Love is a Clean Burner

Remember my funky burner thing from last week? This one:

The consensus of my equipment-clever friends and readers was that the burner for some reason did not have enough gas pressure to create its Venturi effect. The burner was turned all the way up but the pressure definitely did not seem right, just before the flames appeared where they weren't supposed to be.

The possibilities included something -  a bit of rust or debris - blocking the tiny little orifice thru which the gas flows.

Luckily I never discovered whether that was, in fact the problem. On Monday night I had a conversation with my husband - I told him about the burner troubles and the possible fixes. You may think this is the dullest possible thing one could talk to a non-potter about, but Doug is an unusual guy. The physics of things interests him, and the kiln and burners are apart of that. I told him what our friend Tyler suggested as a remedy - taking the burner apart, removing the brass orifice plug, etc. He didn't say much, made some sympathetic noises - he knows how much I hate kiln maintenance.

When I came home from class on Thursday he had taken it apart, cleaned it all out, and put it back together! It hums along just like it should now. No more FLAMES BAD.

Now, he has taken a burner apart & put it back together before - I have an old one lying around. But that was years ago. He took apart the old one first, to remind himself, and then cleaned & thereby repaired my burner! It's sooty and gross and he barked his knuckles on the kiln brick getting it off the pipe, and now I don't have to do it.

Some guys bring you flowers and candy. Some write you poems.

Mine cleans my burners. 💗

Oh, and he writes songs. Check 'em out!

Yikes! Crash Imminent!

No time to post: my iMac is making ominous noises. Last time a computer of mine did this, the hard drive crashed. Also my house is filthy. (I know, I know. But it is, and it's bugging me.) So I'm just posting an old photo that I found while backing up the hard drive. These were from Doug's first ever firing, in 2006. He's sort of moved on from wood firing, but I still love these pots.

Glaze Craze

It’s Glaze week! Portland Pottery students are glazing all the work from this session in preparation for the Holiday Show and Sale, and then the year-end break. Adam, Kelly, Wil, and Karen are working like Santa’s Elves to squeeze through two glaze firings before the show opens on December 11th. Here’s Adam, loading. 
I look forward to the holiday break every year, although I miss my students, especially long-timers like Holly and my book-buddy Gail. Every year I swear I will devote the extra time to the studio…with mixed success. 
It’s glaze week here at Fine Mess Pottery, too, as Doug and I prepare to fire the soda kiln on Friday. Our work styles are so different: I plod along steadily, spending a couple hours in the studio everyday, until I have enough for a load. Doug starts working the week before the firing, and makes dozens of slab-built pots in several six or eight hour stretches. Lately he’s been working on square drinking tumblers, a simple, functional shape dressed up with a decorative medallion on the front. 
We’ll have the pots from this weekend’s firing at the PP show.

Oh, No!!!

...Not another learning experience!

Actually I am exaggerating. we got some very nice pots out of the firing. Also some stinkers, at least I did. Hubby seems to lead a charmed life in that regard. Here are a few pots just after unloading:


Doug's Pots














My pots. I am very pleased with the toasty brown pieces in the foreground -- it's the pasty white ones farther back that were disappointing. I was hoping for a fleshy salmon pink. That's where the learning experience comes in: I won't be using that clay body naked again. I'll have some better pics of individual pots later, the good, the bad, and the ugly.