Judith Musicant on wed 11 nov 98
The subject of S cracks keeps coming up--there was a long thread last
Spring or thereabouts, and a few posts just recently. I can now report on
the results of my trying a technique suggested by Steve Hill at a workshop
this summer. The technique is to place your wedged or pugged clay sideways
on the wheel, and from there throw the way you would normally. (This was
mentioned briefly in a recent post). Before this workshop, I had been
losing 75% of my wide bottomed pieces--this after compressing the bottom,
drying very slowly, placing finished pieces on drywall and/or plastic to
enable them to move while drying--all to no avail. Since the workshop, I
have finished (glaze fired) 4 baking dishes, starting out by placing the
wedged clay sideways on the wheel, and not one crack in the bunch. Also, I
did not take these off the bats I threw them on until they were leather
hard, and did not dry them particularly slowly. Admittedly, 4 is not a
huge sample, but before this I was losing 3 out of 4 - had just about
given up. I'm sold on this. Good luck, all.
Judy
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