Kiln Unloaded. Thumbs Up.

Waiting is hard. It was a cold, rainy day with temperatures in the low 60’s. And my kiln had heated up to cone 06, which is about 1,700 degrees. So I waited an extra 12 hours to open my kiln until it cooled to room temperature. But it was well worth it!

Here’s a peek I took, very briefly. I was looking to see if there were pieces of clay inside the kiln or obvious cracks in the two faces I’d sculpted. I was so relieved to see everything looked good!

The next day, I unloaded the kiln. I lifted out the first two layers, and inspected. No chips. No cracks. Then, I carefully removed the kiln shelves and stilts to get a good look at the two lower levels in the kiln. Again, no chips and no cracks.

I rolled the cart over to the counter across the garage where I stacked the bowls, colanders, cups and faces ready for glazing. Then, I took a deep breath, sighed with relief and gave thanks to the gods of fire.

No explosions. No cracks. No problems. I am very happy and grateful!

Kiln Loaded. Fingers Crossed.

Just loading the kiln is a little nerve racking, trying to find places for all the different pieces, making sure there’s enough space in and around everything. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle and juggling act rolled into one. (And I hate jigsaw puzzles.) So, every time I fire up my kiln, I cross my fingers and pray to the gods of fire for help.

I prayed extra hard this time because this is my first kiln firing with ‘mixed’ pieces. I have the hand-built masks/faces. And now, I have a collection of new wheel-thrown pieces such as bowls, cups and colanders. So loading the kiln required more shelves and more juggling. This time, I also had pieces made from 4 different clays from low, mid-range to high fire and some are a mixture of clays. Add to that all the stories I’ve heard of explosions and cracking destroying months of hard work and making functional pieces totally unusable.

And so, fingers crossed, I fired up the kiln.

I turned the dial on low for 2 hours and checked it twice, no loud explosions. Yet. I turned it up to medium and peeped through the vent slit three times, all seemed ok. I turned it up to high, removed the venting prop, closed the lid all the way and hoped all was well. Finally, the kiln turned itself off and I breathed a little sigh of relief.

I’m hoping when everything cools down to room temperature, all will be well. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow. Until then, I’m still keeping my fingers crossed.