Tips For Making A Kiln At HomeThere are two types of kilns, brick and glaze. You can build a brick type kiln, that will fire clay to about the same temperature as bricks or flower pots, quite cheaply. Those you can heat with simple BBQ burners.
Cleaning Ceramic Greenware DustFor those of you who buy ceramic greenware and find the mess of the ceramic dust hard to get off your table, try Windex! I teach ceramics and it is the only thing that will take it off the tables
Use Bottle Caps as MoldsPress air drying clay into bottle caps and smooth with a blunt knife or tool. The clay will shrink as it dries (may take a few days, especially in wet weather) and should easily fall out of the bottle cap mold when dry (you can coax it out with a toothpick if needed)
Firing Small Clay ItemsYou can use your self-cleaning oven as a kiln. Not as hot as a real kiln, so it probably would not work for serious potters, but great for firing clay beads and other small clay items. Run creations through 2 cleaning cycles, then paint with acrylic paints. Fun!
By Mary
