“Back to Home”
Blog Archive
“The Bronze Odalisques” “City Beast” “Internal Workings” “Sun and Moon”

1550 degrees and counting

Second swing shift of the firing. 8:30, and we’re 24 hours into the firing. We’re at 1550 degrees in front, and 900 some in back. It will even out as we go along. Red heat in front.

First day of firing

I’ve been trying to use the iphone wordpress app. It’s decent, but in this area of sketchy phone reception, it does have a few frustrating bugs. If a post fails halfway through sending, it will then crash every time you try to send it again, and you’ll have rewrite it. This post will be a little shorter than it once was.
Anyway, when I last checked the kiln a few hours ago, it was at 950 degrees. The day shift has it now. I’m on shift from 4pm to 12:30am. We started the kiln at 9 last night. For the first 900 degrees, the fire is outside the kiln, in the primary air intake. This lets us control the fire more easily, heating the kiln up slowly, as to not shock the pots.

Almost done with loading..

We’re most of the way done with loading. Both the middle and the front fireboxes are a bit roomier than normal. We aren’t going to be using the far back firebox, since we think it doesn’t effect the kiln. We just used the space for pots instead. The kiln is packed very tightly.

Off to the firing!

So, far too early tomorrow morning, I will head off to Seabeck, WA for our woodfiring.  I’ll have my iphone, so it will be my goal to post a series of small updates during the firing.  I will apologize in advance for the spelling, since the wordpress iphone app lacks any form of spell check.

Here’s a shot of some of my preparations.  I have three giant bins this size, along with a milk crate of tiny pieces.  I’ve taken to using pillow stuffing to protect some of the delicate wings of my critters.  However, in this shot, I think laziness played more of a role than prudence. They do look like they’re taking a nap in a cloud, though.

Working away for the next firing

I’m quite excited about the firing coming up in late October.  I’ve had some extra time to get pieces together for it, and I feel like it’s paying off.  I think I’m on track to make enough work for my galleries, and have a holiday sale at my studio.  I’ll post dates and stuff like that once I have them, but in the mean time, here’s more of a sneak peak at my drying shelves.

These are the ones that I finished most recently.

Also, in my studio, I have a big white board.  I use it to make random notes to myself, sketch ideas, and just doodle stuff.  I really like the idea I have on there now, but I’ll have to wait and see as to how it comes together.  I’ve been big on antlers recently, but I don’t know how well they’ll survive the firing.  They might just droop.  To avoid that, I’ll have to make them very stocky.  Also, do you you recognize the guy in pink?