bnsaijim on sun 26 jan 03
All,
Finally something other than health and safety rants. Being
my usual stubbourn self, against a friend's advice I
purchased, at my wife's prompting, a small gas kiln rather
than the "newbie electric". I decided forgoing the bells
and whistles might be educational- I like doing things the
hard way.
Fired it up for the first time. What a rush. =9fou never
forget your first time..." ;^)
Only a bisque fire but I was still paranoid I'd screw
something up - blow up a pot or the house. Took everything
real slow as Mel's prior posts had recommended- very
maddening!
Other than a few minor incidents it went really well. In
the process of adjusting the initial candling flame I blew a
chunk off a pot - sounded much worse than it was... Of
course, I get comfortable with the process and stop checking
things ever 5 minutes, let it ride 45 minutes when it was at
full bore... Roaring away, beautiful red glow, everything
white hot... Give a quick check - where's the cones?!?!?
Shut everything down... more waiting...
Late last night I got to unload- truly just like Christmas!
Top two layers overfired but bottom was perfect. Other than
the one with minor damage- it's a highly textured "rock"pot,
so it's not unusable- all's fine.
Lot's more to learn and try. Love the difference it's made
in the clay - hope the differences in clay color carries
through the final glaze/oxide firing. Hope the (what I
believe is) salt and smoking effects (from candling and/or
having a weed pot molded on newspaper that I left in) carry
over also. It's added some interesting effects to my "rock
pots".
If anyone can answer this please LMK. Thanks for reading,
any guidance is appreciated!
Jim Stone
The other guy in Galveston
Tony Olsen on mon 27 jan 03
Jim:
Good job! Great bold move. Glad to hear that all went well on the =
firing. I have an electric kiln so if you ever need anything fired via =
that method, let me know. Us Galvestonians gotta stick together! =20
Tony (Galveston)
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