Fort Walton Beach.

Bisque firing is a process that takes greenware, which is very fragile and porous, to a hardened state referred to as bisque.

Bisque firing occurs in a kiln. I use an electric kiln.  I set the parameters for what temperature I want the kiln to rise to and set other parameters, like pre-heat, delay, and hold time.  My usual bisque settings are to Cone 04 with no delay or hold time. If I want to make sure the clay is throughly dry, I will set a 2 hour preheat time.

It takes around 12 hours for my bisque firings to reach it’s top temperature, then about another 12 hours for the kiln to cool to 150 degrees, at which point I can open it!

The next step in this process is glazing, followed by a glaze firing!