Techniques
Throwing, trimming, hand-building and firing, in the order a piece actually moves through the workshop. Each entry carries its own process parameters and the list of ways it goes wrong, because the failure list is the part that gets used.
Cone 06
≈ 999 °C 1 entries- 06 A bisque schedule to cone 06 that does not blow up thick work Bisque firing is not a warm-up for the glaze firing; it is the firing that decides whether a piece survives at all. Water and… Stoneware
10 hours
Cone 04
≈ 1060 °C 2 entries- 04 Coil-building a 30 cm pot over four sessions without a slump Coil building is the slowest and the most reliable way to make a large pot, and it fails for one of two reasons: the coils are… Earthenware
4 hours - 04 Leather-hard joining: spouts, lugs and feet that do not pop off Most attachments fail at the drying stage, not in the kiln, and they fail because the two pieces were at different moisture states… Earthenware
40 minutes
Cone 5
≈ 1196 °C 1 entries- 5 Throwing an 18 cm bowl with a 6 mm wall and no S-crack Bowls fail for a different reason than cylinders do. A bowl is wider than it is tall, so the rim carries the load and the floor… Stoneware
30 minutes
Cone 6
≈ 1222 °C 8 entries- 6 Centering a 1 kg ball: wheel speeds, hand positions and the wobble test Centering is the point where almost everyone gives up on the wheel, and it is almost never a strength problem. It is a wheel-speed… Stoneware
25 minutes - 6 Glaze thickness by the numbers: specific gravity, dip seconds and grams per area Almost every glaze fault blamed on the recipe is actually a thickness fault. A glaze that pinholed at 1.4 specific gravity is fine… Stoneware
1 hour - 6 Reading a glaze fault: six defects and what actually causes them A glaze fault is evidence. Pinholes, crawling and crazing all look like surface problems and all have different causes, and… Stoneware
40 minutes - 6 Opening and flooring: how thick the base actually needs to be The floor of a pot is the part that fails first and the part makers think about least. Open too deep and you cut through into the… Stoneware
20 minutes - 6 Rolling slabs to an even 8 mm and joining them so the seam outlives the pot Hand-built work fails at the seams, and the seams fail because the slab was rolled in one direction. A slab carries the memory of… Stoneware
50 minutes - 6 Spiral wedging a 5 kg batch without trapping air A pug mill leaves the clay de-aired but still laminated, and every laminate becomes a crack once the wall is pulled thin. Spiral… Stoneware
35 minutes - 6 Throwing a 24 cm cylinder from 1.5 kg: the proportions that keep it standing A cylinder is the test piece every throwing class uses because it exposes everything: wall consistency, water control, and whether… Stoneware
40 minutes - 6 Trimming foot rings: the cheese-hard window and a 4 mm ring Trimming is where a thrown pot becomes a designed object, and it is also the fastest way to destroy one. Cut too early and the clay… Stoneware
20 minutes
Cone 9
≈ 1280 °C 1 entries- 9 Pulling even walls in porcelain: three passes, 6 mm, no collapse Porcelain has no grog and almost no plastic memory, so a wall that is uneven by 1 mm at the base is 3 mm out by the rim. Pulling a… Porcelain
30 minutes
Entries are ordered coolest firing first. A section that looks short is a section whose remaining entries are still scheduled — nothing is published before its firing date.