Things happen.
I didn’t drop my bowl; although, I have been known to drop pieces before.
But not this time.
This happened because the glaze and the clay body cooled at different rates.
And as this happens one can hear the pottery pinging – a high ping or ding sound.
Pinging can occur immediately after opening the kiln and can continue for several days. Pinging has been known to occur months later as the pottery pieces adjust to the surrounding temperature. And most of the time, the pinging is harmless.
In this particular case, the ping was an alarmingly loud crack (certainly not a ping!) and what resulted was a huge splintered crack down the middle of the bowl. As I picked up the bowl, it broke apart in my hand. 😩
So, what’s happening is the glaze shrinks more than the clay and tension-induced cracks form. This is called crazing.
I have some thoughts as to how to prevent this from happening again.
I think, number one, my glaze was applied too thick. And number two, my bowl may have been too thin.
The two smaller bowls did not suffer the same fate.
So, instead of three nesting bowls, I now have two.
I’ve been throwing for almost 20 years and have had my share of many heartbreaks.
Glaze running and fusing to the kiln shelf making any sort of touch up and repair to each piece impossible.
And I end up having to chisel melted pottery off kiln shelf.
A piece thrown on the wheel collapses and set aside to be tossed into a bucket where it eventually was recycled into a new piece.
Ruining a perfectly thrown large pet bowl while wiring off the piece from the pottery wheel. It too will be tossed into a bucket and recycled into a new piece.
Or a cat decides to sit in a freshly thrown bowl.
Honestly, I had to laugh at this one!
Life lessons & Humor from Pottery:
Pottery (noun) like baking, but with dirt, and you end up with a mug instead of cookies.
Introverted but willing to discuss pottery.
Did you hear about the big pottery scandal? Everybody involved was fired.
Do you think Patrick Swayze now goes up behind people in pottery classes and hugs them just to crack up other ghosts? ~Chris Hardwick
You can’t rush it. Things will crack and break and fall off. This is the opposite of an instant gratification activity. ~Amanda Moffat
One of the biggest lessons pottery teaches is a shift in the mindset about failure. ~Pottery Mason
You just need to make them again, and again. That’s why I’m not bothered when my pieces crack or break. Because I’m going to keep on making more. Whether it’s pottery or life, it takes more than one attempt for them to come out right. And all that effort makes the end product more valuable, too.~Yeon Somin
Though pottery, while rewarding, is very humbling.
Back Porch Studio 
Leave a reply.