How It Works - From Clay to Finished Plate

It takes time to create a plate. Here’s the process from start to finish.

Form the plate

Trim at leather-hard

Fire to bisque

Glaze the design

Glaze-fire to color

Inspect the finished plate

Step 1: Form the plate

Where raw clay becomes a plate-like shape

This can happen a few different ways, like throwing on a wheel, using a form, or hand-building. For my plates, I use a form to speed up the process and recreate the same size/shape every time.

Step 2: Trim at leather hard

Final adjustments before set in (almost) stone

Once the plate has time to become dry (but not too dry) then we can enhance the form by fine-tuning with our trimming tools. I trim the bottom of the plates to ensure they lie flat, and touch-up the rims so they look/feel aesthetically appealing.

Step 3: Fire to bisque

There’s no going-back now

The trimmed plates are left out to air dry to so all moisture leaves the plate. This can take time, because if the plate dries too quickly, it can warp, but if you don’t let all the moisture leave before the bisque-fire, then the moisture can create steam and steam can create an explosion.

When the plate is finally “bone dry”, we kick off the first firing to turn the plate from clay to stone. The finished piece is called “bisqued” meaning it’s ready for glazing!

Step 4: Glaze the design

Let the creative juices flow

This is my favorite part of the process. I sketch out a design on my iPad, and print out a stencil using my Cricut machine. Then I carefully measure and place the stencil on the bisqued plate, and start coloring in the design using a wide array of glazes.

Step 5: Glaze-fire to color

Bring the design to life - and pray to the kiln gods

The glazes are fired to cone 10 (1300° C, 2350° F) where the minerals in the glazes melt and combine to create the finished designs on the piece. This is where true alchemy sets in, and you learn to expect the unexpected.

Firing to such a high temperature causes the pieces to fully vitrify, and the clay becomes ceramic. Glazes can often time be completely unpredictable, where the outcomes are dependent on so many factors like:

  • The clay body

    • Was it porcelain or stoneware? Does it have iron? Does it have grog?

  • The glaze recipe

    • Is it stable like a shino? Will it interact with cobalt? Is it zinc-free? Are you expecting a matte or glossy finish?

  • The temperature

    • Did you hit the right temperature? Did you hold at that temperature for long enough?

Step 6: Inspect the finished piece

Hope the kiln gods have answered your prayers

The plate has truly gone through fire and brimstone, and once finally cooled, now’s the time to inspect for defects. Clay has a memory, and hopefully it’s a pleasant memory that lies flat on the table with minimal warping, and the colors have come out as expected.

If I’m happy with the product, this is where I either package it up to ship to you… or we start the process over!