Pitting & Pinholing

I just put in a load to refire. I am going ^6 with a 1 hour preheat
and a 1 hour soak at the end. I'll let you know what my results are.
LMac

Alas, the experiment was a failure. The pitting is worse. I hate
that I can't figure out exactly what went wrong.....was it the glaze?
was it the bisque? (which I've never had problems with before)....it
seems like any number of things can cause this. Well, it just means I
need to get back in the studio and start remaking this stuff because,
of course, everything was for an order. One good thing though....I
got some great colors after the refiring.

One last question...

Are there any structural and/or functional problems with pieces that
have pitting and pinholing?

Thanks,
LMac

Alas, the experiment was a failure. The pitting is worse. I hate
that I can't figure out exactly what went wrong.....was it the glaze?
was it the bisque? (which I've never had problems with before)....it
seems like any number of things can cause this. Well, it just means I
need to get back in the studio and start remaking this stuff because,
of course, everything was for an order. One good thing though....I
got some great colors after the refiring.

One last question...

Are there any structural and/or functional problems with pieces that
have pitting and pinholing?

Thanks,
LMac

Lindsay:
Other than the obvious, that a piece should probably not
be used for containment of food, (hard to clean)
some people regard holes, cracks and other "natural"
defects as enhancing a piece, rather than detracting from it.
All depends on your sense of aesthetics, I suppose.
Question for you... Was this any of the following:

a new batch of clay?
a new batch of glaze?
a new (to you) kiln or firing procedure?

If any of the above are true, I would begin looking
there for the source of the problem, since you mentioned
that you have not had this problem previously.

Don't necessarily consider this a failure. You may have
just stumbled on something of value...either the surface texture
or the "great colors". Might not be useable for this
application (your order), but something you make
in the future might just cry out for
what you're not happy with today. Save one of those
pieces as a "test sample" with the recipe and firing notes.
You'll probably be glad you did at some point :) I would
think that more than 80% of all great "new" glazes are the
result of someone's "accident".

Hope that helps,
Wayne Seidl