What are the top technical problems faced by ceramic studios?
1. Underfired or immature bisque. Usually seen as bubbles, pinholes, craters or other unevenness in the surface. Solutions: • Work with bisque suppliers to assure all fired to cone 04; request used cones with each shipment if you have repeated problems. • If bubbles, pinholes or craters on a piece; re-fire in coolest part of kiln or fire again one cone cooler. 2. Dipping glaze problems. Almost all caused by excessive clear glaze application. May be from holding the piece in too long or not thinning glaze as it naturally thickens from evaporation. A major manifestation of this problem is with over-lapping clear glaze from double dipping (when half a piece is dipped and then it is subsequently dipped again). The seam may be much too thick and needs extra soak time in the kiln to drive out all of the moisture which is then trapped in the doubled up area. Solutions: • Only double dip large pieces that cannot be dipped in one motion. With pieces dipped just once, smooth the areas where fing
