Thursday, February 4, 2010

Pizza Stone

This week I'm making a pizza stone for my wonderful husband! He likes to make home made pizza for me every Friday night. Lucky Me! The last two commercial stones we bought have cracked in half after baking at high heat. I figured it is a pretty easy thing to make, and at the temperatures I fire at, the stones should withstand 500 Degrees just fine.

I start out wedging a large piece of clay - about 13 lbs. Then flatten into a disk and throw into a slab. I use my rolling pin to help keep it circular and flat. I roll out the piece using my height guides and keep it to about 1/2" high. I know the piece will shrink about 11% after firing and I make it as large as my kiln is wide, about 16". Once I am happy with the shape and size, I add feet to the stone. Then smooth out the clay so it looks nice. Any holes may breed bacteria... we don't want that! I then move it to a wood board to dry out a bit, then flip to check that it is level. Then let it dry completely before firing.

This is my first attempt at cookware. I hope it works out just fine. :)

2 comments:

  1. What happened with the pizza stone? Did it come out ok, how well does it work? How is the pizza?

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  2. The pizza stone came out fine, though my husband has complained that it is too heavy. I told him I would make another one with paper clay, which will result with a lighter weight after fired. The pizza of course is fantastic!

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