If you produce masses of pottery each day, you will fill your kiln in no time. But if like me, you produce more modest amounts, it takes longer to build up a kiln full of work. So, you might have wondered if you can fire bisque and glazed pots together in one load. Here is…
Most of us have been there, your kiln is coming to the end of the cool down, and you are itching to open it up. You may have heard about potters unloading their kilns early. Perhaps this has left you wondering what temperature can you open a kiln without causing clay carnage. This article looks…
Once you’ve made your pottery and fired it you may be desperate to see how it has turned out. You probably want to know how long does it take for a kiln to cool down. This article is about how long you can expect to wait, and what factors affect the cooling time. The time…
Kilns come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. If you have a new kiln, you might be wondering how to use the peepholes. Or perhaps you are having trouble with your glazes and you suspect you can remedy this with the peepholes. Either way, you may have been wondering, when do you close the…
If you have bisque fired to cone 6 by accident, you’re not the first, and you won’t be the last. It’s an easy mistake to make. But if you have a kiln load of overfired pottery, you may be wondering what you can do. Here are some suggestions about what you can do to salvage…
Before owning a kiln, I took my greenware along to a local pottery shop and would get it fired there. I told them what clay I had used, they fired it and I collected it when it was done. But firing ceramics yourself in your own kiln raises all sorts of questions. The first question…
Lots of properties, sheds, studios, and homes, have wooden floorboards. If you’re installing your new kiln, you may be wondering, if you can use a kiln on a wooden floor. I was in a similar position. I wanted to know if it was safe to put my kiln in a wooden shed. And this is…
When I was starting to build my pottery workshop, I encountered the thorny issue of where to keep my kiln. I don’t have a lot of space and I wanted to build a workshop in the backyard. One of the questions I had was, can you keep a kiln outside? Here is what I learned… …
Buying a kiln is exciting, but perhaps you are wondering what size kiln do I need. You will probably get conflicting advice from different people about what size to buy. When I was considering buying my first kiln, I found it all a bit overwhelming. So, I did a lot of research and this is…
Transporting your greenware all over town to get it fired can be stressful. Perhaps you are wondering if you should buy a kiln. Having a pottery kiln at home is certainly convenient. The question is whether it’s practical and safe to have a kiln at home. And if so, what do you need to bear…
Sgraffito pottery is really quite simple to make. However, it can be extremely satisfying and lovely to look at. Like most techniques in pottery, there are several ways of approaching sgraffito. When I became interested in it my first question was how do you make sgraffito pottery? These are three of the sgraffito techniques I…
When I bought my first wheel, I wasn’t sure how it was going to fit into my life or home. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on something that I simply didn’t get a chance to use. I did some research at the time and one of my key questions was how…