Excellent Teacher

Just when I thought I was maybe getting the hang of these crystal glazes - more surprises!
I glazed a batch of vases a couple of weeks ago,and fired half in the electric kiln,with good results. I loaded the second batch,and then broke the thermocouple. By the time the new one arrived,the glaze layer on the unfired pots must have soaked up some moisture from the atmosphere,because half the glaze peeled off the pots during the firing that I did yesterday,resulting in streaky glaze,bare patches,and considerable mayhem at the bottom of the kiln. One vase came out nicely,but that was a refired piecs - the rest are heading for the hammer.

My Reggae on Jango

Enjoy!

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Desperate Potters

Yahel's newly-built gas kiln has declined on 3 occasions to reach cone 8. Sydney and I spent many an hour plotting what might be done to improve the situation -the kiln is well built and looks like it should work. Having checked vital dimensions of 5 other [working] similar kilns,we helped Yahel enlarge the burner entry ports a tad, open the exit flues somewhat,and load a fairly openly-stacked glaze kiln last week.This morning we joined Yahel for the firing,which went gratifyingly smoothly,reaching 1250 in 10 1/2 hours with hardly any effort on our part. All 3 of us agreed that we learned a great deal from the experience,not only about kiln construction,but also about persistence and perseverence,which the late Mick Casson memorably claimed were the main qualities that this profession of pottery requires.