The Almost Famous Cheese Stone

I hadn't made cheese stones since last fall. I am not even sure why I didn't spend the winter cranking them out, to keep ahead, The thing with flat items is that it's hard to get them in the kiln. They are sort of space wasters. I usually make a bunch, they go through the bisque firing, and then it takes many glaze firings before they are done. I think this is where I lose interest. The waiting just kills me!

Wednesday afternoon I threw a few and was totally shocked that they were ready to be trimmed by Thursday afternoon. I am still not used to working in a studio with air conditioning. It can really move things along in the summer. Even though we turn it off at the end of our day, the studio stays cool and dry overnight.

I have found the best method of drying these evenly, and keeping them flat, is stacking them between squares of sheet rock. I top the stack off with a plaster form, just keep the last one weighted. I find it's best to dry these for at least a couple of weeks. 

 Now that our copper red glaze is behaving again, I can do some stones with this combination!