So today I got an early start firing my soda kiln.
I got up, headed back to the studio and got it all fired up. Things were going well.
I was a couple hours into it and it was time to put it into body reduction. So I did.
I was upstairs in my studio when all of a sudden… darkness!

Now for some reason, whenever one of our studio members turns on her microwave
it blows the fuse to my studio. So I just assumed that that’s what happened. Until I
stepped out into the hallway to head to the circuit breaker… and the hallway was dark.
It wasn’t just my studio. And the emergency lights were on… this can’t be good.

So I quickly went downstairs to find out that my soda kiln had gone off too.
Turns out that Lillstreet was without electricity… along with a lot of the neighborhood!
And there I am. With my kiln firing in reduction and suddenly OFF… and cooling quickly!

But there was nothing to do. We heard from ComEd that electricity should be back on
at 2:30pm. Which was over two hours away! I was concerned about my firing.
But there was still nothing to be done – but wait. Turns out that the elctric came on about
an hour earlier than expected. And my kiln had only lost about 600-degrees.
So much for my early start, huh?

And there seemed to be a few questions… Why does a gas kiln need electric to fire?
Well, the kiln is fueled by the gas, but a lot of the mechanics are electric. The thermocoupler
that keeps the flame lit with a heat sensor. The blowers that push the air and the flames into
the kiln. The safety triggers that shut everything down if anything happens. Stuff like that.

But when the electric came back on, I was able to turn the kiln back on and get my firing
back on track. Knowing that the electrical hiatus just added a few hours onto my day.
And I just hope that everything inside the kiln is still okay?!

So there wasn’t much I could do.
Except I felt as though I “deserved” a treat… so I did…