My 360 Degree Decorations Workshop is this Saturday from 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM. I’ve got my pieces made up and just one of my pieces is still in the “leather hard” stage. The leather hard stage is the condition of raw clay ware when most of the moisture has evaporated leaving the pot soft enough to be carved yet stiff enough as not to collapse when handling. This last piece needs to get to the “bone dry” stage which is the condition of unfired clay that has no absorbed moisture other than natural humidity.

Once my pieces get to the bone dry stage, I load them into my kiln and fire them to 1841o F. Now my pieces are at the “bisque” stage which means they are ready to be glazed. From now till Thursday, my piece needs to get to the bone dry stage. I will then load all of the bone dry pieces in to the kiln no later than Thursday evening. Actually “Bobby” will load the kiln; he officially loads and unloads the kiln, he’s the greatest! I will fire the pieces to 1841o F and have them all ready for my class this Saturday. Saturday I plan to learn the 360 degree decoration and glaze my pieces. After my work is glazed, Bobby will load all the pieces back into the kiln for the last firing to which the kiln reaches a temperature of 2291o F and holds that temperature for 30 min. then the kiln automatically turns itself off and takes approx 12 hours for the kiln to reach room temperature. Then the magical moment arrives and with a bit of luck, some nice results emerge from the kiln.

I hope you all have a great day!