The way it all shook out, I was going to have to spend the night at Watershed, snoozing kilnside in the car in between checking the cones. After I had loaded, candled, and kept the burners on low for a couple of hours, I said to hell with this noise, and I turned the burners off and came home. I have in-laws visiting and I hated being there in the cold while everyone else was hanging out drinking wine and watching movies; plus we have smelt fishing plans this morning at 7 AM. I just can't do everything at once. Will I ever learn?
At least this time it was not really my idea; when I learned they were coming, I had planned to reschedule the firing. Then my hubby asked me to go ahead and do it, because he thought my niece and nephew would enjoy seeing the soda glazing process. Well! I should have just said no. Even if things had gone perfectly, it would have meant me away from home for ten to sixteen hours during their visit, just so they could watch the 45 minutes of vapor glazing. Not to mention all the hours of prep and packing up tacked on to the shopping, cooking and cleaning to prepare for their visit. I knew it couldn't work, but I said yes anyway, because I wanted to please and it's hard for me to say no; there is a lesson here, Grasshopper.
Anyway. The kiln will stay bricked up and cold until Wednesday night, when I will candle it all over again to fire Thursday. I've never done that before. It's very likely to get below freezing (stay below, more like) but I can't think it will do any harm; all the moisture has been driven off. Right?
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2 comments:
I'm no expert but I think if any moisture condenses on the pots inside the kiln and re-soaks in then that moisture could freeze?
Some of my greenware is in the kiln at school. The pilot light blew out over the weekend and we had freezing temperatures over night. Before we started to candle again, I decided to put some slip on a couple of the leaf panels and slid them out while others were loading the rest of the kiln. I noticed the bottom of one of the flat panels, 7 x 20 inches, had some flaking clay on the bottom of it. At the time I was thinking some moisture must have condensed between the cold kiln shelf and the clay piece. We recandled again, and I am hoping they will be ok, we unload the kiln tomorrow night after the bisque fire. But our daytime temperatures don't stay freezing here. Hope it all works out.
Sounds like it would have been a hard night - alone and cold. I have had to learn and relearn and learn again the lesson of not being able to do everything simultaneously. Hope you are enjoying the rest of their visit and that all is well on Wednesday.
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