Murphy's Law is Not So Bad!

If I didn't clarify before, my last firing was only a Murphy's Law firing if Murphy's Law was about screw-ups. Everything that went wrong in this firing was something I did wrong or failed to do! It's something of a pattern: I have a few super-smooth firings in a row, then I get over-confident - or maybe lazy is the word I want here - and make things harder for myself. For example:

• The cone pack exploded because 

1. I made the packs just a few hours before lighting the burners
2. I didn't poke vents in the clay of the pack with a needle tool, to allow the water vapor to escape more easily; and
3. I turned up the burners too quickly

• The burner fluffed out repeatedly because the thermocouple was failing. That's nobody's fault - thermocouples don't last forever - but usually I have extras around. 
• I forgot to buy wood shavings and soda ash ahead of time
• And, as I was reminded when I unloaded, I forgot to do my basic kiln hygiene and knock the stalactites off the underside of the arch! These turn into ugly, lumpy grey-green drips in the firing, and I lost some pots on the top shelf to them. 

All in all, though, I have to say I was incredibly lucky. The soda glass is evenly distributed, the colors are rich and clear, even the exploded cone pack didn't damage anything! Most importantly, the steins that I need for Watershed's Salad Days event came through beautifully. (Enough of them, anyway! One was lost in the bisque to a separating handle, and two got the aforementioned ugly soda drips on them. that still leaves more than I need!)

It's 87° today, so I am going to take a bit of a break from the heat. I still need to grind a few bottoms, then sort, price, and pack the pots for Belfast Arts in the Park.

Some of these pots should be available online after the 13th. 

I'm gonna make some notes here about the firing schedule that worked out so well so I can refer to it for future firings:

• Lit one burner on 1# pressure at 9 pm
• Lit all burners on 1# pressure at 10 pm (TOO FAST - Cone pack exploded)
• Tapped burners up just a bit at midnight
• Went to bed!
• 4 am - red heat, turned up burners
• ^012 falling at 7 am, turned up burners & pushed in damper
• G-D f*ckin burner went out about 4 times between ^012 & ^3
• ^6 falling at noonish - started adding soda mix
• Kiln stalled for over two hours at ^6. Stopped adding soda & put kiln in lightest possible reduction
• ^8 falling, resumed soda. Finished soda maybe an hour before the kiln went off
• Had only one cone pack, in the typical hot spot, so I laid ^11 down to make sure the cool spot got to ^10