| Monthly Tech-Tip | No tracking! No ads! |
It can be easy to get paranoid about whether your teapots will crack when hot water is poured in. What can you do? First, it may be comforting to know that if you have a freezer and a kettle, you are well equipped to stress test the performance of your ware from subzero to boiling water temperatures. As a beginner, the best body is the one that is the most plastic and easily formed, it will enable you to get the wall thickness as even as possible (likely the most important factor in avoiding temperature gradients). Use glazes that do not craze or shiver (these hide weakness and stress within looking for an opportunity to start a crack). Use a firing program similar to our C6DHSC schedule (even cooling leaves less stress within the ware). After you have made 50 teapots the accumulated experience may well indicate yours are good enough. If not, then study glaze fit and options to use a body:glaze combo having a lower coefficient of thermal expansion (e.g. bodies with less quartz, glazes with less KNaO).
| Glossary |
Thermal shock
When sudden changes in temperature cause dimensional changes ceramics often fail because of their brittle nature. Yet some ceramics are highly resistant. |
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