Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
11.17.2014
It’s Just Clay
Categories: kiln firing, ornaments

Okay, so not everything was a treasure…
one ornament jumped off its stilts and fused onto a tile, and another tile
got a “huge glop of lovin” from the kiln! Oh well… it’s just clay!

2 Comments

January 6th, 2015 5:23 pm

I just love following your blog! I think you must have the energy of 10 men to do all that you do. I was perusing your site and I wanted to ask about these stilts that you are using. Do you make these yourself? Do you have to wipe off the glaze in the area that the stilts contact the piece? Am I asking enough questions? 🙂 Thanks for listening!

–Sonya Penn
January 7th, 2015 7:39 pm

SONYA – The little “stilts” that I use for my ornaments are indeed made by me. It’s just a small disk of clay as the base, with three rolled cones scored & slipped into place. They are bisque fired and then the tips are dipped in kiln wash. But here’s the trick… because my ornaments are soda-fired, there is really no “glaze” to be wiped off. The ornaments go into the kiln as bare clay, maybe a little spray of glaze for color, and then positioned upside-down on the stilts. I try my best to get the ornament to balance with the “cap” portion of the ornament touching the stilts. Because they are not glazed going into the kiln, I don’t need to wipe anything off. And because the tips of the stilts have been dipped in kiln wash, the soda “glaze/shine” build-up doesn’t adhere to stick the two together. Does that make any sense?! And thanks for the nice comments.

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