Went to bed last night very happy with my newly redesigned bird feeders, only to wake to this:
These are thrown in one piece.
I have been covering them loosely, but took the plastic of last night because it was pretty humid here and they seemed to be pretty even in terms of moisture/dryness.
I dry them on this plastic grid (its a panel meant to cover an in-ceiling fluorescent light fixture) to get a little air flow all around the piece.
You can see that the one next to it has cracked all around just under the rim.
A third one has not cracked at all (knock wood).
Wondering if this is primarily a drying issue, or a compression issue. If its a drying issue, I'm wondering how better to dry these, and will I have the same challenge when I glaze them or fire them (I typically single fire to cone 10).
If its an issue with my throwing, I'm wondering if there is something I should be doing such as making the "plate" part thicker, compressing differently etc.
I typically run a wire under the piece after throwing but leave it on the bat till its leather hard.
Thanks Clay Gurus, for any thoughts!
