Dave Gayman on tue 23 apr 02
remember)
After a hiatus of 20-some years, and after I spent the weekend wiring my
new (used) 18" X 22" electric kiln (if anyone had told me it would take 9
hours to make 7 electrical connections, I would have told them they were
crazy, but that's another story), I one more time made an electric kiln
firing.
In the last 24 hours, here's what's leapt (back) into my memory:
-- The damp-clay smell when you first put the water into the kiln wash,
akin to the smell of every new clay or glaze batch being born
-- The cross-ridges you make kiln-washing shelves first one direction and
then at 90 degrees to the original direction
-- The gritty-raspy feel of daubing kiln wash on the Kilnsitter cone
supports and drop rod with your forefinger
-- The fine, easy coordination of lifting the Kilnsitter drop-weight and
holding in the plunger with one hand while you set the cone with the other
-- The pleasant steam smell of the early soak on low, as though the clay
and water were making a olfactory effusion to complement the one they made
when they were first mixed
-- The hum of each element as it kicks in
-- The rush of lowering the lid, blocking the bottom peephole, and putting
a new element into play... it's a whole new phase of firing at that point
-- When you can see across a shelf, how the glowing element and wall on the
other side shimmer in the heat waves
-- The unmistakable warmth that springs from the kiln when it's reaching
red heat
-- The rush of watching the catch on the end of the fulcrum rod on the
Kilnsitter rise almost imperceptibly in the minutes before the weight drops
and the energy-in phase is over
-- The impatience... the fantastic thrill of raku you can't have with
conventional firings because you can't just yank the kiln open...
It was as fine as the first time, maybe even better -- because it was
without the underlying sense of dread that accompanies the newcomer's first
firing.
Apparently it's true: you never forget.
And this was just an empty kiln firing to sinter the kiln wash, prove out
the elements and check the Kilnsitter... though I swear I can taste the
sulfur...
Oddly -- and irrationally -- it was comforting, all because 20+ years ago,
a successful firing meant I could make the mortgage payments a few more
months, buy groceries, bullshit with friends at art fairs another weekend,
buy clay, buy propane...
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