Ajar

[offcntr]

Ceramics Monthly hosts a monthly column for tips and tricks, going back to the beginnings of the magazine. I even got one published, once, explaining how to create a shrinkage ruler by back-calculating shrinkage and photo-enlarging a regular ruler that can be used to measure wet work and tell you how much smaller it will be after firing. (Laminate the enlargement for best results.)

Most of the tips are either obvious, or so specialized that there's no way I can use them in my studio situation. This one, though, I had to try.

Most of my pots are small enough that I can glaze them in a single dip with glazing tongs. With big bowls and bakers, I might use two sets of tongs, one in each hand. Cookie jars, though, are a problem.

They're too big to handle with tongs--a 12-inch jar full of glaze will not come out of the bucket. And if I pour the inside, then dip the outside, I wind up with finger marks either on the rim or the foot, and over-dipping that end leaves glaze overlaps that show up after firing. It was frustrating.

Then I saw this suggestion: Buy a high-powered suction cup, the kind body shops use to pull dents out of cars. Stick it to the bottom of the pot. And dip.

I didn't think it would work, but Harbor Freight had a 2.5" cup for under ten bucks, so I figured What the heck?

First try didn't stick, because I'd used liquid wax resist on the foot, and it wasn't smooth enough to hold a seal. Dipping in hot paraffin fixed the problem, and by moistening the suction cup before applying it, I can dunk the whole outside of the jar in one step. No fingerprints or overlaps, and it even helps reduce glaze drips.

Broke it out again this last week and glazed a bunch of nice cookie jars for the firing.