Transcript:
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Nikky:
Hi everyone and welcome back to small business secrets where we talk about behind the scenes of art studios and more. Today we are looking into the firing process of pottery at a small business located in Longmont, Colorado. Crackpots is a studio in which people can paint their own pottery and more. Going into the studio you learn how to paint and create but you never get to see what happens after you finish painting your piece and it needs to get fired. I wanted to explore what this process was like, so I went into the studio and discussed it with Tamar owner of Crackpots about it. When I first walked into the kill room, she started to explain how the pieces were organized as well as how they were set up to get fired.
Tamar:
The finished pieces that people paint come into the kiln room we line them up based on their timing so that we keep everything on time for our turnaround.
Nikky:
She goes on to explain that it only takes an hour for the paint to dry between the two coats, but they have to still wait because of the potential of ruining the piece with any paint on the pottery still being wet.
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Tamar:
We wait till the next morning when the paint is completely dry and then we dip it into the clear glaze. The clear glaze looks blue at this point but in the firing process, it turns clear and shiny. So, the pieces get dipped once leaving a little bit to show so that we don't get our hands wet and smear the paint and then they dry, and we dip the second time to get the rest of the piece.
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Nikky:
They will sometimes wait to put it in the kiln after the second dipping but more typically it goes straight into the four red kilns that they have. When they start to load the items into the kiln, they have these stilts that they have to place them on. They come in many random shapes and sizes, but the main ones looked like the letter Y or was a straight line.
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Tamar:
We load each piece individually and as they're loaded those little pins are on the bottom and they each get balanced and it's like a big puzzle going into the kiln. We have to fit everything based on size and we build up the kiln. Then it gets fired in the kiln, the kiln fires to about just over 1800 degrees so it takes it has to go kinda slowly just to kind of slowly heat up the pottery it takes about 8 hours usually a little bit longer than that.
Nikky:
It takes quite a long time to get this going and getting fired this time honestly depends on how big and how many pieces are getting fired in one killing but then once they figure out the true firing process can begin. When it is complete, they have to let the pottery and kiln cool off. So, they have to wait about a day to take any of those items out. The next steps include dremiling the items which is where they basically use a power tool that sands down any imperfections created from the stilts that piece is sat on in the kiln.
Tamar:
And then we add all the parts like piggie banks get plugs, Mason jars get handles, not everything has parts but like the salt and Peppers gets a little plug things, like that, there are parts that get added to some of the pieces and then they go out on the shelf and wait for pickup.
Nikky:
Wondering how long it takes to actually get this whole process done I asked her what the timeframe looked like for this behind-the-scenes process.
Tamar:
The whole process takes about five days because usually, we let the pieces dry a day and then dip and load them in the kiln and then when they come out you have to wait to get drumelled and so sometimes if there's a lot of stuff.
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Nikky:
They load a kiln every day and have someone specifically there each day to do the whole process.
Tamar:
It can go faster than five days but sometimes like after a really busy weekend we might need that buffer because not everything will fit in the kiln, so we need that extra day to load the kiln.
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Nikky:
There can be a few things that can cause problems in the firing process so I asked Tamar about what could potentially happen.
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Tamar:
We are like a little factory back here so we're very unique in the fact that people work on their pieces and then we do the firing. It is an art and a science, and you have to know that things do happen sometimes. Every once in a while, the original pottery might not have been fired properly by the people who made it and then sometimes it's called a fit with the glaze and if the glaze and the pottery itself don't fit the glaze can do funky things like pop off or bubble or do weird things. Lots of times we can fix it so that also that five days gives us a little buffer if we have to put something back in the kiln. But also there's sometimes hairline cracks that don't show up you can't see it on the naked eye when you're painting but when it fires to 2000 degrees it, you know expands and contracts so then it shows up more in the end. So, there are little things that can happen and we hate when that happens it's very rare but you know it's an art and sometimes doesn't work out but usually, it's pretty amazing because it's just the perfect storm of things happening the heat and the paint and the pottery and the clay and it all comes together and most of the time it works out beautifully and we hope. We never get tired of opening the kiln and seeing all the cool stuff that comes out.
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Nikky:
Tamar goes on to explain some of the things that are offered outside of just pottery and the process taken for those mediums.
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Tamar:
So, for mosaics that is our one medium that does not require firing. So, it's a great thing for people who don't have like are visiting town and they can't wait the five days for picking up their fired piece. So, that process is really simple they pick out a base and then they glue on the tesserae which is the fancy word for all the little pieces that are glued onto the base, and then we send them home with grout and instructions on how to grout their piece. The glass fusing is a little different it's from its separate so the glass fusing is another fired art. People come in they pick out what project they want to do and then they decorate with all the different glass pieces we have all different kinds of forms of colored glass. Whether it's like frit or linguine and spaghetti we have all these different names for the different shapes of glass and we teach them how to cut if they're over 13. They glue on the colored glass onto a base and then they leave it with us. We have separate kilns because it's a totally different firing process and we fire it in those kilns. That process takes a little bit longer because glass is really stingy, and it has to fire up really slowly. It slowly gets up to temperature and has to be slowly taken down it can't just like be up and down as fast even though pottery takes time this takes a lot more time.
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Nikky:
Going on to explain further on the steps of firing glass she explains a few techniques unique to glass fusing.
Tamar:
Sometimes they get it keep it flat which is the fuse firing it just is fired into one piece of glass and sometimes they choose to have it slumped into a shape so if they choose to have it slumped into a shape like a dish or a bowl. It goes into a second firing which is called a slump firing which is a slightly lower temperature, and it gets fired even slower at a lower temperature. Glass fusing, I think is one of those who mediums that looks intimidating cause not very many people have seen it before but it's really simple and we've made it so that everybody can do it and I think people are pretty pleased with what they get, and it looks like a real fine art piece when they're done.
Nikky:
When finishing off our conversation I had one last question for Tamar and that was did mosaics in glass fusing start the time the pottery did when they first opened the business?
Tamar:
We started with just the pottery but shortly afterward I would say maybe two or three years into it we added the both of them it came pretty soon afterwards. We added the mosaics in the glass just to give a little variety.
Nikky:
Crack Pots offers a wide range of things to do from pottery to mosaics and even to glassworks. Having this variety helps to encourage people to design whatever they want and whatever medium they see fit. I want to say thank you to Tamar for this opportunity to talk and I hope you enjoy listening to this podcast today. Come back soon!