rejects

this week I had the long awaited biscuit firing, after lowering the base shelf in order to get the huge pot in. sadly it did not even survive being carried across to the kiln shed without that huge crack starting – I have found that the thick layer of porcelain which I rolled onto the crank clay is not only cracking but making that crack go right through the pot wall. the smaller pots can take it, but not this monster – result below

quite a mess. so as I loved the pot I have to make another with the ST material white crank instead of porcelain. the rest all came out of the kiln more or less in one piece so now I am filling it up again. one more biscuit firing and then I will do some glazing.

I am experimenting with some different things – tall cone shapes, open cylindrical ones, and something indescribable which is a cylinder on its side with the ends folded over. we shall see if it looks like anything when finished. lots of dry porcelain embedded into this crank clay when rolling out the slab, I don’t seem to be able to leave the plain clay untouched much at the moment.

the weather is pretty chilly and the pots are very slow to dry. they might do better if it was windy and cold, but this high pressure weather doesn’t help me at all. so I have resorted to finishing them on the storage heater, and bringing clay indoors to stiffen it up enough for rolling out.