Thursday, March 24, 2011

back in the fire

Yesterday we loaded up the small gas kiln.
( name is being with held to protect the innocent)

Some of the items I put back in the kiln were some of the pieces from the last load that either did not get hot enough or were just too muddy looking.
Like these mugs:
We decided to bump the bottom shelf up to 8 inches and see if that will help mature all the pots across the bottom shelf. Its funny working out the ends and outs of this new kiln.
Hot spots, cold spots.
We also are going to change out the back burner in hopes that another one will burn cleaner.
We also want to move the firing time up and bump up the heat at a faster rate.
It would be great to get this down to a 8-12 hour firing.
Is this asking too much?
I know when we fire the cone 6 in the electric kiln we are doing that in about 8 hours.
I know,  I know different glazes, differnt kiln and all that jazz but I really think we can shorten the fire from 16 hours.
For a baby kiln that seems a bit long.
Today is calling for gusty winds so we are waiting until Friday to light things up.
Today- time to clean up and get ready to throw more pots.

Here is a little spring coming out- the Japanese Red Maple in the front yard.




The moon this morning-interesting...

11 comments:

Linda Starr said...

I love Japanese maples; I know I read someone fires quickly in their kiln, seems like it was ten hours, it might come to me who it was.

Gary's third pottery blog said...

muddy? looks tres gorgeous to me :)

Hollis Engley said...

Yes, for a kiln that size, which is about the same as mine, 16 seems like a long firing. On the other hand, my 5-hour firings are ridiculously short. Somewhere in the middle might be a better idea. Good luck with it.

cindy shake said...

Those mugs are beautiful!!! love the pattern of the glaze. The maple looks like it's waking up from a long sleep :o)

John Bauman said...

Nice mugs!

I like a 12 hour firing. Most important, no matter how fast any of the rest of the firing may go, I require an hour each at cones 8,9, and 10. If the firing goes faster -- closer to 11 hours, I'll let ten go all the way down. If it goes as planned at 12 hours, cone 10 only need be half way down. If from the beginning of its bending to the end it takes cone 9 two hours to go down, 10 barely needs to bend at all for the same results.

Laurie said...

Nice mugs and a cool moon!

Julia said...

If that is what passes for seconds at your place, than I'm jealous...and also willing to take those "muddy" mugs off your hands!

powen liu 劉博文 said...

I like the mugs. Will you change her name if she can fire only 8-12 hrs?

cookingwithgas said...

HA ha- yes we will change her name if she will fire better.
Really these mugs need more melt to them- it is hard for you to see in the picture.
Thanks John we can use the help and Hollis 5 hours! really sweet kiln you have there!

Anonymous said...

hi meredith, lovely mugs, maple, moon. i kinda wish i had a new kiln to have to work the bugs out of but i'm sure there's plenty of frustration to go along with the fun and excitement.

cookingwithgas said...

Hi Jim come on over and you can fire her up!