In today's mail
Nov. 30th, 2018 05:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrGood afternoon, Mr. Gosar
I heard your interview on Productivity Alchemy with Kevin Sonney. If you have a moment, I have a question about worn pottery glazing on a finished bowl.
I have a finished bowl that I believe is stoneware. It belonged to my great-grandmother. It was one of her mixing bowls. And it is a well-used, well-loved mixing bowl.
The glaze around the rim of the bowl has been worn away from years of use. Is it still safe to use the bowl? Should I try to have it reglazed? Or should I use it as a display bowl?
Thank you for your time,
~xxxxxx
Hi xxxxxx!
Greetings to another Productivity Alchemy listener!
If the bowl is indeed stoneware, worn glaze is not a concern. Stoneware, even when unglazed, is waterproof, so there shouldn't be any absorption of liquid into the bowl.
That said, it's possible that the bowl was never glazed there at all. If the design is like this one that I inherited from my great-aunt, the top and bottom of the rim were left unglazed, so the potter could stack them one on top of another, with the foot of the bowl suspended inside the one beneath. This saved on kiln space, both because the ware could be so closely packed and because they didn't need to use as many shelves and posts in the stack. A lot of crocks have a similar design, with no glaze on the top of the rim nor on the outside edge of the bottom, for the same reason.
A clever potter could stack his kiln floor to ceiling, no kiln furniture needed, with pots designed this way.
I'll have to look in on your blog next week, while I'm firing *my* kiln.
Frank
I heard your interview on Productivity Alchemy with Kevin Sonney. If you have a moment, I have a question about worn pottery glazing on a finished bowl.
I have a finished bowl that I believe is stoneware. It belonged to my great-grandmother. It was one of her mixing bowls. And it is a well-used, well-loved mixing bowl.
The glaze around the rim of the bowl has been worn away from years of use. Is it still safe to use the bowl? Should I try to have it reglazed? Or should I use it as a display bowl?
Thank you for your time,
~xxxxxx
Hi xxxxxx!
Greetings to another Productivity Alchemy listener!
If the bowl is indeed stoneware, worn glaze is not a concern. Stoneware, even when unglazed, is waterproof, so there shouldn't be any absorption of liquid into the bowl.
That said, it's possible that the bowl was never glazed there at all. If the design is like this one that I inherited from my great-aunt, the top and bottom of the rim were left unglazed, so the potter could stack them one on top of another, with the foot of the bowl suspended inside the one beneath. This saved on kiln space, both because the ware could be so closely packed and because they didn't need to use as many shelves and posts in the stack. A lot of crocks have a similar design, with no glaze on the top of the rim nor on the outside edge of the bottom, for the same reason.
A clever potter could stack his kiln floor to ceiling, no kiln furniture needed, with pots designed this way.
I'll have to look in on your blog next week, while I'm firing *my* kiln.
Frank