NEW Electric Wood Ash Glazes!

As many of you know, we have a few different lines of glazes that we produce here at The Ceramic Shop. Our longest-running (and most extensive) series is our Cone 6 Pro Series, which was designed to mimic the look for reduction-fired glazes in oxidation, or electric kiln, formulas. The artists here at the company love and use the glazes, and they're popular with customers, too. Still, every now and again we encounter the typical potter's material issue -- some chemical source closes, or changes, or some product that we order just starts acting...different. Over time, this can make it necessary for us to alter the glaze formulas in order to make them better.

Well, our head tech Rachel has certainly been busy over the past few months. In addition to all of the other exciting projects that she has in the pipeline, she managed to reformulate two of our favorite glazes -- Electric Wood Ash and Electric Wood Ash Green. We like these glazes so much because they REALLY look like they've been reduction-fired, with cool, variegated surfaces that mimic the wild drips of wood ash glazes. And now, we're actually adding two NEW wood ash-style glazes to our Cone 6 pro Series offerings, too -- the deep Electric Wood Ash Brown, and the wild-textured Electric Wood Ash Blue. Check 'em out!

Electric Wood Ash Brown - NEW!

Electric Wood Ash Blue - NEW!

Each tile above is made of white stoneware -- Standard 240, to be exact. The upper right half of each tile features one dip into a glaze bath, and the lower left corner shows you two dips. These glazes can do alright on claybodies with a bit of a color, but most of our tests emerged looking just a little too dark or muddled. It's a light, iron-free body that really allows the variegated surface to develop and shine, so keep that in mind if you decide to try out these glazes. And how about our reformulated Electric Wood Ash (Classic) and Electric Wood Ash Green? I'd suggest the same for those, as well -- and here, for your viewing pleasure, are some close-up samples:

Electric Wood Ash (Classic) - reformulated!

Electric Wood Ash Green -- reformulated!

So there you have it - some new and exciting surfaces from The Ceramic Shop! If you have used any of our Cone 6 Professional glazes in your studio or classroom, we'd love to see your results! Follow us on FaceBook or email images of your awesome work to gina@theceramicshop.com and we'll be happy to share them.

Can I get a witness?

Here at The Ceramic Shop, we receive calls on a daily basis from customers who have a very wide variety of firing issues. Below, a few examples:

"My glazes don't look right."

"One shelf of my work is bisqued, but one barely looks fired at all."

"The colors burned out of my decals."

And so on. We're always happy to help you troubleshoot -- particularly when it comes to the tricky world of firing issues! -- but when we get these questions, regardless of the source of the woes being clays, glazes, decals, or something else entirely, we usually start with the same question:

"What do your witness cones look like?"

More often than not, the voice on the other end of the phone line goes silent, before confessing that no, there weren't any witness cones in the firing. And with that, we can offer a few suggestions, but our true ability to troubleshoot is hobbled by this oversight. We wind up telling customers the same thing: Try the same firing again, this time with witness cones -- THEN, we might be able to tell you more. 

 Sorry, man. 

I just need more than you can give.

With the proliferation of digitally-operated kilns, it's very easy to rely on what seems to be a 'high-tech' set-up to gauge the overall atmosphere inside of your kiln. And hey, we've all done witness-cone-free firings ourselves! We know how that goes -- you load up your kiln with the same bisque configuration that you've done 30 times before and just let the digital program run or the sitter cone drop. And honestly, most of the time, that works just fine -- but it's not a great practice. Because when something does go wrong -- and as a kiln is a piece of equipment with finite capabilities, at some point, it will -- pinpointing exactly what your issue may be will be that much more convoluted. Keeping witness cones in all of your firings can also point to problems as they develop -- issues that you might not notice until they become, well, bad. Here's an example:

Say you have a kiln with a digital controller. The kiln has four elements, and they're all brand-new. You have nothing to worry about, right? Those elements will last through a great many firings! So you bisque and glaze your work using the pre-set programs on your kiln, and everything looks fine. Your work is properly bisqued and your glazes are coming out with similar results from the top of the kiln to the bottom. Why bother taking the extra step to place a witness cone on each shelf, right?

Then one day, you bisque a piece for a friend. Let's say this friend isn't the most talented sculptor; let's say they made something a little on the heavy side. You let it dry, you set a cautionary pre-heat on your kiln, but still, when you press that 'start' button, your fingers are crossed.

Two days later, you open the kiln to a ceramic massacre. Little bits of (now-fired) sherds are just everywhere; aside from the central explosion, you can see clay has been flung far and wide in your kiln, with several little chunks becoming embedded in your elements. Yikes. You call your friend and break the news through gritted teeth, and then you get to work cleaning your kiln. You sweep up the busted pieces, and then you thoroughly vacuum everything -- floor, elements, all of it. Maybe you cry for a minute. Once the mess is cleaned, though, you do your best to forget it.

A few more firings happen. Everything seems fine.

Finally, breakdown occurs. You open a glaze firing, and three out of your four shelves look fine. The fourth, however, is just an underfired, chalky mess. How could this happen? Your elements are practically new!! Is this just a one-time firing hiccup, or is there a larger underlying problem, like a busted relay or a faulty control panel? Oh, if only you had a way to just know!

If you had been placing cones in your kiln all along, you probably would have noticed the cone closest to the (now-busted) element appearing less melted with each subsequent firing. This would have been your first clue about the nature of the issue -- clearly, you had an element that was weakening. In this case, maybe a little fragment of your friend's long-ago busted pottery went unnoticed, nestled against that element, causing a hot spot to develop with each subsequent firing until it eventually led to the failure of the element. 

Granted, this is a pretty specific scenario, but the funny thing is, many of the cases we encounter here at The Ceramic Shop are. And while that doesn't necessarily mean that all kiln issues are totally avoidable, using witness cones can give you one giant clue as to what, exactly, needs tweaking on your kiln. In our firings, we like to use Orton's self-supporting cones -- they stand up on their own, so they are very easy to just pop on each shelf of your kiln. 

If you do have any questions about your kiln, or firings of any kind, we're happy to answer them! Give us a call at 215-427-9665, and one of our talented techs will be happy to chat. You can also email any technical questions to myself at gina@theceramicshop.com, or send them to our head tech Rachel at rachel@theceramicshop.com.

Cone 6 never looked so cool!

The Ceramic Shop is excited to now carry the very latest from Coyote Clay & Color – a new line of specialty slow-cool cone 6 glazes! By adding a controlled cooling to a typical cone 6 firing, these rich glazes produce dynamic, crystalled surfaces – results that can be quite difficult to obtain, especially when using commercial glazes. Coyote has you covered, though, with their new series!

These new crystal glazes do not run or seed and can also be fired right along with your other cone 6 glazes, so you’ll have no worries about loading a special kiln just for these finishes. You will, however, need to program a special slow cool segment into your firing program – consult your kiln’s operation manual and use the following program:

Ramps: 5

Ramp 1: 100/hour to 220 (this preheat ramp is optional)

Ramp 2: 350/hour to 2000

Ramp 3: 150/hour to 2200, hold 15 minutes

Ramp 4: 500/hour to 2150, hold for 15 minutes

Ramp 5: 125/hour to 1400

Please keep in mind that thermocouples tend to vary slightly, so you may need to tweak the top temperature for your kiln. Your witness cone 5 should be all the way down, and the witness cone six should be from halfway over to the tip even with the base (between cone 5 1/2 and 6), cone seven should be mostly straight.

Coyote currently offers seven different glazes, with plans on expanding the series even more, so keep an eye out on our website for new offerings. Here are some samples:

 MBG160 Ivory Crystal

 MBG161 Crystal Celadon

 MBG162 Crystal Lagoon 

MBG170 Autumn Spice 

 MBG171 Mars Iron Red

 MBG172 Light Gold 

MBG173 Summer Spice

The Ceramic Shop currently offers these glazes in several different amounts, as well – you can choose from wet-mixed pints, 1-gallon pails, or 3-gallon pails, or if you prefer to mix your own, we also sell dry glaze in 10-lb. and 25-lb. amounts. These options are all available on each glaze’s pull-down menu. Questions? Don’t hesitate to give us a call at 215-427-9665.