How to Save Kiln Shelves with Wadding and Cookies Gabriel Kline

It happens to every potter: an unexpectedly runny glaze ruins not only the pot, but the kiln shelf too! In today's post, an excerpt from his book Amazing Glaze Recipes & Combinations, Gabriel Kline shares a great tip for saving your shelves with wadding and cookies! - Jennifer Poellot Harnetty, editor

PS. For another great glazing tip from Gabriel, check out the Quick Tip department of the January 2022 issue of Ceramics Monthly.

Wadding and Cookies 

Wadding is a type of clay made from extremely refractory materials (usually 50% EPK and 50% alumina hydrate). I use wadding to lift pots off the shelf. This is absolutely necessary for salt and wood firing so that the atmospheric glaze doesn’t fuse the pots to the kiln shelves. Wadding can also be used underneath pots in any kiln when glazes have a tendency to run. Keep your wadding in a tightly sealed container, as it does have a tendency to dry out quickly.

Cookies are flat pieces of stoneware clay that have been kiln washed on one side or simply left bare. If you are using runny glaze combinations, we highly recommend placing your piece on top of several balls of wadding that have been glued to a cookie (1). While this process takes some extra time during loading, it saves many headaches (and remaking many pots!).

Excerpted from Odyssey ClayWorks Director Gabriel Kline’s new book Amazing Glaze Recipes and Combinations, published by Quarto Press and available at https://www.quarto.com/books/9781589239807/amazing-glaze-recipes-and-combinations.