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Using the Studio Outside of Class: the Access Card
Registration in your course entitles you to use the studio equipment and facilities outside of class time for the duration of your course with an Access card. The Access card costs $50.00 and is available no later than the second week of class. The Access card entitles you to drop in any time the studio is free, from opening to closing plus 2 weeks to finish up: trimming, accessorizing and glazing, 8 weeks total time.
To Store your Clay:
Write your name & code clearly on the bottom of your bag of clay and store neatly in the area designated for you. Clay abandoned following completion of class will be removed.
PLEASE LEAVE THE STUDIO CLEANER THAN YOU FOUND IT
Finishing Up:
Please remove your clay at the end of the last class. If it is left behind it will be recycled.
Finished pieces should be picked up no later than three weeks after your classes end. If they are not picked up, they will be removed.
No exceptions unless prior arrangements made.
Cedar Hill Pottery Club Access Card:
The pottery studio members club is for students who have taken a minimum of 2 courses at Cedar Hill and want to continue to use the studio. The club is limited to 15 members and there is usually a wait list. Memberships are 6 months beginning in January and July of each year. Incumbent members will have first refusal for continuance. A limited number of memberships may be available on a first come basis in January or July. Drop by the Recreation Centre to fill out an application form, or speak to the technician.
To Purchase Clay:
You will receive one bag of clay with your class fee. You may purchase additional clay from the front desk. If a custodian is available, you will be able to get your clay from storage right away. Cost of Clay: $30 per bag for Plainsman clay or $15 per 20 lb. bag of Mongrel Clay (recycled). Purchase of clay includes glazing and firing. Ask Tech about specialty clays.
Signing Your Work:
It is very important to sign your work with your name and code because as you will find out, no code, no firing.
Once pottery is fired, it is sorted and re-shelved according to its class designation which must be inscribed on to the pot.
A couple of last points you should know...
1. Pieces must be completely dry before they can be bisque fired. Thick pieces take longer to dry, therefore longer to be ready for bisque.
2. It can take a while to get work fired since kilns are packed according to size. Large flat plates and tall pieces will take longer to pack in the kiln.
3. Please, please, please remember to thoroughly CLEAN OFF the bottom of your pieces before putting on the glaze shelf (whether you used wax or not.) If it is not clean or the glaze is cracking /too thick, it won't get fired until cleaned or reglazed.
Some Pottery Lingo
Here are some terms you will hear in a pottery studio:
Wedging - a lot like kneading dough. Blending the clay for even distribution of moisture and ridding the clay of air pockets. Clay can be re-worked indefinitely to use again and again.
Kiln – heating unit in which the clay is fired.
Leather hard - when the clay is cool and dark. It is stiff but not completely dry. This is an ideal time to trim or tool.
Green ware - before the clay has been fired. Usually it is dry, and very fragile. If soaked, it will return to its original state.
Bisque firing - the first time the clay is fired it becomes hardened, ready to accept glaze. The firing changes the composition of the clay from clay to ceramic. A bisque-fired pot will not disintegrate when encountering water.
Glaze ware - bisque ware is glazed and fired at a higher temperature resulting in a non-porous, vitrified ceramic body, usually covered with a layer of glaze creating a glassy surface.
Some Pottery Tips
Is my clay too dry?
Clay should not stick to the hands. You should be able to roll a piece of it into a coil and bend it into a ring shape without cracks forming.
Clay shrinks when it dries. In order to avoid cracking, two pieces of clay to be joined together should be close to the same dryness as possible. Once clay is so dry that it no longer deforms when pressure is applied, it is too dry to join other clay to it.
When joining leather hard clay to leather hard clay or wet clay to leather hard clay, score (scratch) and apply thick slurry to the surfaces to be joined. Slip or clay slurry is clay that has been mixed with water to a thick creamy consistency. Push the sections firmly together overlapping clay from one surface to the other whenever possible. When slab building, reinforce the inside of seams with a thin coil.
Anytime you are applying pressure to one side of a form during construction, support the opposite side of the form with your other hand.
When possible, construct forms of equal thickness throughout to avoid problems caused by uneven drying and thus uneven shrinkage. Forms with attached sections (such as mugs with handles) should be dried slowly under plastic to avoid cracking and separation.
Pottery Studio Hours
Cedar Hill Recreation Centre
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