sandpaper attached to a table top

A piece of sandpaper attached to a table top is an effective aid in leveling the bottoms of greenware pieces.

Clay Storage

Clay Storage
Ageing of clays improves its plasticity and you will need an area to store at least one month's supply of clay so that you can allow your clay stocks to age effectively. This area is ideally placed between the clay preparation area and the production area. The clay store is best if it is dark and damp as this encourages the development of the necessary souring bacteria. The clay must be kept from drying out.

Promoting yourself

If you want your work to get the recognition it deserves, promotion and publicity need to become as important to you as making the work itself. Promoting yourself and producing publicity needs to be done on a regular basis, rather than being left until the last minute. It is also useful to take advice from other practitioners or arts organisations. You may be able to share their mailing lists and contacts and collaborate on joint publicity.

Glaze positioning

Leave at least 1/2" between all pieces when loading your kiln. Remember that the piece will expand during the firing cycle before it contracts and shrinks.

Filling a crack

If you are filling a crack in greenware with slip, be sure to work the slip into the cracks as deeply as possible to form a solid bond. You may find using a stiff brush will help, using a back and forth movement of the bristles.

Ceramic Business

If you are starting your ceramic business you need to take location, marketing, design and storage into consideration. You may have found a wonderful creative outlet but business is business so craft an intelligent plan and execute. Make sure if you are not a business person that you have good advisors on issues of money, management and publicity. Reap the benefits of your own business and your own product by starting a ceramic business.

Glazes

Ceramic glazes are a fascinating combination of chemistry and art and can be dangerous if not handled with care and experience. There are so may iterations of ceramic glazes that you can truly achieve any color, patina or effect that you want but take care - using metals, chemicals and other components can be dangerous - especially in your home and without proper containment or protective gear. Still, have fun finding your signature glaze and making your ceramic piece stand out from the rest.

Mold lines

If you have a mold line that is difficult to remove from a piece of greenware, dampen the piece slightly. It will come off easier and lessen the chance of breakage

Ceramics Decoration

Once you have the piece you want and have completed the necessary processing, you are ready for ceramics decoration. There are so many styles to choose from that you may want to start simple and develop your own unique style after some experience. Glazes run the gamut from the simple to the sublime using chemicals, metals and other compounds to achieve incredible results. The most important part of ceramics decoration - have fun!

Applying kiln wash

Make sure you have a good layer of kiln wash on the shelf. This is to facilitate the removal of glaze drips. Do not apply kiln wash to the sides of the kiln, or underside of the kiln shelves. The wash is likely to flake off and land on your glazed pieces.

Thin pieces

When glazing a thin piece, glaze the inside, making sure you don´t over apply, as the thin walls will absorb a lot of glaze, then wait for it to dry thoroughly before glazing the outside. Otherwise the clay may be saturated and glaze won´t absorb and stick to the outside. Some people wait overnight.

Web promotion

General promotion
Making sure your work is included on indexes, registers and multimedia databases is a valuable form of promotion. These are accessed by a wide range of people including commissioners, agents, curators, collectors and others with work opportunities on offer.
Increasingly, visual artists are looking to the Internet and to World Wide Web pages to promote their work. Although there are still issues to resolve as regards reproduction and copyright rights, the ability to make connections across the globe to new and very large audiences has proved for some artists a risk worth taking.

The Kiln Area

The Kiln Area
Locate the kiln as close as possible to the workshop. Have plenty of space to store kiln furniture and door bricks, and room to put pots when packing and unloading the kiln. Ventilation is of major importance in the kiln area, and an outside kiln is a good idea. The area should be free of rubbish. Fuel tanks, burners, flues and dampers should be readily accessible.

Bisque firing

Bisque firing
For a bisque fire in particular, you need to drive off the water that is left in the pot. If you fire too fast, the steam will cause the piece to explode. (This is true even if the piece is very dry, because there is still moisture inside the clay molecules.) So it is important to fire bisque slowly.
If your pieces are not completely dry, you may want to candle them first. Candling is done on a manual kiln by turning the bottom switch on low and holding it there for several hours (6-10). With an electronic kiln, you would program the kiln to remain at around 150 degrees F for this time.

Ceramics Molds

A method of creating ceramics other than throwing a pot on a potters wheel or handbuilding is using ceramics molds. This is an especially good method if you are planning to create a set of pieces that should match one another. Using molds can be tricky so you should do research and get some good tips on using ceramics molds.

Use

Cones are slender pyramids composed of ceramic materials used to determine the combined effect of temperature and time, which is sometimes called ‘heat-work'.
Clays and glazes are fired to different points referred to by their cone equivalent or number.

The wonders of Glycerin

A few drops of glycerin (from the Chemist/drugstore) added to engobes, stains, oxides and slips slows drying time and increases workability.

Ceramic History

Ceramics have a long and interesting history because it is a medium that combines art and utility. From the richest to the poorest, everyone had ceramics and many created ceramics whether to carry water or as a piece of art to be admired. Ceramic history also offers important information about the development of humans and about the earth and clay that comes from it. By studying the history of ceramics, you can see much of the history of man.

Pottery Plaster

Buy plaster. When casting molds, Pottery Plaster #1 is best because the particle sizes are small and will capture detail the best. But if you can´t get this, normal Plaster of Paris will work.
Put on a dust mask when handling dry mixtures of this type.