Woods on mon 21 jun 99
Hi everyone
I am Soooooooo happy tonight. By the way happy fathers day to all you =
dads
out there. My friends came down from Upper Michigan and we got my Raku kiln
going. It worked great, my pieces almost all turned out great. Last year I =
made
my own Raku slip and had made a little gnome who has been waiting for my =
first
firing and he came out unscathed so we set him on a pole so he could oversee=
the
rest of the days firings. I had glazed him last year also with multiple =
colored
glazes and he came out with blue eyes one of which turned gold later. He =
made us
all just happy.
As for the kiln. I had taken off the electrical componants and put them =
up
for safe keeping till I may need them agian. Took the wires out to. One was
almost new and I saved it. the others I tossed. I filled the wire holes with
kiln patch and the hole from the sitter and the peek holes with ceramic =
fiber. I
fashioned my kiln the same as theirs with the burner hole in the center =
bottom
and the exhaust in the center top. We use the top hole to peer into (at an
angle) to see how the pots look if we need to. We fired to 1800=2A each time=
then
took things out for reduction. My reduction cans are a bit big so I put =
bricks
in the bottom to reduce the air space. then added wood chips (free from the
floor of my freinds saw mill) to the bottom around the bricks so things =
wouldn't
get caught down the sides of the can. We used paper (from the recycling =
center,
ha) and saw dust (recycled from my freinds wood shop floor) for reduction
materials. I remembered reading here that if you want the reds to come out =
more
to open the cans (for a tiny bit) after they are in reduction and flash the
pieces. So I tried that on on of the loads and I worked out wonderful. I =
only
wish I had done it a load or 2 earlier. The burner I have was made by my
engineer cousin who wanted me to make him a big pot. So we did a trade. He =
made
the burner out of a weed burner and put a ventury type head on it and a 3 =
point
leg thing attatched so it rights itself on slightly uneven ground. And it =
has a
10-12' hose that goes to the gas so it is far enough away from the tank. I
bought the regulator at the place I got the Gas.
I feel like a kid with a new bike tonight. I can't wait to go out to my
studio tomorrow and take another look at my pieces. They always look =
different
(better) the next day. Anyway, the ones I do at their house do. I only had =
one
piece out of 17 break and 2 have slight cracks (so far).
The gallery wanted me to bring in some pieces so I am also anxious to =
find
out if they like these as well as they did the pictures of my last pieces. I=
am
still in shock that I even got accepted into a juried gallery.
By the way, I read (here) that if I got 'one' bat and cut a hole in it, =
the
size of those commercial tiles, then used the tile in there it would work =
like
having plaster bats. I am did that. Now I can really crank out those =
retro-funky
pieces I do with the underglazes. I just got an order for a few more of them=
to.
Thanks, to all of you for your help and support. Hold me down before I =
float
away=21=21=21=21 I am Sue
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