Yes, it's true. Plate stackers work wonders. Even though they take a bunch of space in a kiln, with lots of care and patience in assembling them, they're great! Notice in the photo that I put an extra kin post to help support the plate stacker. It's shorter and in the middle of the picture, and well- I rest easier during the firing as I imagine the stacker collapsing (which is entirely unlikely).. After making a bunch of plates that warped by the time they were dry, I finally made 6 I liked and they did great in the glaze firing. The key is to hardly move them at all until they are very leather hard. They stayed on the bat and 5 of the 6 fired without warping because they were fired flat. It was late, so I wasn't thinking completely and forgot that all of them need to be on a flat surface and placed one...
That is the plate at the bottom of this pic- I put it on a broken kiln shelf--- because I thought the glaze might drip onto the kiln shelf. Well, the glaze was fine, but the plane warped because it wasn't all set on a flat kiln shelf as the broken kiln shelf was smaller. Lesson learned (which I knew but forgot!). Even so, the firing was one of the best yet which was good because it took so long to glaze everything. I was awake until after 2 am. Oh, and the test tile combos weren't exciting--- I need to use less cobalt oxide in my new combos since the blue is so strong.
I love this bowl- where the base glaze dripped a bit on the outside. It's simply beautiful! I like making my larger bowls a bit thicker and sturdy; just my style.
These teabowls are my best yet. Thankfully, they've all found new homes. I made 12 more today. Starting to make pottery for Christmas... Gotta start early! The thumbhole celadon color was blown onto the tea bowl- using a handheld sprayer. Will try and post a picture of it soon. Easy to use; just time intensive...
Here are bowls for an order- sent off to a married couple. They're gorgeous!
Tomorrow I'll make tumblers- and am still wrestling with a mug form. These creations take time!
The plates and one of the bowls. I must say now that I understand in a new way when people say that plates are so tough to make- or why they don't make them! :)
My first cut zinnias and a wildflower or two in a simple vase. :) It's raining so much that I hardly have to water the flowers, which is a very good thing! Thanks for reading...
7 comments:
Hi Amy, I use plate setters for plates and or tiles. They are great for bisque or glaze. We have nine inch bricks , cut for the kiln. I don't much like the whimsy kiln furniture that they sell for kilns. In the electric kiln, I go one or two high with the setters for glaze fire. This keeps things from being too open for me.
On plates, at Cole's pottery they use to pick them up. They didn't care about warping.
Your flowers and pots look great.
Ugh plates! Never made one without warping, of course I never made one patiently and did all things wrong! Good for you for patiently waiting. I also know a potter that just picks them up off the wheel and they are always fine, no idea how he does that....
Great to see you are selling what you make, that's always a nice bonus:-)
Thanks for showing the plate setters in use. Those might be a good investment for me.
Congrats on your sales!
Thank you Amy for showing the plate setters, it was helpful for me to see them in action. I have an incomplete set of them here, so have never tried using them. Might invest in some one day. Good to read Meredith's comment (cookingwithgas), and that gives something to think about too. It is great that you are finding buyers for your lovely work. Best Wishes, P x
thanks everyone!
meredith- when you say one or two high, what do you mean? one or two bricks?
tracey- if I can do it, of course you can! Just takes LOTS of time. only way it worked was to wait for a long time for the plate to dry way leather hard before taking it off the bat. just carefully with a wire cutter/string cut it off the bat first when wet though.
I hear you; next time I'm at highwater clay, I'll get some stacker bricks or whatever they're called- that aren't as high. it's hard to know what to get the first time...
Peter- next time I'll take a close up picture of the plate stackers... unless I had seen them used before, I'd be clueless as to what to do with them.
A happy firing!
I love my plate setters. I use them at times if I have tall pots and a bunch of short stuff. I treat them like mini-shelves to get more into my kilns. In my electric kilns I think tight loads fire much more successfully that loose loads.
Plate stackers are a bit of a mystery to me too! they make sense though :)
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