Hi all, I hope someone can help me. I’m fairly new to enameling but have been quite successful firing using a torch (although I couldn’t seem to get counter enameling to work!). I’ve now bought a small kiln but I’m having a lot of trouble firing enamel using it.

When I fire in the kiln the piece comes out with black dots on it - basically bits where the enamel has not stuck and you can see the fire stained enamel beneath. I assumed that I must be over or under firing so did fairly extensive tests from checking it every 30 seconds to leaving it for 10 minutes. I’ve tried the kiln at between 780 and 820 degrees C. I found that the black spots were appearing even before the enamel got to the grainy stage and that they stayed even if I over fired to the stage where the piece went black at the edges and the enamel shrunk away from the edge. I tried a second coat on some pieces but even then the black indentations stayed. Having tried half of a batch various ways in the kiln I then tried firing a few of the same batch using the torch, to check whether it was something I’d done wrong before firing. They all fired just fine using the torch.

For info, I cleaned all the copper blanks using a copper cleaner called HG copper shine shampoo and rinsed well before drying and spraying with WG Ball Cellular Adhesive (which they describe as an alternative to Gum Tragacanth) and then sifting on a thin but complete layer of WG Ball white opaque enamel. I’ve tried various thickness of enamel powder but the results are the same - it works ok with a torch but not in the kiln. The kiln is a Prometheus Pro 7 and I’m firing on tripods on top of metal mesh on a kiln shelf.

Please can someone tell me what I’m missing? I assume in doing something basic wrong! Any help very much appreciated.

Thank you so much.