Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Firing today

Bang on 1ooo degrees,reducing for an hour [I start at 920-ish]: the kiln is,you will recall,in urgent need of a top-end overhaul,but I lack a husky helpmate to help me remove the roof,and am no longer of the age when I would have tackled the job solo,so I made do with a slight lash-up job inside and out.I decided to brick/shelf around the vent [as shown],to get more efficient exhaust from the kiln,but,with strong reduction [like now] I can still smell a whiff of sulphur- that,together with that nice blue-ish flame from the closed-down chimney [see picture] and the slow rise in temp.,tells me I'm getting the reduction I'm looking for.
I haven't finished throwing,but there's an order of napkin-rings for Ronni promised for this week [his washer-uppers are breaking them with gratifying regularity] ,hence today's firing.The kiln is filled with my 2 basic glazes- transparent [called "tweed" because of how it looks on most stonewares] over blue slip,and a buttery-yellow-brown glaze called "cream".I made up a new batch of the blue slip recently- I mix the cobalt colourant in by eye,so am not sure exactly how it will come out- and the Cream is also a bit touch-and-go first time around,being very particular as to thickness.So even though I've been using these glazes for over 20 years,I'm not at all sure how this kiln will come out... Posted by Picasa

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