explains why.

In the first place, a cone is exactly what it sounds like - a small, cone-shaped object that is made from ceramic materials that have been formulated to melt or slump at a particular accumulation of heat -- here, heat being the interaction of temperature and time. These cones have been assigned standardized numbers that correspond to a particular accumulation of heat. 

Self-supporting cones, sold in boxes of 50.

These cones bend when they melt, which tells you - the person firing the kiln - just how hot the kiln is inside. Cone 06 (say it like 'cone oh six) melts at 1830 degrees F when fired at a rate of 150 degrees per hour, where cone 6 (say it 'cone six') melts at a higher temperature - 2232 degrees F - when fired at the same rate. So, there IS a significant difference as indicated by the inclusion of that '0'.

 

The slumped cone of the left is a Cone 08, which melts at a lower point than 

Cone 06 (center) and Cone 8 (right) 

So that all makes sense, right? Basic concept, basic explanation -- so why dedicate a whole blog post to this? Well, one funny thing about the commercial ceramic industry is the fact that many clays and glazes tend to be formulated for two very popular firing ranges -- Cone 06, and Cone 6. 

For anyone who works in the low-fire clay and/or glaze range, that roughly translates to Cone 06. Popular low-fire glaze lines, like Mayco Stroke & Coats, Duncan's Pure Brilliance clear glazes, and Amaco's Liquid Gloss series are all formulated to be fired around Cone 06. 

Another very popular firing range is mid-range, or right around Cone 6. Amaco's Potter's Choice line, for example, is a pretty well-known mid-range line. 

So while it's just sort of an interesting coincidence that the two cone ranges that happen to be standards within the industry sound an awful lot alike, it does need to be mentioned again that 'Cone 06' and 'Cone 6' are NOT interchangable! If you fire a low-fire (or, say, something in the Cone 06 range) clay or glaze at a mid-range (Cone 6) temperature, you run the risk of drastically OVER-firing (and likely ruining) your work. You'll see low-fire clays slump and melt when too much heat is applied; low-fire glazes can run right off of your piece and even wreck your kiln shelving!

Check out the image above, taken from Joe Kowalczyk's Adventures in Kiln Repair blog. That disgusting mass you see up there is actually over-fired clay -- yep, that's what can happen when you muddle '06' and '6'. Yikes!

Mixing up the cones in the opposite direction is not typically quite so destructive, but you can still end up with a lot of weird-looking pottery. When you fire a mid-range glaze intended for Cone 6 at a much lower temperature, like Cone 06, you UNDER-fire your pots. This can result in chalky, un-vitrified surfaces that are often just not very attractive.

This example of underfired work comes from the blog Paul the Potter. See how the surfaces are dull and chalky? Because the kiln didn't get hot enough to melt the glassy elements in the glaze that would form a slick, gloss surface, the end result just looks kind of unfinished. Classic underfiring -- and pretty much what you might expect when you place a Cone 6 glaze in a Cone 06 firing (although, it should be noted, the image above was the result of a much more nebulous firing issue). Of course, with under-fired work, you can always just re-fire it at the proper range, but it's still a net loss of time and energy.

So! In conclusion, know your firing ranges for the clays and glazes you use. Know that the small '0' you see on glaze instructions should definitely not be ignored! Know there is a difference between the low-range Cone 06 and the mid-range Cone 6. I'll leave you with a handy, techy-looking firing chart, so this post looks even more official:

Same glaze, different clays

Because we're always trying to improve the products that we make here at The Ceramic Shop, we tend to do a lot of testing. Whether we're developing the perfect wax products or finessing our glaze offerings, the more we know about our our items, the more information we can pass on to you.

One question that we get VERY frequently is a very general inquiry: 'Why doesn't the glaze on my piece look like the tile/chip/picture?' This is a question that spans glaze firing temperatures, brands, application methods...name the variable, and it has come up when we field this question.  However, in many cases, the answer is quite direct -- the base upon which you put your glaze (whether you dip, paint, or spray) will have a major effect on how your glaze turns out.

To demonstrate just how intensely your claybody can affect your final  glaze outcome, we've tested our Cone 6 Professional glaze line on four different claybodies that represent a good swath of the claybody color spectrum. We narrowed down our testing on the following claybodies:

1. Standard 365, a cone 6 grolleg porcelain.

2. Standard 240, a white cone 6 stoneware -- as white stonewares do not tend to be as crisp and bright as porcelains, we thought it would be good to show them side-by-side.

3. Standard 259, a buff  cone 4-10 stoneware -- this is a stoneware that can actually get pretty toasty in reduction, but in oxidation it remains a mid-toned tan/brown color -- and a great deal of stonewares will fall into this general color range. 

4. Standard 266, a dark brown cone 4-6 stoneware.  This is definitely on the darker end of the claybody color spectrum -- and that color is delivered by various oxides that exist in the claybody. I mention this as you peruse through our results because you will notice that the examples of glazes on this claybody in particular feature some pretty drastic results -- that is a direct result of all of the 'stuff' (er....oxides and colorants) that are in this clay, and impart their qualities to objects that come into direct chemical contact with them, such as a glaze coat.

  

OK!  So, onward with our test results...

Here's a good starting point -- a side-by-side comparison of all four claybodies dipped in our Classic Clear..  

This is a clear, glossy coating that really allows the underlying claybody to show through. Fairly predictable results -- basically, a layer of clear glass has been melted over the surface of these clays, allowing their natural colors to shine through. 

If you add a bit of colorant materials or opacifiers to a clear glaze, you get a translucent glaze - and here at The Ceramic Shop, we carry plenty of these. Translucent glazes are kind of like the tinted windows of the glaze world - they cast a definite tone upon the clay that they are placed on, but that clay still shines through a bit, as well.  We have had customers who are rather surprised by just how much the underlying claybody can, indeed, affect a strongly-colored, yet translucent, glaze.  Here's an example, with our Cotton Candy:

Here, some visualization can help - say you are tasked with re-painting a room with very dark walls. If you are painting that room a significantly brighter color, you might really need a primer if you want you new shade to display its full brightness. To this end, I often suggest to people who work with darker claybodies to consider using a light-colored or white slip over the areas they might like to glaze in a bright color. And, sure, this sort of analogy makes sense when you think about the nature of translucent glazes. 

However, we also frequently have clients express their surprise at just how significantly claybody color affects opaque glazes. These are glazes that are completely solid and do not allow light to pass through; as such, it makes sense that you might think of them as less influenced by the color of the surface that they cover, right? The thing is, though, many reactions you see in a glaze surface are distinct chemical reactions that rely on the interaction of different materials -- and, for color response, this often means oxides. Red iron oxide, for example, is a very common -- and very powerful! -- material that can be found in many, many different clays and glazes. The dark stoneware that we used for these tests very likely contains this, for instance. 

When a glazed vessel goes through the firing process, it's not simply a matter of the glaze becoming fused to the clay's surface. A very small zone of mixing actually happens, where the interface between the two is a clay-glaze hybrid. This means that any oxides that the claybody might contain can indeed actually become physically enmeshed into the glaze -- and that, in turn, can alter the end-result color, even when the glaze is opaque. Here's an example with our very popular Tidal Pool glaze:

As you can see, this opaque blue-green glaze looks pretty much the same on whiter and lighter clays - but it looks completely different on the dark stoneware. The colorants that form the green/blue tones in the glaze have clearly been overpowered by the coloring oxides in the dark stoneware's claybody, resulting in a brown -- NOT green -- glaze. While we expected a degree of variation, this was one of those tests where the outcome was actually a bit more drastic than we thought it would be, which just goes to show the importance of testing your glazes whenever possible!

For a final example, I want to demonstrate just how much an underlying claybody can affect the look of an opaque, but lighter-colored, glaze. Most studios are outfitted with some sort of an opaque white glaze, and this tends to be a look that I use as my go-to. Here at The Ceramic Shop, we have a White Gloss and a White Matte, and both are unsurprisingly popular. Below, though, check out just how much a darker claybody can affect an opaque white glaze:

The first three examples are fairly predictable, but it's clear that the dark stoneware delivers significant effect to this particular glaze. For the record, these tiles were all fired in the same firing and photographed in the same light. I mention this because the change in the white matte when applied to a darker claybody is, indeed, remarkable. 

If you use or are thinking about using our Cone 6 professional glazes, you'll be happy to know we have been working hard to compile user resources on our website -- and we have many more tile comparison charts, featuring your favorite Ceramic Shop glazes. We will be adding to this until it's done! You can check out our application and firing suggestions here.

If you have used The Ceramic Shop's Cone 6 Professional Glazes and have some tips, tricks, or results you would like to share, we'd love to hear from you! We welcome comments here on the blog and we love to post customer work on our Facebook page.

Small 120-volt kilns for small spaces

We offer a firing service to those in the Philadelphia area, and one of our more popular models is our tiny ConeArt BX119 kiln. While plenty of people rent out the kiln for glaze tests, most are actually working on smaller-scale objects, primarily jewelry and buttons.  We've even seen a few customers over the years wind up purchasing their own test kiln, because these are usually built in a size that is manageable for a smaller space, such as an apartment, AND -- total bonus -- they are typically wired for 120v, which means they can be plugged in to your standard household outlet. Because we've noticed that people have been surprised to hear this, here is a rundown of our smaller kilns that could make a great addition to your home studio, especially if you are working on a small scale.

Below, I've broken down our small-scale kiln offerings into three categories: mid- and high-fire (kilns that reach cone 6 or cone 10); glass-specific (many of which come equipped with digital controllers with glass-specific programs); and mixed media, which are suggested for glass, some low-fire clays, and metal clays such as PMC (which are typically VERY low-temperature). Why the distinction?  Although there are SO many options out there for smaller 120v kilns, they aren't all built with the same purposes. As always, before you buy a kiln, make sure you know what you'll be using it for -- kilns designed to handle lower-fire materials such as glass and PMC aren't always capable of transitioning to the higher temperatures that, say, porcelain requires. Just something to keep in mind! Without further ado...

HIGH-FIRE

Smaller clay projects, including clay jewelry, can be fired in the kilns listed below.  They are capable of bringing your work to both bisque- and glaze-temperatures, which means they all reach the cone 6-10 range. 

Our newest small kiln offering is the Paragon Happy Clam. This is a clam shell kiln that has an interior space of 8"x8"x6.5". A clam shell kiln is exactly what it sounds like -- instead of having  door on the front or top of the kiln that you open to load, this style is basically a shell that fits over a floor with a hinge.  

Happy as a clam

The benefit of a clam shell model is in the loading. If you find yourself making delicate, tenuous work (as many glass and jewelry makers do), you may find it difficult or tedious to load a kiln stack -- even a tiny one! -- from the top or the side.  With a clam shell kiln, you build your stack in such a way that it's accessible from 3 out of 4 sides, ensuring that you can build the perfect load.  Then, you simply lower the body of the small kiln over your work. 

With a digital controller and a cone-10 firing capacity, the ConeArt BX119 is a powerful, yet easy-to-use test-sized 6-sided kiln.

ConeArt BX119

As I mentioned in the intro, this is one of the kilns that we use (on a near-daily basis!) as part of our in-house firing service; having personally done many glaze tests in this specific kiln, I've long been a fan of its quick, reliable firings and easy-to-use 12-key controller (that comes pre-programmed with both bisque and glaze programs). Of course, you also have the option to write and store your own firing programs in the kiln's computer, and although it's compact, it's still a great shape for accommodating smaller work. I can fit 4-5 mugs per firing, and the space is actually large enough to accommodate our large bead rack - so that's a great tip for you porcelain jewelers out there!

Finally, the Olympic Doll/Test kiln is a great option for anyone looking for a relatively affordable, energy-efficient kiln. 

Dollbaby!

You can select your preferred features on this kiln -- it can be built to be manual, or can come equipped with a 3- or 12-key digital controller. Likewise, when you buy an Olympic kiln, you can know that you've made an energy-efficient choice. While all kilns strive to contain heat as well as possible, this has become a cornerstone of Olympic's selling points. Their kilns tend to have thicker bricks, and therefore, they hold in more heat. This can be a really nice feature when it's summertime and you're firing your kiln...inside your house.

GLASS KILNS

What makes a small glass kiln stand apart from kilns designed to handle ceramics?  A few things, really. In the first place, glass kilns tend to have an element placed in the kiln's lid to ensure even heat coming down from the top of the kiln.  Because even a small differential in heat distribution can result in cracked glasswares, this element serves as a very important safeguard -- and while you might see such an element in SOME kilns intended for firing ceramics, it's certainly rare. 

EvenHeat GT-14-6

The nice thing about this EvenHeat Studio Pro 14 is the fact that is does have a full 14" x 14" space for all of your in-home glass projects. 

We find this size is definitely on the larger end of 120-volt kilns; its clam shell model will be helpful when loading delicate work, and the ceiling element ensures even, top-down heating. this particular kiln comes with a very easy-to-use 3-key controller that has pre-set programs specifically designed for glass slumping and fusing.

For the glass or jewelry artist who is primarily looking for an annealing kiln, the EvenHeat Fishbone is a straightforward choice.

EvenHeat Fishbone

Specifically, this is a kiln designed for glass beadwork, so if that is your chosen media, look no further! 

MIXED MEDIA

Mixed media kilns are great for artists who tend to use a lot of materials -- glass, enamel, and PMC (metal clay) are the most common mixed media that are used in these kilns, although certain models can indeed do both glass and low-fire clay.  With smaller-model kilns, it's not too common to see them designed to handle both glasswork AND higher-firing ceramics, so please keep that in mind as you shop mixed media, and read the firing capacities carefully.  As always, call us or email us fi you have any questions!

For the fashionable small-object maker working in glass slumping/fusing, enameling, or metal clay (PMC), the Evenheat Kingpin 88 is popular because it comes in a wide variety of colors. This means you can literally match your kiln to your decor!

EvenHeat Kingpin. The fashionable kiln choice.

A great all-around kiln for mixed media is the Paragon Caldera. This is a very popular mixed-media kiln that actually CAN do it all -- from PMC to glass to, yes, even high-fire porcelain!

Paragon Caldera

This kiln is multi-use, fits into your home, and can pretty much fire anything you throw at it. Plus, it's very affordable. This kiln also comes with a few customization options - you can opt to add a bead window, or a collar, which increases the capacity of your kiln. 

So that's it for our general overview of smaller kilns -- we actually have many, many more on our site, so hopefully this primer will help you get started as you look for the perfect piece of equipment for your space. If you have any questions, we're happy to answer them -- call us at 215-427-9665. 

A quick fix for your overfiring manual kiln

Because one of the services we offer is kiln repair, we get calls on a daily basis about various kiln mishaps. Some of these inquiries are challenges, which we do our very best to meet; others, however, are totally the type of issues that most kiln owners are able to address themselves, once they know what's going on.  That's one of the great things about ceramics, right?  You wind up doing or making or fixing all of these things that seem like they might be really difficult, until you actually do them!  In the spirit of this sentiment, I've written a quick how-to for troubleshooting a fairly specific, but fairly common problem that we get calls about weekly -- your overfiring manual kiln.

Of course, there are many reasons as to why your manual kiln might be overfiring. You may need a new thermocouple, or you may have a burned-out element that is causing another element to work double-duty, resulting in a kiln hot-spot. However, the most common reason we have encountered is so simple, but so small you might not even think to check on it -- plus, it's a very quick at-home fix, so this certainly can't hurt to try as your first line of inquiry when attempting to fix your overfiring manual kiln by yourself.

Above, you see a pretty typical kiln sitter -- a Dawson LT-3, which is a very common model found on older kilns. Notice how the switch is in the 'down' position -- that's the position that switch will most likely be in for 99% of its existence. And that's fine! However, that is specifically what can lead to your kiln overfiring over time.

The reason for that is insidious gravity. Over time, that little metal plate -- the one that your kiln sitter switch latches on to when you set your sitter cone -- slides down in minuscule, imperceptible increments. 

This means, of course, that when your switch is flipped into the 'UP' position -- that is, when a sitter cone is in place and you're firing your kiln -- that plate has actually migrated UP too far. The higher the plate, the more your sitter cone needs to melt to allow the latch to release the switch, turning your kiln off. 

This fix is easy. Just using a teeny tiny Allen wrench, loosen the bold on the front of the switch, and with the switch in the UP position, slide the plate down very slightly, like a couple millimeters. Keep in mind the delicate nature of kiln calibration -- a very small distance can make a big difference!  At this point in the fix, you can mark the front of the plate with a mechanical pencil to note the position it is in. Then, if you are able to do a test firing with cones -- say, pop a few 06's into a kiln full of bisque work, as bisque temperatures have a little more wiggle room in terms of workable firing temperatures -- you can compare your plate's position with the 'true' heat inside of the kiln. You may need to fiddle with the plate yet again, but once you have it marked and the calibration seems good, you will find this easier to fix in the future, and something you can keep an eye on over time.

If you need a new kiln sitter -- or any part! -- for your kiln, check out our website's kiln part section here.  We should have what you need! And if we don't, just give us a call at 215-427-9665 and we can find it for you.

Ware Repair

Now that we've recovered from NCECA, we've started to tally the products that seemed to do well at the conference.  One product that we knew would do well -- and did -- is a product that we developed ourselves last year.  Ware Repair is basically our own version of a greenware or bisqueware 'glue' that can be fired, and our first time trotting it out to the public was at NCECA in 2013.  

Over the past year, we've performed additional tests on the product, heard a lot of feedback from customers, and used it quite a bit on our own projects.  On that tip, I figured this would be a good opportunity to share with you OUR experiences using a product that we make.  

Here we have a mug made by our tech, Rachel. This mug is great because it's literally a showcase of many of our products - from the translucent Cotton Candy glaze that you see on the upper portion of the vessel to the White Gloss glaze with a Black Wacky Wax design.  Notice along the upper interior rim there is a visible crack - this is a fracture that has been repaired with Ware Repair.  Rachel accidentally broke this mug after it had been bisqued, but she was able to repair it with Ware Repair.  The only reason the crack is visible here is because she opted to use a translucent glaze -- specifically to see how Ware Repair fared.  And hey! It fared well!

Totally functional.

So that's what Ware Repair looks like when you use it for a very realistic situation.  Our testing results often cause us to fabricate giant ceramic worst-case scenarios, though, which I personally love.  I mention this because below, I've included a few images of a pot that was smashed, then re-assembled using Ware Repair, while green, and was then taken through all subsequent phases of firing.  It's not necessarily pretty, but it is kind of awesome.  At least that's what I recall thinking when I cracked the kiln!

Before I cracked any kilns, though, I cracked the pictured pot into approximately 1,000 pieces.  Well, it was probably closer to ten pieces, but still. In the image above, you can see just how destroyed this form would have been, while it was still green. YES, any degree of ceramic instruction would dictate that you recycle such an accident, right?  However, there are always exceptions, and elementary schools seem to be the biggest source of those.  Over the years, we've gotten many calls from frantic teachers who are desperate for a way to repair broken student work. Sometimes things just get knocked around on a shelf; sometimes little kids just don't function as the best clay architects.  Whatever. The point is, is this has ever been a problem you've encountered, just keep a bottle of Ware Repair on hand in your classroom or studio and you won't have to worry about tears, guilt, waste, or regret.  

OK, that's a tall promise, but check out how this stuff works on gravity-based issues!

In the image above, you are looking at a handle that was completely broken off of the vessel in the green state -- repaired with ware Repair, it made it through bisque, and then through a cone 6 glaze firing, without falling off. Gravity was our toughest opponent as we developed this product, but as you can see, we really did our best to conquer it. 

If you have any questions about this product or any of our other products, please don't hesitate to get in touch -- as you can see, we use everything we supply, simply because so many of us are potters ourselves!  I'll leave you with one final awesome image of the mug that Rachel made, then broke, then Ware repaired, then awesomely glazed:

Mug by Rachel Sturino

Rachel, my birthday's in February.  Just sayin'.