Monday, January 21, 2013

The stamped mugs return

When we made the stamped mugs for the conference last November we were working under a deadline and getting ready for a show. As you well know we had more loss than we expected and much of that loss was because we did not take the time to run test.
After it was all said and done we really felt the mugs were very successful. The ones that made it to the final fire all made it through and we made our deadline.

After they were made I woke up one night and thought that putting a few air holes in the attached stamp might have helped.
We were asked to make 10 more of the mugs for conference attendees who did not receive one. When we made this round of mugs we made the decision to only make 10 mugs and  if they blew off in the bisque we would explore more about why. When I attached the stamp this time I put air holes in several different places around the stamp. All 10 came out of the bisque kiln in one piece. This was so simple I could not believe I did think of it sooner.
The air holes are small enough that they will, should, just fill in with the glaze.

We are almost finished glazing this kiln load of pots and are now watching the weather for the best day to load and fire. The plan was to load Tuesday and fire Wednesday but after listening to the weather last night we are changing our mind. They are calling for howling wind on Tuesday as a front moves through.
We use to be up to the challenge of whatever the weather brings but why push it?

Instead we  can roll the carts out of the way and do something else. ( like read...) for a day or two while we wait out the weather.


   It's time to get the coffee on.
Cheers,
M

8 comments:

Linda Starr said...

Yippie for a good bisque, those stamped mugs are just great, now you'll be serving Mark's beer in them

Gary's third pottery blog said...

ahHA! that is pottery, right? always the tiny little step can help a piece survive!

Anonymous said...

Could you possibly give more details of your stamping process - where did you put the air holes? Do you mean like pricks around the edge?

smartcat said...

There's always sumthin'! The life in clay is never dull! Nice that you found a solution.

Laurie said...

Reading and coffee... sounds like a good day!

cookingwithgas said...

we do more problem solving than making some days!
On the air holes- I used my needle tool and went into the clay as close to the body of the mug as I could I probably went in about 1/4 inch doing this on the bottom, top and sides.

Lori Buff said...

Nice smart, simple solution. Thanks for sharing it so we can all benefit.

Shortstuff said...

Awful nice of those guys to give you another shot at making those stamped mugs! Congrats on no exploding stamps in the bisque!