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repairing kids bisque

updated fri 1 feb 02

 

John Post on thu 31 jan 02


Hi Howard,
I teach 700 elementary school students per week. Usually they have at least
one or two clay projects going through some part of the firing cycle. As
you can imagine, some projects end up either missing or get broken from poor
joining techniques, etc.

I find it much easier to have a child remake a clay project compared to the
aggravation of trying to fix one that has broken. Kids don't seem to be too
concerned about the project that got broken or is missing when they know
that they can simply make another one.

My policy is that I will not glaze fire any work that has fallen apart
during the bisque firing. The kids can take the pieces home and elmer's
glue them together if they wish, but I won't mess around trying to fire a
bunch of little pieces of kid art. The kids quickly learn to be more
thorough in their joining technique.

I'm not sure why your kid's work is in pieces but I'll bet any money the
kids will have no problem redoing it.

John Post
Sterling Heights, Michigan