My summer has been full of custom ceramic orders. Since it's wedding season, I have been making a number of wedding plates. I am always relieved when they come out of the kiln as expected. I opened up a load yesterday and found these three celebration plates that thankfully turned out well. The rest of the load was hit and miss.
I have a green glaze that is beautiful but runs like crazy - so that happened more than I had expected. I need to wax higher on those pieces next time. I also had a big problem with a large lot of soap dispensers that didn't shrink as much as I expected so sadly, the dispenser spouts don't fit. 12% is the typical shrink rate for the clay body that I use. I'm not sure if I mismeasured or if it's this new batch of clay that I used. *uff da* I'm hoping the people waiting for these aren't too upset.
Extremely relieved to read this and remember I'm not the only one whose clay suddenly shrinks at a different rate for no reason(always for that crucial order where it matters). Sometimes ceramics clients have to be very patient indeed!
ReplyDeleteIt never fails for me that it happens with the person who has already waited too long. I guess I need to add the "if all goes well" caveat!
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