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The more plastic terra cotta dry-shrinks much more yet cracks much less than the porcelain. How is that possible? digitalfire.com/picture/940

There’s a lot of Canadian magic in this photo — the essential rutile blues, gloss blacks, honey ambers, transparent, and base slip every mid-fire potter needs. These open source recipes are long proven, made from Plainsman materials and fit Plainsman bodies. digitalfire.com/picture/3693

Trying to achieve an underglaze decoration effect at cone 6 that looks as good as what was done at cone 04. It is not easy! digitalfire.com/picture/3311

Some slip colors are flaking off during drying. But also during bisquing and glaze firing. The reason why indicates a clear path to a solution. digitalfire.com/picture/3750

Consider the hazards and hassles before choosing a DIY black matte or gloss recipe that has high individual or combined percentages of manganese dioxide, cobalt or nickel. digitalfire.com/picture/3745

3D printing an Apple AirTag holder is a great way to learn the cycle of refining the measurements on a design and reprinting until it fits perfectly. This design is better and it prints better than the majority found online. digitalfire.com/picture/3747

You will see one or both of these glazes on ware by almost every potter. They are must-haves for cone 6 oxidation. You can do what this pottery did (and Amaco Glazes did with PC-32 and PC-20) to reduce costs and improve outcomes. digitalfire.com/picture/3736

A 3D printed spout and ball retainer have solved issues with pouring slurry out of this very heavy Royal Doulton ball mill jar. It also prevents a hernia! digitalfire.com/picture/3031

YouTube video by Tony Hansen How I Developed the G2926B Cone 6 Transparent Base Glaze

youtu.be/MA_C8lTS6pc

As a hobby Maker my breaking up with pricey Fusion 360 for the free, browser-based OnShape still feels risky. But OnShape is the Google Docs of CAD: Fast, runs in a browser tab, works on every computer I have (including iPad). At home with mold-making and 3D-printing. digitalfire.com/picture/3712

The transparent glaze is crazing on this slip cast porcelain mug. The most effective fix is a DIY casting body. Don’t agree? I submit that the benefits are more than you think. And the difficulties are less. digitalfire.com/picture/3739

“Retail Rick” has this pottery glaze thing figured out. Those commercial products cost up to 3000 times more than traditional methods. And up to 100 times more than buying the powders. He can brush on layers and brush up the price. And they look great on social! digitalfire.com/picture/3726

Just download, 3D print them, pour in the plaster and you have a slip casting mold to make mugs. This is may be the way to start DIY slip casting. Digitalfire.com resources will help you with every detail of learning the casting process, its materials, glazing and firing digitalfire.com/picture/3719

Is it possible to make a plastic and vitreous stoneware using only ball clay and feldspar? Yes! I compared a ball clay:nepheline stoneware to a kaolin:nepheline porcelain. The differences might surprise you. digitalfire.com/picture/2326

Commercial plastic natches or registration keys do not work well, or at all, for DIY mold making using CAD and 3D-printing. So I developed an interlocking natch system to enable precise interlocking of mold parts. No supply issues, you can print as many as you need. digitalfire.com/picture/3716

I finally ghosted high-maintenance Fusion 360 after years of pricey dates. My new flame, OnShape, is the chill. She's a browser-based beauty who runs on anything I own, shares her projects, and rocks my mold-making world—zero drama, total upgrade! digitalfire.com/picture/3713

These Medalta bottles were hand-thrown, thick and heavy, and fired at high temps—energy was cheap back then. This modern slip-cast version will hold more beer, weigh much less and be easier and greener to produce. digitalfire.com/picture/3709

The price of a splash pan or aluminum wheelhead for a typical potter's wheel will buy this whole wheel! Yet this wheel's pan and wheelhead are high quality. And it appears to be repairable and have customer support. What am I missing? Comments? digitalfire.com/picture/3700

Fatigue Freddie’s flying blind—materials keep changing, management pretends they don't, yet he gets the blame when quality fails. But with Insight-live, he’s becoming Ready-Freddie: starting small, tracking batches, testing samples, and building a solid system. digitalfire.com/picture/3702

When using ungummed dipping glazes for multi-layering, it is actually more surprising if crawling does not happen than if it does. Take your chances or prevent this from happening by a simple method. digitalfire.com/picture/2643

Go full DIY by making your own slipcasting beer bottle mold using our v6 CAD drawing. It works with swing-top stoppers. Make your own clay body and glaze to fit. Digitalfire.com gives help on every step of the process. digitalfire.com/picture/3704

Quickly assess raw materials for ceramic body production! A simple wash test over 150 mesh reveals if materials, even those sold as minus 200 mesh, contain contaminant or excessive oversized particles that could impact your final product. digitalfire.com/picture/3706

A DIY clay body for hobbyists? Yes. Mixing as a slurry and dewatering on a plaster table is better than any pugmill. You get flexibility, consistency, and creative freedom. Whether you're perfecting a custom recipe, recycling scrap, or processing local clay. digitalfire.com/picture/3698

These Alaska souvenir porcelain mugs have great workmanship and use of decals. And great glaze recipes. Could a DIY cone 6 potter make these as dipping glazes? Yes! digitalfire.com/picture/3543

A kaolin shipment just came in. "UnReady Freddie" is panicking. He thinks he remembers issues with products made with the last batch. "Ready Freddie" has Insight-Live and has years of data on incoming shipments in one searchable place. He knows what to do. digitalfire.com/picture/3695

DIY glazes can do something commercial ones cannot: Go on evenly, in one coat and dry in seconds. The reason is thixotropy, the property of gelling that is not possible in brushing glazes containing CMC gum. digitalfire.com/picture/3692

Almost all common traditional ceramic base glazes are built from only a dozen elements (plus oxygen). The materials in the glaze recipe source these oxides. As long as they dissolve into the melt, the kiln doesn't care what material sources what oxide. digitalfire.com/picture/1257

Melt flow tester 3MF model files. Download, open in your slicer software and 3D print. Then fill them with plaster and use a heat gun to remove the PLA printed shell. digitalfire.com/picture/2350

A pure ball clay slip demonstrates the slurry property of thixotropy (gelled when not in motion but fluid when it is). Look at that big drip, yet it is not running. digitalfire.com/picture/3158

Mel Noble at Plainsman Clay's southwestern Saskatchewan quarry. Six different clays mined from the Whitemud Formation here and have served us since the 1970s. digitalfire.com/picture/2170