Saturday, August 6, 2011

Tumblin' and Rollin'.


I can cram an amazing amount of stuff into my little kiln when I need to! Thank God you can tumblestack greenware.

The glaze firing is, obviously, unloaded, and I am rolling right into the next cycle with this bisque. I learned something with this firing. (I mean, something besides "Check the propane gauge before beginning." Although it turned out that the gauge was broken so it wouldn't have mattered.) I learned that my kiln climbs faster in heavy reduction (within reason). This doesn't entirely make sense to me, as I know that an oxidizing flame is hotter. My theory is that pushing in the damper forces the heat to stay in the chamber instead of rushing right out the stack. This is good news, as it also fires more evenly in a heavier reduction; no surprise there. Also, some of my glazes are much more interesting and successful in a deeper atmosphere.

I learned another thing, too, from yet another error: I've always prepared the soda salad with soda ash, baking soda, and whiting. I forgot the whiting this time and saw no difference in the outcome. I never did know what it was for, but now I can guess: nothing.
All of my pots have destinations and are packed up for their journey, but here are some images of the pots my apprentice-for-a-day brought to the firing:





One bad note: I did have a kiln shelf crack in the firing, sending a shower of debris into a few pieces. I lost a big bowl and a couple of smaller ones, open shapes being more susceptible to such mishaps.

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