Another great firing! We had to postpone it for a week due to a tornado warning, but it was worth it! We had some really great guys come out to lend a hand this time. Austin & Tom are in the Co-Op program where Mike works and have had some experience firing wood kilns. Usually Mike is trying to give us newbies a crash course in wood firing, but these guys were loving the experience in true "boys playing with fire" form!
What happens when you stick a handful of engineers in front of a fire that goes up to 2300 degrees? They build a wall! There were some extra kiln shelves sitting there not doing much of anything and looking a little lonely. Tom was the first to grab a few and prop some shelves against a few posts... it only took Austin a few seconds to follow suit! We spent a good majority of the firing constructing walls and improving our wonderful fire-shields. It made the firing much more bearable. And probably saved a bit of burnt knuckles... maybe.
The weather for this last weekend didn't start out as ideal. We delayed the start of the kiln, opting to start the firing at 7AM rather than get things going at 3. The firing endured wind, hail, rain and sun as we tried to keep our little wood kiln climbing in temperature.
As we got up to peak temp a front came through and the kiln stalled three separate times. With all hands on deck we managed to get the cones bent and a nice half an hour reducing soak and still had time for a nice dinner of Chinese food graciously picked up by Tom on his way back from a short hockey break. Last time the firing took us 20 hours, this time we shaved it down to 14! (Our new wood supply and the extra help added much more heat than we were used to from the previous firing) By that time Austin and Mike looked like they'd been cleaning chimney's all day and I'm sure that we all smelled like it too. We were all pretty tired and ready for bed (Probably suffering from a bit of Carbon Monoxide poisoning). I think we were all glad that the kiln takes three days to cool, because it gave us time to recoup before the unloading.
We were able to unload the kiln Tuesday night. Mike is like a little kid when it comes to firing the kiln. He can't resist peeking early to see if the firing was successful. When firing a wood kiln you HOPE you get the glazes to turn out the way you expect, so the opening is especially exciting. The glazes came out much darker for this firing. We got a great reduction and the new hearth covers we constructed made sealing the kiln at the end much less of a hassle. The Temmoku reacted with the wood ash in some spots and came out a little matte on some pieces, while the copper purple glaze was almost even over the entire kiln! Some of the lids on a few jars were stuck from ash run and unfortunately, in trying to stack this kiln more efficiently, we had a few cold spots, but that's just one more opportunity to get it right next time.
I can't wait to add the new ware to the shop, and that's another exciting bit of info! We are COMBINING our shops! We will be listing all of the new ware on
NightOwlCraftworks, and converting the ware from his
old shop to our husband & wife shop.
What does everyone think of those t's? We'd like to offer our "Hot Potter" shirts in our shop. Thoughts?
So not wanting to get myself frustrated further, I put off doing anything for my shop tonight & joined my husband in the studio. I haven't gotten a chance to work with clay since we moved in... so this was long overdue. I pressed out a few platter molds. I was only out there for about 45 minutes, but it was nice getting back into it. I've never been able to throw, but I make a great assistant. We are de-molding them in the morning. Wish me luck! I hope they come out nice... but if not I can just start over :) I love clay!
And an update for my husband's shop... he is working on getting enough for another firing. He made a dish mold for a butter dish, but I think it would make a perfect chocolate or small cookie platter. Of course there will be mugs... lots of mugs :) He has also made some tumblers that are extruded and then altered on the wheel. I'm hoping we will have tons of wonderful people to come help with the firing, it is going to be COLD! I think I might have to find a great hot cocoa recipe before then!
