Pottery & Ceramics Math: Clay Shrinkage, Glaze Batches, Specific Gravity & Kiln Firing Costs
Throw to the right size, batch glazes from percentage recipes, plan firings and price every piece, with every cell checked as you go.
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About this course
In this course you run the numbers of a fictional pottery studio, one lab at a time. You measure shrinkage on test tiles and work out the wet size to throw for a target fired size, plan clay by the bag with reclaim, and turn percentage glaze recipes into batch grams with additions on top and re-normalised notebook recipes. You read specific gravity from a 100 ml cylinder and calculate the water to add with a mass balance, estimate dry glaze per piece and batches per firing, convert a firing schedule into total time and clock times with MOD, price kiln energy per piece and set wholesale and rounded retail prices.
Lessons
- Clay Shrinkage: Test Tiles, Drying vs Firing Shrinkage and Throwing Sizes Pro
- Clay Planning: Weight per Piece, Pieces per Bag, Reclaim and Bags to Buy Pro
- Glaze Recipes: From Percentages to Batch Grams, Additions and Re-normalising Pro
- Specific Gravity: Measuring Glaze Thickness and the Water to Add Pro
- Glaze Use: Grams per Piece, Pieces per Batch and Batches for a Firing Pro
- Firing Schedules: Ramp Rates, Holds, Total Time and Clock Times Pro
- Kiln Energy: kWh, Cost per Firing and Cost per Piece Pro
- Pricing Every Piece: Full Cost, Wholesale, Retail and a Sales Chart Pro