Your kiln firings are half price.
Two and a half cents a cubic inch instead of five. Same kiln, same cone, same cookie rule, same kiln ticket. Half the number at the bottom.
Your firing price
Measure it, add it, done.
Round down to the nearest quarter inch, and include your cookie in the height.
Enter all three measurements to see your firing price.
Why you get this
Half off is a thank you, not a perk.
There is no clever business reason for this one.
You unload kilns that are still too warm to be touching. You mop up somebody else’s slip without being asked. You explain the cookie rule for the four hundredth time this month, and you do it kindly, which is the part that gets me.
So your firings are half price. That is the whole gesture. No punch card, no tiers, no hoops.
Thank you for being here.
The whole process
From paid to picked up
Six steps, and the first one is still the one people forget.
Pay for the piece
Right here, before it goes anywhere. Every glaze firing gets paid for before drop-off. Yours included.
Write the firing number on your kiln ticket
Add a piece to the cart and we hand you a firing number. Write that number on that piece’s ticket. Every piece gets its own, so two pieces never share one, and that is how we confirm at loading that a piece is paid for.
Put a cookie under it
Every piece needs a kiln cookie or glaze catcher underneath. No cookie, no firing. You already know this one. You are the one who says it out loud all day.
Leave it on the glazeware drop-off table
Kiln ticket inside the piece or underneath it, so it stays with the work.
We load when the tables fill up
Usually every week or two. It is a massive kiln, and we fire it full. Most pieces are back in your hands within one to three weeks.
Pick it up within two weeks
Two weeks from when it comes out. After that it is most likely gone. Working here does not buy you a longer window, so set yourself a reminder.
Before you measure
Four things that change your price
Always measure the longest point
If a piece is 4″ wide at one point and 8″ wide at another, it is an 8″ piece. Same in every direction. We are paying for the space it occupies in the kiln, not its average width.
Your cookie counts
The height measurement includes the kiln cookie or glaze catcher sitting under the piece. It takes up kiln space too.
Anything 100 cubic inches or under is $2.40
Flat. That is roughly a 4.6″ cube, which covers a lot of mugs and small bowls.
Small pieces can share one cookie
They need to be roughly the same height and all fit on a single 6″ cookie with three quarters of an inch to spare on every side. Measure by the tallest piece on the cookie. This is the only time pieces get combined.
Straight with you
What half price does not cover
Better you read it here than find out at the drop-off table.
The cookie
You make your own. There is almost always abandoned clay sitting around the studio that you are welcome to use for it.
Refires
Add glaze and run it again. We genuinely hope you experiment. But a refire takes exactly as much kiln space as the first firing, so it costs the same again, at your rate.
Clay
Bought separately. Glaze, on the other hand, comes with your membership.
Outside clay, ever
No outside clay comes into the studio. No exceptions, and the exception is definitely not staff. If we sell the clay, we will fire it. If we carry the glaze, we will fire it.
If it cracks, blows up, or fuses to the shelf
That is the risk of firing, and it sits with you. No refund on the firing fee. It is rare, and it is real.
If we are the ones who damage it
A loader error is on us: you get an extra day at the studio and an extra day to remake the piece or make something else. A construction or quality problem in the piece itself is on you.
The obvious question
Why charge the team at all?
Because the kiln does not care who made the piece.
Cone 5 is brutal on a kiln. Heating elements burn down and get replaced. Thermocouples drift out of true and get swapped. The brick chips, cracks and needs patching. None of that is optional and none of it waits. Charging by cubic inch is the fairest way we have found to make sure the space you use is the space you pay for.
And the honest number: the average piece fired here costs a member $7.13. It costs you $3.57.
If your firings start stacking up faster than you like, it is usually one of two things. Either you are moving through pieces like a production potter, in which case take a little more time and make each one more special. Or you are leaning on our biggest molds, and most studios do not have molds the size we do. That one is the cost to play.
Firing FAQ
Questions we get constantly
Does the half price cover pottery I am making to sell?
No. The employee rate covers your own personal work, made during the 21 hours of studio time that come with your Purple Level Membership. It is not there to run a production line through our kilns. We have members waiting on that kiln space too, and they are paying full price for it.
Can I ring up somebody else’s piece at my rate?
No. Your rate is yours. Their piece goes through the member page at the member price, even if they are standing right next to you being very charming about it.
What happens to my rate if I stop working here?
It ends when the job ends. From that day you are a member like everybody else, and you use the member kiln firing page. No hard feelings and no sneaking back to this URL.
I lost my firing number. Now what?
Check your order confirmation email. Every firing number is listed there against the piece it belongs to. If the piece is still sitting in your cart, the number is on the cart page too. If it is truly gone, talk to management before the piece goes on the drop-off table, not after.
Can I add more glaze and refire it if I do not like how it came out?
Yes, and we hope you do experiment. Just know a refire takes the same kiln space as the original, so it is charged again at the same rate.
Can I add more than one piece to my cart at a time?
Yes, and please do. Measure each piece, add it, and write down the firing number it gives you. Every piece carries its own number onto its own ticket.
Can I combine tiny pieces on one cookie?
Yes, as long as they are roughly the same height and all of them fit on a single 6″ cookie with three quarters of an inch to spare on every side. Measure according to the tallest piece on the cookie.
Do kiln cookies and glaze catchers count in the measurement?
They do. Include them in the height.
Can I put a piece in without a cookie or glaze catcher?
No. Every piece needs one underneath it, every time.
Do I get my cookie or glaze catcher back?
Kiln cookies, no. Glaze catchers we try to return, as long as they come out intact and we do not spot any new sharp edges on them.
Can I fire my pieces in another kiln?
Sure, but only if you bisque fire them elsewhere as well. It is both firings somewhere else or both firings here.
I did not pick up my piece in time. Is it gone forever?
Most likely, yes. Talk to management though. We do hang onto some special pieces a little longer. No guarantees.
What if I forget to pay?
Because your ticket needs a firing number on it, and you only get one by paying, this should not really happen. If it does, just hurry up and submit the payment. And thank you for your integrity.
I earned a free kiln firing. How do I cash it in?
Rewards card: get it punched, and write “Month 2 Freebie”, or whichever month it is, where the ticket asks for the price. Anything else: staple the freebie to your kiln ticket and write FREE where the price goes.
What cone do you fire to?
Cone 5 with a twelve minute hold, which works out to roughly a cone 5 and a half.
The plain version
Worth knowing
No jokes in this part on purpose.
- This page is for Clay Hole employees. Members use the member kiln firing page.
- The employee rate is 2.5 cents per cubic inch, with a $2.40 minimum per piece and a $300 maximum per piece. Talk to Dan before you fire anything bigger than that.
- The employee rate covers your own personal work, made during the 21 hours of studio time that come with your Purple Level Membership. It does not cover production pottery, and it does not cover work you are firing on somebody else’s behalf.
- The employee rate applies while you are employed here. When the job ends, the rate ends.
- There are no refunds on kiln firing purchases.
- Glaze firings are paid for before your piece goes on the drop-off table. Bisque firings are free.
- Firing prices land on small price steps, so your total can round a little either way from the exact cubic inch figure.
- We fire to cone 5 with a twelve minute hold, roughly a cone 5 and a half.
- No outside clay in the studio, ever. Any clay we sell, we will fire. Any glaze we carry, we will fire.
Go make something
Measure it, add it, get back to work.
Or don’t get back to work. It is your break. We are not the boss of you. (We are absolutely the boss of you.)