Vinegar & Spit for Cracks & Breaks: Sometimes, simply scratching and slipping is not sufficient to repair a crack or break. In those cases, after scratching both pieces, using vinegar or even spit (YES - a potter's secret!) in place of slip or as the base (in place of water) for a new slip-paste (ex. mixing vinegar with small dried pieces of clay), can sometimes do the trick! Also, if the crack is significant enough or continues to reappear in a piece, it is sometimes best to break the piece at the point of the crack so that you can more thoroughly repair the piece by scratching and applying the vinegar-clay paste to both pieces completely before rejoining them.

Slowing the Drying of a Repaired Join: I also recommend that the area around the repaired join be slightly moistened. The repaired join and area moistened around the join should be wrapped in plastic wrap. This all helps to slow the drying of the join, reduce the shock to the sculpture of having only a small part being re-moistened for repair, and, thus, help reduce the chance of a re-break.

Digging Out Cracks: Sometimes, if caught early and provided that the crack is not too extensive, it is possible to scratch or dig out the crack, such as with a ball point pen. This process works by compressing the clay around the crack. Afterwards, the dry clay that was removed can be reattached by scratching the area and using vinegar or spit to gently model the clay dust into the crack and left to dry.

Glazing Over Cracks: Sometimes applying extra glaze over a crack can cover up the crack or at least strengthen the structural integrity of the piece. Glazing a cracked piece can reduce the ability of a crack to worsen or to continue throughout the piece.

Strategic Placement of Glazed Pieces in Kiln: If desiring to glaze fire a broken bisqued project, there are a few options to consider:

1. If the broken piece can balance on its own while in its proper placement, one can attempt to fire the piece in that fashion, being hopeful that the broken piece does not fall off during the firing. Tip: Having the shelves painted in kiln wash and leaving adequate room around this piece in the kiln, can help reduce the damage to other projects and the kiln in the event that the broken piece falls off.

2. If the broken piece cannot balance on the rest of the project in its proper placement on its own, it is sometimes possible to lay the project down or tilt it and use a variety of metal stilts to support the piece so that it rejoins via the glaze, during the firing.

3. If there is no way to figure out how to hold together two broken pieces of a broken bisqued project together during the glaze firing, one can simply glaze the piece and its broken fragment separately, leaving the points at which the pieces should be joined unglazed, the broken piece can be later glued on to the project with super glue (provided that the piece is not intended for food). Broken fragments (whether small or large) can almost always be successfully fired by balancing them on metal stilts.