Understanding Pottery: Chapter 3 Bisque Firing
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 เม.ย. 2020
- Thank you for watching our video on Bisque Firing.
Understanding Pottery is a video series in production by Washington Street Studios. The video series is a digital textbook that will take the viewer through the entire ceramic process from the raw material through the finished ceramic pieces. We’ve already covered chapter one: What is Clay? And chapter two: Clay Properties and Drying and this video will present chapter 3: Bisque Firing.
In this video you will learn the difference between bisque and biscuit firing, what happens in the clay during a bisque firing, why we bisque fire pottery, tips and pitfalls when bisque firing.
The next video topic in the Understanding Pottery series will be Tips for Successful glazing.
This video is brought to you by Washington Street Studios, a community pottery studio, gallery and pottery school located in Harpers Ferry / Bolivar, WV. We exist to provide ceramic artists an affordable, fully equipped studio space for aspiring, emerging and established artists to share their creative energy and knowledge in an environment designed to support the ceramic artist. If you want to learn more about Washington Street Studios, visit our website at www.hfclay.com/.
At Washington Street Studios, we believe the sharing of creative energy and knowledge will improve the quality of our art and increase the appreciation of art within our community. We are striving to create an environment where the arts are shared and appreciated. We want to grow as a family of artists and contribute to our community. This channel is one of our steps to share our passion for the ceramic arts, creative energy and knowledge with other artists and art lovers
We also created a podcast to expand our audience. If you are looking for an audio version of our show search for ‘The Potters Round Table’ on your favorite podcast platform of choice.
My favorite special tool sources:
Bill van Gilder Pottery: www.vangilderpottery.com/onli...
Troy Bungart: troybungartstudios.com/
StudioPro: studioprobats.com/
Channels of interest to potters:
Bill van Gilder: / vangilderpottery
Jonthepotter: / @jonthepotter
Ceramic Jim: / @ceramicjim
John Britt: / @johnbrittpottery
Earth Nation Ceramics: / @earthnationceramics
Simon Leach: / @sleachpots
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I completed 5 independent studies where for three I stated that my objectives be learning firings. In one independent study I focused on gas kiln bisque firing. All these under college level teachers. Ive just learned more from this video than from those studies and the other college level classes I took.
Phillip Taylor, I hope you find all the videos so useful! Thanks for the encouragement and please share the channel with your friends and fellow potters!
I have terrible ADHD and this video is amazing, it's to the point and full of juicy details without fluff!! THANK YOU!
totally agree!
You're welcome
This is really cool, I feel I've just found a treasure. Wonderful teacher, wonderfully informative video.
This is my second go around with this series. What a treasure!! Thank you for sharing your wisdom in such a thorough and organized fashion.
You're welcome
Hi Phil,
I have been collecting for over 50 years and creating pottery for 12 years and just discovered your videos. Most of what you present I have learned through trial and error without knowing the reasons. Your explanations are strait forward, and for an 83 year old, easy to comprehend. I am enjoying these presentations and look forward to viewing the others you have produced.
That is great to hear! If you have a topic we have not covered, please let us know and we will take a stab at it!
I feel so lucky to have found these lessons.Ive learned so much in only the first two lessons. I didn't think I needed to learn all this to make a pot...now I know how much this knowledge will improve my process and results.THANK YOU.
Happy you are enjoying the videos. They are very useful. Phil is missed!
Fantastic explanation of firing.... LISTEN TO THIS GUY....
Thanks Erika Harding! Please share the channel with your friends and fellow potters to help us grow our community.
"I hope this was useful information." Heck yeah. Wonderfully detailed, great background information so we can understand WHY we do what we do. The manual kiln information was especially helpful--gonna do my first test fire of my refurbished manual kiln in the morning. Marking the point where that discussion begins for future reference: 29:12. Thanks for a truly collegiate course!
Thank you for the support! And good luck with your firing.
Such a great speaker and educator. Thank you for this amazing video series! Pretty sure this guy invented pottery 😂
Alex Finn, thank you for the encouragement! Phil passed away last year and we are very happy that we captured his knowledge in this video series!
@@WashingtonStreetStudios oh no that is so sad, i didn’t know. I just started pottery last month and have been watching all his videos. He is such a great teacher and tons of knowledge. Very grateful you were able to capture him to share with future potters.
essa brasileira aqui te ama , mestre ,obrigada
e nós amamos você!
So clear and helpful as I am a newbie to owning a kiln. Love these videos
Awesome, thank you for the encouragement! Please share the channel with your friends and fellow potters to help us grow our cummunity.
Wonderfully detailed and explained with clarity. Great!
Thank you, and we hope you find all the videos valuable! Please share the channel with your friends and fellow potters to help us grow our community!
wow, thank you for being you. i appreciate your teaching so much. thank you. very, very helpful.
You're welcome and thanks for the encouragement!
Well done laddy!!
Thanks for watching.
I've learned so much by watching these videos
Thank you Sandi Cowles, please share the channel with your friends and fellow potters to help us grow our community!
Fascinating and super useful thank you
Thanks for the encouragement, and we hope you enjoy all the videos!
You have no idea how much this videos has helped me understand so many things!
Thank you!
That is great to hear, and there is so much more in store for you in the Understanding Pottery series! I hope you enjoy them all. And share this channel with your friends and fellow potters to help us grow our community. Keep watching.
This man is IMPRESSIVE!! Such an informative video.
Thank you. Phil passed away last July and we are so happy to have captured much of his expertise to share with the ceramic community!
I've never made an item of clay and yet I absolutely enjoyed this presentation. Now I want to get some clay and start learning.
And you should, pottery is more than a hobby, it's therapy!
Really useful, thanks!
Liz, thank you for the encouragement, I hope you enjoy all the videos!
SO. MUCH. KNOWLEDGE.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks.
Thanks for all vieoes. Just so open and understandable👍🌹🤗🤗
It looks like someone is binge watching our channel! I hope you find it useful. Thanks for the comments.
Thank you, once again, for this course. You give out so much info that it's hard to absorb it all in one go, I think I'm going to have to watch them all twice!
No problem, these will be available as long as TH-cam allows! Keep on watching.
These are such fantastic video resources. So much I didn't understand is becoming really clear! Thank you 😊
Thanks Gina, please share with your friends and fellow potters to help grow our community! And if you have suggestions for future topics be sure to let us know. Thanks for watching.
Great, thank you.
Thank you KateSpell, Please share the channel with your friends and fellow potters and help us grow our community!
This is wonderful! Thanks a million, I was taking notes.
Amy Krenzer, We hope you enjoy and learn a lot from all the videos! Phil did a great job covering a wide variety of topics. Enjoy and share the channel with your friends and fellow potters to help grow our community.
Very thorough and clear, it all makes sense. I'm sure I won't remember all that information. Many Thanks.
Steve, the videos will be on TH-cam as long as they let us keep them there! You can always visit and watch them again! And please share the channel with your friends and fellow potters to help us grow our community.
Thank you so much for generously sharing such useful information! It is very much appreciated!
It really is our pleasure! Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode and tell all your friends!
Washington Street Studios, at which temperature de sulphur fumes finish evaporating? My kiln has no peep holes, so I wonder when I can close the lid after propping it up at the early stages of firing...😊
Very good. Thanks man! Cool
Thank you for watching, don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss an episode!
Great insights about bisq firing. Better then million videos l watched. Thank you ❤
We are happy you found it usefull, hope you enjoy all the videos!
Very helpful video. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you jabeen irfan, please share the channel with your friends and fellow potters to help us grow our community!
Learned a lot and nicely done
Thank you Ann, Be sure to check out the entire Understanding Pottery series. You will get a bucket full of knowledge from a scientific point of view and presented at a beginner level. Phil talks about glaze chemistry, physics and all the different aspects of the ceramic arts, firing, glazing, glaze defects, critiquing you own pottery, design principles, different kilns and much much more! Thank you for the comment.
Amazing information! So well explained!
Thank you Juanita, I hope you enjoy all the videos!
Great news
2shivika, Thank you for the encouragement! Keep watching and share the channel with your friends and fellow potters to help grow our community!
I do nothing with pottery but I have watched most if not all of your videos, how the world works really interests me. Such a great teacher and a wonderful asset to the world hopefully for generations to come. Well done and keep up the great work. Thanks a million.
ViloAfi, Thank you for the encouragement! Phil was an awesome teacher, and this channel is a great legacy. Keep watching.
Thanks for this super helpful and beautifully structured presentation👌🏻
You are most welcome, I hope you enjoy the entire series!
Excellent video, very informative and spot on, thank you. I just got into pottery and have had the worst experiences over the last couple of weeks, now I understand the process from start to finish and tomorrow I fire with the knowledge I have gained, hopefully all goes well. Thank you.
I hope all went well with your firing!
Excellent!!! I’ve recently purchased my first kiln, even though I’ve been ‘potting’ for some time, I was never responsible for the firing of my work. This video is so detailed in explaining how the bisque firing works. Thank you!
Awesome, let us know if you have questions on your first kiln, we're happy to help! And please share the channel with your friends and fellow potters to help us grow our community.
Great
Thanks! Hope all is well with you!
Thank you so much for your qualitative and detailed explanations. I find the way that you discuss each step, without leaving anything out, adds up to a really holistic picture of what it is you're going through. As a potter, I find myself hungry to learn more about the chemistry and other scientific components of ceramics as a whole and you do a remarkable job of broaching the subject with clear facts and passion. Thank you so much for sharing!
Doug, we are happy to hear the videos are useful to you! Let us know if there are topics you would like covered.
@@WashingtonStreetStudios Thank you so much! I was looking through your catalog of videos searching for information on pit firing and I didn't see any. I'm not sure if you have covered pit fires before but if not, I would love to learn more about them through your comprehensive teaching style. Gearing up to do my own pretty soon. Thanks again!
I forwarded your suggestion to Phil, will keep you posted! Thanks so much for the feedback!
@@WashingtonStreetStudios Absolutely! Thank you for your help.
Love this series! The term "bisque" is not english, it probably came to the english language through french, and has a latin origin: biscoctus, bis-coctus, which means "cooked twice". We still use a very similar term in italian, that refers both to ceramics and cookies :D
Thanks
I love the way you explain it in layman’s terms and the whole concept of bisque firing! What is a hold? I hear that said a lot. Do you have a video that explains it? Thank you
Thank you for your encouragement, Phil did a great job of explaining ceramics so that even I can understand the concepts. A hold means holding the kiln at a constant temperature to allow heat work to equalize throughout the kiln. The kiln controller does not try to increase the temperature or allow the temperature to decrease.
So thankful for all of these videos as I learn more about the chemistry of ceramics. Thank you for sharing this with the world! A question regarding the second image of greenware stacking- is there ever a risk of a flat piece, like the plate, warping from not being fired flat? Thanks!
Gina Johnson, thank you for your question, and it's a good one! Unfortunately Phil passed away in July so the answer will have to come from me. I don't have the same education background as Phil, I worked with him for over 10 years and picked up a few things.
The short answer is yes, there is always a chance of warping if gravity has an opportunity to use it's forces. If your flat piece has a foot ring, then the chances are not any greater than firing the piece on a flat shelf. And plates with a very slight curve will resist warping better than a totally flat plate. When pottery changes direction, the curve of a bowl, the rim on a plan, a foot ring, the change in direction improves the structural integrity and helps to resist warping. Conversely, more flat space increases the chance of warping.
My own experience is that very little warping happens in the bisque, the temperatures are not as high as the glaze firing for mid and high fire pottery.
Thanks for watching and share this channel with your friends and fellow potters to help us grow our community!
@@WashingtonStreetStudios I’m very sorry to hear of the loss of Phil. Thanks so much for your detailed answer. I have already spread the word about the channel and will continue! Looking forward to continue learning from these wonderful videos Phil left behind! Thanks again
Cool shirts Phil!!!
I love the lessons too :)
Phil is almost as cool as his shirts!
Thanks Valerie, be sure to share the channel with your friends and fellow potters to help us grow our Potters' Round Table community.
Very informative. Thanks. I would like to point out that for those who are a little hard of hearing, when the lip movements are not in synch with the audio, it can be somewhat disconcerting.
Thank you for sharing! This was an early video and the editing has improved. I also purchased better editing software. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Hi! Thank you for the great explanations, and dedication. I have a question regarding the nesting in the bisque firing. Form the examples showned, the one at the bottom showed a bowl with another piece almost as a lid, nesting like that dosen´t affect the air circulation or makes a seal for the gases to come out for the other piece?
Matte, during the bisque fire all the pieces are still porous . Gases and water vapor will escape through the clay and between the pieces since it’s not actually an airtight seal. Great question and keep watching.
hello Dear Phil, thank you for this amazing lecture. Do you have a suggested design to dry the clay body really slowly?
Sorry, Phil passed in July of 21. The best approach is to allow airflow to all areas of you clay body evenly. If you can find a way to prop up your piece and allow airflow underneath, that helps. Also, drape a piece of plastic over the surface to slow the drying.
@Washington Street Studios Thank you so much for responding so timely! And then, this means these two terms(Bisque Firing and Biscuit Firing) are applied at different moments?
Is it low then high?
How do you know?
Biscuit Firing is a term less used today. Bisquit firing means the first firing is fired to a lower temperature than the glaze firing, and this is what most potters do today. Most potters also call this the bisque firing, however, bisque firing originally was used when the first firing was highter than the glaze firing. True bisque firing was common practice in industry to reduce the loss due to warpage in the final firing. Both bisque and bisquit firing refer to the first firing when you are twice-firing pottery.
thank you very much for all this info!! one question about ,how to load big plates in a gas kiln , what is your experience, can i put one plate over the other?, how many together? can i load them in the botoom shelfover the burners? all these funny things to avoid bending the big plates.
once again thanks so so much.
abrazos.cesar
I have had both success and failure with plates of all sizes in both gas and wood fired kilns! I tend to try and stack plates and platters, and I end up with more failure than success. My successes have come from not trying to stack my plates or platters. I'm not sure placement in the kiln has had a big effect.
I really wish Phil were here to answer this one, Phil passed away in July, so we are really missing his expertise and knowledge.
I don´t bisque fire but there´s still some useful information for me
Thanks for sharing!
23:00 2 Questions about the firing of the bisqueware. When I am firing dry clay peices to bisque is it important to separate the peices from one another with a underglaze? When unloading my bisqueware, I've noticed what appears to be birth marks. Is that due to the chemical moisture burnoff while stacked on top of each other?
Pots can be touching when they are bisque fired especially if they will be glazed later in the process. One word of caution, when the pots touch there can be a slight discoloration or mark left on the pot, especially if there are different clays involved. If the pot is glazed later with an opaque glaze the mark is not visible. If the pot is glazed with a translucent glaze the pot will have 'character', otherwise known as the mark shows through the glaze. Underglazes can even be more tricky. They can react differently on different clay, when two pots touch during the bisque firing, chemical reactions during the firing and many other reasons. We fire many members work and student work in our kilns and our practice is not to stack pots in the bisque, unless the member or student requests stacking, and we limit the contact between pots so we don't leave 'marks' on pots. Better safe than sorry! I hope this addresses your question, if not, let me know.
24:55
Yes, speed kills!
If you have cone 10 clay do you still bisque lower like cone 04?
Sarah,
Good question! And the answer is yes. We mostly use cone 10 clay and we normally bisque to cone 06. And we actually bisque almost everything to cone 06. The bisque can be fired to a wide variety of cones. The lower the temperature, the more absorbent the pots will be and some potters will bisque to cone 010 to get the glaze to absorb deeply into the clay walls. When you bisque to lower temperatures, the pots are much more fragile in the bisque state and you need to take care. Higher bisque temperatures result in more durable bisque pots that are slightly less absorbent.
Thanks for asking and keep watching.
Is there a book for understanding pottery series? If there is how can I get it?
Thanks
Unfortunately Phil passed away before the book was written.
Thanks for the great lesson. However there is one point I am not quite clear about. Phil mention that after bisque firing the pots shrink by 0.5% (that is why the pots can touch during bisque) but I thought he also say the chemical water makes up 14% of the clay and chemical water should all be removed after bisque? Shouldn't the pots shrink more than 0.5% after bisque?
Phil passed away in July, 2021, and I wish he were here to answer this one!
The best I can do is to say that chemical water does not equal shrinkage rate. there are three shrinkage phases, or two with raw firing. Lets assume a shrinkage rate of 13%. First phase is greenware to bone dry and it will shrink about 4-5% during this phase. In the bisque firing it will shrink again, about 4-5%, and then it will shrink in the glaze firing, 3-5%.
The water is mostly removed during the first phase of shrinking, drying to bone dry. The chemical water is removed during bisque firing. The final stage of shrinkage occurs during glaze firing and vitrification and is not related to water in any way.
That's the way I understand it, but I may be wrong, I'm no Phil!
So, "Bisque Firing" and "Biscuit Firing" are not (quite) exactly the same thing..?
"Bisque Firing" is a HIGHER temperature than 'glaze firing' whereas "Biscuit Firing" is a LOWER temperature than the [final] 'glaze firing'? And is it also the "final" glaze for the 'Bisque Firing' also? I apologize for the questions.. I know nothing of this subject but am intrigued by it.
Thanks for watching and all questions are good questions! Typically the glaze firing is the final firing, but not always and there is not always only one glaze firing. It is true that 'Bisque' firing is higher than all 'glaze' firings, and 'buscuit' firing is lower than all glaze firings. That said, in the USA, the term bisquit firing is seldom used, most folks refer to the bisque firing for the first firing, even when it's lower than the glaze firing. Thanks for watching and thanks for the question!
Can i bisque fire stoneware at 1040 and then glaze fire again at 1040? I have a sample furnace with max 1040.
1040 C or F? If celcius, then you can look for some low fire clay and glaze (cone 05/06) and you should be OK, but you will be firing to the max of the kiln. Mid and high fire clays will not vitrify and glazes will not mature at those low temperatures.
@@WashingtonStreetStudios thank you for response. I have bisque fired stoneware at 1040. Now i have a glaze btwn 1020-1040C. So i want to use that glaze on this bisque. I know it is not ideal to threat stoneware as earthenware like not appreciating its charactheristics but because of the circumstances, i want to glaze it with this glaze and fire it at 1040 again. It is an art piece and will not show the clay itself. And i have this furnace available right now.
I understand your limitations and what you are trying to do. I want you to know that the clay will not vitrify at those temperatures, which means the finished piece will not have structural integrity and could literally fall apart under any load. You can do it, and it might work.
@@WashingtonStreetStudios i fired it and observed that it only matures as much as an earthenware. It doesnt reach its stoneware strength enough but it still has a structural strentgh enough as a ceramic piece. Thanks alot for the informations. I am happy to meet your channel months ago🍀❤
Sir, I am from Pakistan and I don't understand English very well. Please give me the link of the book. And I am also doing a three year diploma in ceramics from Government College Lahore Pakistan
We did not finish the book before Phil passed. Sorry.
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Sorry, this is how we keep the content free and keep the business operating.
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