At Picasso’s Ceramics, we offer access to our community kilns.
We have two communal kilns for a convenient firing service.
We regularly do Cone 6 Midfire Glaze (1220°c), Cone 06 Bisque (1000°c), Cone 03 Earthenware (1100°c) and Cone 016 Lustre (795°c).
We have very competitive prices charging $8 per kilo for Cone 06 Bisque Firing and $10 per kilo for all other firing temperatures.
Having conducted over 1/4 million firings we are fairly experienced with the stacking and timing of our kilns – your items are in safe hands.
A few words on clay states and firing in the kilns
Greenware: A piece of clay that has not yet been fired and is in its most fragile state. You can apply underglaze at this point.
Bisqueware: This is the middle stage and has reached a much less fragile state. You can decorate with underglaze at this point too. This is the stage when you apply your glaze. Be sure to check the temperature range of the glazes you are using; and if applying to functional-ware, that you are using a food safe glaze.
Final glazed piece: Your piece has had it’s second firing and is now in its strongest form. Your glaze will have melted and will now display its true colour, coating your piece in a glass layer. This may be the final form for your firing, unless adding lustre. Lustre is applied on top of the glaze at this stage before going in for a third firing.
Firing:
It is required for you know a few key things when you bring in a piece to be fired. They include:
- What type of clay you used
- What temperature you want your piece to fire to
- What glaze/decorations etc have been applied
If you are unsure of what temperature, feel free to contact us providing the name of your products and we can help you determine this.
We choose which firing to do based on whether we have enough items to fill a kiln load or not. You can often bet that we will soon be running one of the following firings:
- Cast Earthenware bisque firing – Cone 04 at 1060°c
- Cast Earthenware glaze firing – Cone 06 at 1000°c
- Stoneware bisque firing – Cone 06 at 1000°c
- Stoneware glaze mid-firing – Cone 6 at 1220°c
- Overglaze (Gold, lustres, decals & china paint) firing – Cone 016 at 795°c
Other temperatures can be arranged by special request.
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