Asheville Area Pottery Talks about how to DRYING POTS TO PREVENT CRACKING

[@ROBLOXTHANOS]

Thanks for the video!

[@salvaterrapottery]

absolutely!

[@1puppetbike]

Add a light bulb or two at the bottom of your cart. The higher the wattage the more gentle heat created. A hundred watts of energy should be about right to accelerate your drying when humidity is high.

[@salvaterrapottery]

Thanks. Good tip!

[@kaynielsen6291]

Is in bad to dry pottery in the cold? Below 40%.

[@jimjohnson2987]

My studio temp fluctuates. It can be rather cold in winter. Does the cold affect the drying quality? Some pieces i did not get back to for a month or more. Does a long time drying affect drying quality with varying room temp? I like your videos and studio!

[@salvaterrapottery]

Hi Jim, For most of my years I was in a basement that got quite cold but never froze. I didn’t experience any issues with drying due to temperature. Many folks will tell to dry slowly. The speed isn’t as important as drying evenly. Although I do sometimes try to get the bottoms a bit ahead of the rims on certain pieces. My favorite technique lately is covering pots or closing the cart. Then open it up for part of the day and close it again letting the piece even out in the enclosed environment. Repeat until the clay is past leather hard and changes color where it looks mostly dry. You don’t want wind or a breeze to get on them when open either. Hope that helps.

[@lgclaycreations7264]

Where did you get that plastic wrap for your cart? I was looking to do the same thing but I don’t know where to start. Keep up the great work.

[@salvaterrapottery]

We made it ourselves. Got a roll of plastic and duct tape at lowes and fit it to the cart. Wasn’t that hard. Good luck!

[@lgclaycreations7264]

@@salvaterrapottery thanks! 👍🏻

[@richardruckert7954]

Hi Sue, Thank you for this video. Are your bats plastic, or wood? If the latter, does leaving the pot on the bat not warp the bat?

[@salvaterrapottery]

I am using both plaster bats and double tempered Masonite bats. If you see me throwing on round bats that is the plaster. If you see me pulling a square bat out of a master round bat that is the Masonite. I don’t really have things warp. A lot of things I don’t cut off the bat. They just pop off of the bat once they dry some. We made the Masonite bats ourselves. The plaster ones I bought from a retired potter and he made those from a commercial system.

[@felipegazoni]

Hello, great video. If could you help me, will be awesome. My vases are cracking in the bottom during the drying process. Like third week. Im putting plastic like you, but when a remove to finish the drying without they crack 50%. Do you think it is something that it's wrong during the process on wheel or its really the dry process that's is killing me?

[@salvaterrapottery]

Can you send me a photo. That would be helpful.

[@penguinista]

I find vases to be especially problematic because of the tall, thin walls. I turn them over and make sure the opening is not blocked, so they get airflow inside. Then I cover them quite well in plastic and try to slow the drying process as much as possible by putting tupperware or other plastic containers over them on plastic bats. I use slices of wood 3/8 in thick to create gaps sometimes, but like you said, the cracks come way later, so i try to be as patient as I can.