Post #585155 by danlovestikis on Fri, Apr 15, 2011 1:31 PM

Hi Kirby, thank you for your note. I'm going out now to finish the Bob's off. I think they are dry and I can bisque.fire tonight.

I was just asked how to make a mug and this is what I wrote. Did I miss anything?

Hi Andrew, I think I may be able to bisque fire the mugs tonight. I have a thread that shows the making of a mug from beginning to end except for the mold. Here is the link.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=36468&forum=17&445

So here's a list of steps for a mug that is made more than once.

Design your mug.
Sculpt the mug in Romo clay hardness 4. That means you have to heat it or it's too hard to work with your hands.
Make the mold. Let the mold dry out completely before use. That can take weeks unless you use a fan and have the molds raised for circulation. Or rotate the exposed sides frequently.
Pour slip (liquid clay) into the mold and wait an hour. Turn it over and pour out the excess.
Let the mold sit upside down over night.
Open the mold and take out the mug.
Clean off and smooth all mold joint lines.
Let it dry until all the moisture is out of the clay. In the winter that can be a couple of weeks. The mug will shrink during the drying.
Sand and fine tune the detail on the mug. Add name and number on the bottom.
Use an air compressor to blow off all dust inside and out.
Bisque fire and let cool in kiln for 24 hours after the kiln is turned off.
The mug will again shrink during this first firing.
When it is cool remove it from kiln and hit with a high force hose to remove any dust that the air compressor missed.
Let the mug sit for a couple of days to again dry out. Protect it from dust during this time. One spec of dust and you will have the glaze crawl and leave an unglazed area.
When dry paint the mug with three layers of glaze letting it dry in-between each layer. If you are using under glaze there will be a fourth layer of clear glaze applied. That is what I do with the Bobs.
When all the layers of glaze have dried then load the kiln and fire over night again. Let cool for at least 24 hours.
When you remove them from the kiln check for skips if there are none you are done. If there are some then you scrub the area let it dry and do the whole glazing process on that one spot again and also the firing over again.

It's not an easy process I just retired from my career in Nuclear Medicine and I'm doing the art for enjoyment.

Let me know if I can help with any other questions. I think I'll post this note on my thread. Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2011-04-15 14:48 ]