Bone-Dry Clay Vessels: Formed, Dried Slowly, Ready to Fire

A pot must be bone dry before it is fired: dried until it is porous, no longer plastic and very fragile. On the way it passes leather-hard, when shrinking stops. Dry it slowly and evenly so it does not crack, and finish the last water off gently in the kiln. The picture: a large unfired pot, bound round with fibre while it dries, at Nwenyein, Myanmar.

مبتدئ

One to two weeks

التعليمات

Form the vessels

Build the pots as in the coil pot blueprint, up to the end of shaping; do not fire them.

Dry slowly under cover

Stand the pots on a cloth-covered board out of sun and draught, loosely covered, so rims and bases dry at the same pace.

الأدوات المطلوبة:

غطاء من قماش رطب

لوح بلاستيكي

سطح عمل من الخيش للفخّار

Leather-hard

When the clay is firm enough to handle and has stopped shrinking, it is leather-hard: trim and burnish now, and join handles with slip.

المواد لهذه الخطوة:

طين سائل للفخّار50 مل

الأدوات المطلوبة:

طقم عُدد فخّار

Uncover and dry to bone-dry

Uncover the pots and let them dry in a warm room until they turn pale and light. A pot that still feels cool against the cheek is still damp (our test). Handle bone-dry pots gently: they break easily.

الأدوات المطلوبة:

ميزان ذو كفّتين

Is it dry yet?

جارٍ تحميل دفتر Jupyter…

Limits

Leather-hard and bone-dry are as the Wikipedia ceramics glossary defines them; the cover, the cheek test and the weighing are ours. Kilns finish the last water with a slow, low first stage (candling).