Drying and firing a 31-inch porcelain plate without cracks. How?

Tuesday 15th October 2019

It takes extreme care. Three months of it! Porcelains are fine-grained and, for heavy pieces, they will not tolerate uneven drying at any stage. These cone 10 plates are made by Peter Flanagan at Okanagan Pottery in Nelson, B.C. Firing is also a real challenge. Pottery porcelains are high in quartz, getting a piece like this down through insight-live.com/glossary/162">quartz inversion (~1200-900F) without dunting is only possible if done very slowly. The fact that ancient Chinese potters made very large porcelain pieces means they knew about slow cooling also (and it was a natural consequence of the heavy kilns they used). But our modern kilns cool quickly so the drop must be slowed. Peter adds an extra level of "super humanness" by actually lustre-firing these pieces, which means 2 more trips through the hazardous quartz inversion territory! If you do this be prepared to fire super slow (e.g. 25 degrees per hour) through this range.

Pages that reference this post in the Digitalfire Reference Library:

Drying Ceramics Without Cracks, Quartz Inversion

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