Ann Geiger on tue 9 sep 03
I have been doing =A1=B0production=A1=B1 pottery for the first time and =
it has been
quite an education. There was a Festival near me and my religious group
decided to share food with the attendees because the Festival fell on =
the
same day as our monthly pot-luck lunch - it was a sort of loaves and =
fishes
type thinking. So we were to all do finger food to give out and while
sitting in meeting I thought how nice it would be to give everyone a =
little
plate that wasn=A1=AFt paper or plastic.
So I started making little plates, rolling out pieces of clay, putting =
them
into bowls on waxed paper and either engraving or painting the word =
peace
on them. The goal was to make 200 for some reason that I don=A1=AFt =
remember.
Anyway, time was short so I decided I would single fire them for which I
had no experience. Some of those plates went into the kiln so wet they
could be folded. Using a little caution, I had the temperature go up by
25=A2=AA per hour to 250=A2=AA then holding for two hours after that the =
firing
schedule was something close to the Mastering Cone 6 Glazes glaze =
firing.
I did check during the hold period that a mirror did not steam up when =
held
to the top peep hole and it was not until the second hour hat the steam
stopped coming out. =20
The results were no broken pots and the glazes looked as expected. The
glazes used were Mastering Cone 6 glazes Spearmint and Bone and Tony
Hanson=A1=AFs G1214W clear and with colorants. The writing was done =
using
underglazes which looked great under the clear glaze and kind of muddy =
or
disappeared under the colored glazes.
I probably got away with this because the plates were very thin. I am =
not
sure if glazing only on one side made any difference in this. The only =
bad
results were in one batch which actually dried but I hadn=A1=AFt =
compressed the
edges so there was cracking on half of them.
By the way, we gave the plates and food away free, but had a donation =
box
and collected about $53.00 so it was sort of a fundraiser too.
Sorry for the length of the post.
Annie Geiger who is betting that Janet Kaiser=A1=AFs guzunder is a =
chamber pot.
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