I’m back from the woodfiring, and have finally had a chance to relax, and get caught up email and so forth. Overall, I feel like it was a pretty solid firing. There were no crisis and no drama. Everything went as planned. We dropped cone 13 in the front of the kiln, and were probably in the cone 12 range in far back section of the kiln. That’s fairly standard, and where we like to be. We kept front of the kiln over 2300f for a day or two, though we would have liked the back to be hotter. It was generally in the 2100’s for the last couple days, seldom staying in the 2200’s, which would have been nicer. Regardless, there’s not too much point in speculating until we unload it on the 4th.
It’s going to take a few days for me to sort and clean all of my new work. I need to decide which pieces will be traveling to Idaho for a show at the Art Spirt Gallery, and which pieces will be coming with me to Design Festa in Tokyo. However, it’s my goal to to have all the photos go online, and new pieces for sale on the 18th. I’ll post more information after I’ve unloaded the kiln.
I’m still up at Ken’s studio, and haven’t gone down to the kiln yet today. However, one of the morning shift has just past on some crazy news. Cone 13 is down not only in the middle, but also in the far back. This hotter than we’ve ever gone before. Apparently, they’re struggling to keep the front from taking off even more. Going hotter is hard on the clay. I was about to go split some wood for the night shift, but with these temperatures, we might just shut it down this evening.
Here’s two shots from last night – the kiln at night, and my sidestoking duty station.
I’ve been on shift since 4, and right now we’re at 2250 in front, and 2100 in back. I’m on the back of the kiln, and have been fighting with it for the last hour. It went down to 2040. I had to switch to small rapid stokes (3 pieces at once) from larger stokes (7 pieces). I ask Steve, who’s down at the front, as to how many pieces he’s been putting in – “how ever many pieces he #%}^* well feels like”
