Category Archives: tile

Perception was a wall piece.  28″ by  12″

I made the design in paper. I numbered each section and I transferred to a thick plastic to put on the clay. After I used the slab roller to make the tile. For this project I used a thick surface, laminate plywood 1.5 “, covered in plastic. When I put the clay on top I covered the borders too.

I tried to keep the borders in place using foam tape and plastic strips around the piece. I think next time I would like to use a ratchet tie down.

I fired cone 04

I glazed and fired cone 04

I used a little brown grout in the frame.

I tried to use different surfaces to make tiles flat. I tried wood, plywood and drywall covered with canvas. In the past when I was working with very thin wood surfaces  I had problems with warping corners or deformed pieces. The wood surface absorbs humidity from the clay and starts warping, therefore the piece  warps too. A rigid surface is the best choice. I had better results with 1″ Plywood or drywall.
I think everything depends on the scale of the piece that you are doing. Small pieces can be very flat and dry evenly when you place the piece on rigid metal store rack surface. Laura Reuter wrote a great article about it. 

The pieces below were  made using four different clay bodies including porcelain. I used a drywall surface but I set an other drywall board on top to apply weight.

Recommendations:
1. Rigid surface. Plywood 1″ thick or drywall.
2. Score in the back.
3. Always put plastic on top and bottom.
4. Large scale pieces are better to make on a big table, and if possible only move it to put in the kiln.
5. For making a relieve piece, put little weights on the corners to prevent warping.