So I loaded another electric bisque kiln tonight before class. I love loading kilns.
It’s like a three-dimensional, spatial-relationship puzzle trying to fill every space,
fit it all together and get as much in as possible! The beauty of a bisque kiln is that you can
carefully stack the greenware to optimize the spacing in the kiln. I always do good
at the bottom layer, but it always seems tougher as you get towards the top and start to
run out of “options” and no more smaller pieces to squeeze in. I hate leaving open spaces.
It seems like a waste of space. I should have made more!

Layer One: All mugs!

Layer Two: More mugs, bowls and berry bowls…

Layer Three: Bowls, berry bowls, berry bowl plates… and a couple mugs!

Layer Four: Plates… and my new butter dish “prototypes”!!!

Today was another kiln firing day.
I got all of my glazing done over the weekend, loaded last night with Karen & Marian…
and lucky for me, Marian was willing to start the kiln early this morning and Karen
was able to finish it off. My part of the kiln project is the big unloading on Thursday night!
Which let me just say is the best part… like Christmas finding all of the new treasures!
More pots for the weekend’s Holiday Home Show.

So my firing was pretty smooth on Saturday… a little long, but nothing too unusual.
I came in tonight to unload the kiln as usual. Brick by brick, shelf by shelf, post by post.

It wasn’t until I got about halfway through that I could finally see that the bag-wall
on the left of the kiln had fallen in. The bag wall is a row of bricks stacked two high
that separates the incoming flames from the stack of shelves & pots. The flames enter
the back of the kiln on both sides and shoot towards the front. When the kiln is close
to its top temperature, I inject a combination of soda ash & soda bicarbonate into
the kiln through ports on the front of the kiln. I dump the soda mixture in on both
sides so that it falls right into the fire box – which is created by the bag-wall.
The bag-wall creates a wall to protect the pots and direct the flame pattern
throughout the kiln.

So… without the bag-wall in place, the soda mixture was able to “run rampant”
throughout the kiln. Some of my pots have a little too much soda build-up on them,
some are a little too gray with carbon trapping. But the rest of them… BEAUTIFUL!!!

Luckily, the fallen bricks did not hinder the firing itself. The fallen bricks could have
gotten in the way of the flames going into the kiln. So I was lucky… and a few overly
blasted pots is a small price to pay for a kiln full of BEAUTIFUL!!!

Another day. Another kiln. Another firing.
More flames shooting out of the peeps as I check the cones!
New work coming soon… my annual Home Show is just two weeks away!

Tonight I opened up my soda kiln to finally see the treasures inside.
After a night of unbricking, unloading, grinding shelves, kiln washing shelves,
sweeping, mopping, packing, boxing, shlepping, and moving all of the work home…
it is now time to admire and start prepping everything for this weekend’s art fair!

Tonight I loaded the soda kiln with all my work for next weekend’s art fair.
Every piece is glazed & wadded – ready to go! Each shelf is placed, filled with pots
then ready to raise the next shelf on the brick posts. I love loading kilns.
It’s a three-dimensional puzzle trying to get as many piece into the kiln
without packing it to tight. If it’s too tight, the soda vapors will not travel through
the stack as well. So it’s a fine balance of keeping enough air space… while packing
it full so I “get my money worth” of the kiln fee!

And all the while packing pots… I’m covering every exposed surface of shelf
with as many small tiles as possible!!! Including that very last shelf I had to squeeze
in there at the very tip-top of the kiln!!! There’s never enough tiles…

Here’s a quick glance into my soda kiln… it’s still cooling…
but I can’t wait any longer so I’m going to forge ahead!… carefully…
I’ve already unbricked the door with thick gloves.

The pots on the bottom are always cooler first – so I’ll start there!
It’s always fun to see the “treasures” inside – and the “flip side” of the pots
to see what kind of flashing effects are on the “back” side of the pots.
I’m especially excited about the new “textured-tilesque” salt & pepper shakers!

So it may take all day to fire the kiln…
but it takes EVEN LONGER to cool the kiln!!!

The firing day starts off early – trying to get a good jump on what is inevitably
going to be a LONG day! So the kiln is turned on with fingers crossed.
Throughout the day, certain adjustments  are made to the gas lever, the air level
and the damper. As the temperature rises, you can watch the pyrometric cones
drop during the day.

All was going well today… I was getting alot of “busy” work done while firing.
I cleaned my much-needed studio. I glazed some class demos. I wadded more tiles.

As the kiln gets hotter, and it is placed into reduction, you can see the kiln glowing
and flames shooting out – look what happens when you pull out the peep brick!

The kiln firing was going great… practically firing itself…

Until it was time to introduce the soda mixture to the kiln.
When the kiln is getting up towards the top temperatures, around cone 9, I start
to add a moistened mixture of soda ash, soda bicarbonate, whiting & wood chips.
For some reason, when the first batch was added, the flames of the kiln blew out.
Luckily, the kiln is designed to re-light itself if that happens. The second batch
did the same thing?! Not sure why… but luckily, it re-ignited and all was well.

It wasn’t until the third time that it blew out – and DIDN’T re-light itself?! Uh oh…

So after some quick problem-solving, and some input from others, we got it going
again after losing about 20 minutes and over a 150 degrees! Unfortunately…
that problem just added a few more hours onto my already-long firing time!

Upon further inspection, it appeared as though the thermal coupler sensors
in one of the burners was not in far enough – and therefore not “holding the heat”
well enough to keep the flames going?! So I bent down the pipe that holds the
thermal couple in the flame – and propped it up with a kiln post!
And all seemed fine after that... back to the firing!!!