04.01.2011
My answer is NO.
I love making small pieces that fit into all of the other pieces in the kiln.
Tumble stacked, piled together, nested, whatever it takes… a full kiln is a happy kiln!
I hate firing a kiln that is not well-packed. I feel like I’ve wasted space if it’s not full.
So the latest set of small bowls were intended to be “filler.” But then tonight I decided
to make even more! And even smaller! This time… I made a full batch of miniature vases!
So I threw them all “off-the-hump” and let them sit for a few minutes.
Then I back-tracked and started stamping the first ones as they were already getting stiff.
So now there’s even more to trim!… and even more to pack into my next bisque!!!
Pretty soon you won’t even be using any shelves and just piling your kiln full.
I’ve considered that. Trust me. And if I thought was feasible, I would be all over that. But I think the weight of the work piling up would eventually smash the bottom pots? But I agree… those darn kiln shelves are using up precious kiln space!!!
When we fire our larger glazed tiles we end up with 13 kiln shelves in the kiln.
Way too many but there is no other way.