If you have an item or a few that you would like to go through a cone 5 firing we will be scheduling one the last week of October.
Please place your items on the shelf labeled Cone 5 (right, top shelf) or near this shelf with a note to please fire at Cone 5.
Your items should be on the shelf prior to the morning of the 26th. If you are unable to meet this time frame and we do not have enough pieces to fire on the 26th we can push the firing a couple of days.
No, raku glazes only work outside (poisonous) in the raku technique. Cone 5 is only slightly cooler than Cone 6, they go to a temperature around 2000 degrees.
I think the Raku glazes are set for a lower temperature than we run. While they aren’t food safe, because most metallics aren’t, I think that’s more that they are porous, rather than a solid surface. That’s what I’ve always been told.
And, we once accidentally fired a raku-glazed little cup. It ran like an SOB. I even blame myself a little. The lady doing the glazing made a comment about the lovely copper glaze. I was a bit surprised because I hadn’t noticed that we had a copper, but she had the jar turned so that I didn’t see that it was one of the raku glazes. If I’d been a bit more wary at the time, I would’ve asked to see the jar. I’d ignored it because it was a raku glaze. That was when we moved the raku glazes to a special spot so that the uninformed didn’t accidentally pick them up.
Hmm, good question, information about clays and cone firing should be covered in the ceramics 100 class and the glazing class. The specialty events require additional information. Basically you can use Amaco 5-6 glazes and they may come out slightly different, red may be more true.
There are a few of the Amaco glazes that just do “better” at Cone 5. Most pinks and purples fade out if you fire them to Cone 6. This affects the Celadon line, and most underglazes. Plus the Stroke-n-Coats. If you were using the Stroke-n-Coats, you’d check the bottle for the “Mid-range Results”. If it says it’s starting to fade, you’d want it in a Cone 5 kiln if you’ve used them on the regular Cone 5/6 clay that we use.
The reason the group asked for the special cone 5 firing was mainly for particular clays that work better at Cone 5. Some of these clays bloated in our cone 6 firings.
There had also been the request to see glaze results at Cone 5. There are some potters who think that some of the Amaco Glazes look better at a Cone 5.
So in essence, Beth and Anette hit all the points I’ve heard of
Raku glazes work off heavy reduction.
Once you pull the piece from the kiln the process of using your flammable materials then covering it starves the glaze for oxygen.
