joyce on wed 30 jan 08
I was one who absolutely always Candled overnight, and then fired
slowly for a couple more hours...... went up slowly; came down slowly, firing
down with an hour's hold at 1850 F. It worked for me, but........ I
kept thinking that
perhaps with my fiber Geil kiln, this wasn't the most efficient nor best
use of my time....... after Candling overnight, my firing usually took another
12 hours until shutoff.
However, with all your great discussion, I
decided to break away from my routine and act on a few issues that kept nagging
at me for possible change. For this last load, I used the pilot,
with all
closed up except the damper and one peep, and candled for two hours only.
Considering the beyond-dry desert air, I'm not sure that two hour candle
was even necessary..... but then I would want a Warming Period........ I think.
I then closed it all, dropped my usually very cautious style and fired to
^11 tipped in seven hours, making sure that it was in oxidation the last
half hour or so. (Actually it was most of the time after leaving reduction).
I then closed everything, turned it all off
and let it sit until the kiln cooled. No firing down. On the way up I reduced
for an hour
starting at ^06 and returned to oxidation for the rest of the firing.
Where the claybody shows, they look a lot like woodfired pots. The
clay was white stoneware and Coleman's porcelain.
I kept close records so that I could ask you what made it all go wrong.........
but....... whattayaknow......... it was probably the best glaze firing I've
had. Smooth, velvety tenmokus and lively shinos mostly...... though
the greens and blues also looked far better than previous firings,
though they were always stable glazes. There was even one surprise!
....... a rather large section of yellow on a plate glazed with Hank's
shino.... which
was a complete
amazement to me....... to my knowledge, I had no yellow glaze, nor
have I had any, in the studio..... this wasn't gold nor mustard; it was
Yellow.
There were some wind chimes brushed
with those metallic glazes that are advised to be fired at ^06...... these
showed up in the studio from somewhere so I decided to see what
happened to them at ^11. They
looked great........ however, they all looked just alike...... kind of a
gunmetal............ and I know there were two other metallic colors used.
Oddly, they did not run.
Thing is, of course, that since this was all an Experiment, the pots that
had just barely escaped the hammer were the ones fired. Drat. So glaze
looks great, but I'll need to fire another load with better pots. Fortunately,
I have a lot of bisque awaiting glazing.
Load was fired in a Geil fiber-lined gas kiln. Wonderful kiln! I said from
the beginning that it could practically fire by itself...........
Joyce
In the Mojave desert of California U.S.A. where I know that when it's
my time to hang it up, I'll be saying, "Just Experimenting here... whoa....
wait a sec now...... hey, fellas....... jeez"........ no disrespect meant,
Sir.......... noooooooo....... I'm not ready........."
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