The sinks are slowly dried. This can take any where from a week to three weeks depending on the size and complexity of the sink. Once the sink is dried it is pre-fired (bisqued) fired. This makes the sink rock hard but porous enough to absorb glaze. The glaze on my sinks is truly special! It is called zinc crystalline. The patterns and spots that appear in the glaze are not things I painted on but actual crystals similar to an snow flake, where as each is unique and grew from nucleus (a tiny origin).
To grow these crystals the glaze needs to be very fluid so it is taken to a top temperature where it is liquid and runny. Because of the fluid nature of the glaze each sink needs to be fired on catchers that I made to sit under the sink and catch excess glaze. If they were not on catchers the glaze would run all over the kiln shelves. After the glaze had reached the top temperature I cool the kiln to the growing temperatures of the crystals which is a range between 2100 - 1700 degrees F. I hold the kiln at various temperatures for periods of time (which could be a few hours to few minutes). The kiln is then allowed to cool and once it is below 200 degrees F. I can open the kiln and unload the sink. The catcher is then knocked off and the bottoms are sanded with rotary tools and sanding discs so that the bottom is nice and smooth and will sit on the counter perfectly! |