Making Pottery is a Process
Making high-fire ceramics is a time consuming process that requires care at each step. SKW experiments with each step of the process. She believes that the time that it takes to create the object is worth the result.
SKW uses a Soldner Clay Mixer to combine the basic elements of the clay. These elements react with the firing and the glazes to make strong, beautiful pots.
There are many ways to make pottery but SKW loves the wheel so almost all of her pottery is formed on the wheel.
Once the clay has dried for about a day it is leather hard and ready to be trimmed and any handles, faces, or other embellishments added.
When the pots are bone dry (one to three weeks of drying depending on the weather) they are ready to be bisque fired in the electric kiln. This firing usually takes about eight hours.
Wax resist on the bottoms of the pots will keep the glaze from adhering in the wrong places. Some pots benefit from underglaze oxide decorations.
SKW mixes her own glazes from basic chemicals and sometimes invents new glazes. Some of her pots have underglaze decoration. She experiments with layering glazes.
Once the glaze has dried sufficiently (usually about a week), the pots are ready to be fired. SKW loads about 100 pots into the kiln. The next morning she rises early to begin the firing. Firing requires careful slow increase of gas and tending the amount of airflow in the kiln. It takes between 14 and 20 hours for the kiln to reach 2060 degrees Fahrenheit.
The kiln must cool gradually before it is unloaded. Usually we can’t wait more than 16 hours to open the kiln because it feels like Christmas. Everyone who is around when the kiln is unloaded wants to see the surprises that come from it. This is especially true because each kiln load has the results of many ceramic experiments.
