Good afternoon Ceramicists!
Glaze Firings
I spoke with Seth today about the current glaze firing setup. He’s been working to dial in the specific settings for the dip glazes we have right now. He’s actually got a test running today with some abandoned pieces that should help solidify the data for our standard Cone 5 medium fire schedule for house dip glazes.
Seth, Chase, and Perla gave me a great rundown on the different firing schedules they maintain for the wide variety of work on the shelves—something not every studio bothers to do. They are here 3 days a week and are more than willing to help ensure you get the best results. If you have questions about which firing is best for your project, please ask them! They welcome anyone to come see how their process works and help you get the best results for your project.
A note on experiments: To keep things safe and more predictable for everyone’s work, there will be no experimental firings unless the piece is placed on the “Test Shelf” and you’ve talked to the kiln staff beforehand. (See the photo below for the current layout of glaze fire offerings)
On API Access
There’s been some discussion about adding API access to the kilns. For the time being this will not be supported here.
I am not looking to add this complexity to our operations right now so that we may keep the kilns in their intended baseline state. This helps me ensure the equipment stays reliable, warrantied, and free of unverified modifications. This is a topic we will revisit in the future.
That said, I know transparency is important. To help with this, Seth will be posting details of the kiln run with his Glaze Journal postings. This will ensure you can see exactly what heat work your piece was subjected to. This will be posted on Discourse as well as in Slack for the volunteers.
Current Glaze Firing Offerings
From the bottom to the top:
- Specialty C5 | Low Fire Cone 04
- House Dip Cone 5 Mid Fire
- Standard Commercial Code 5 Mid Fire
- Cone 6+ Mayco Stone
- Test Claze | Cone 10 Porcelain High Glaze
