Harvest Sampling

Most of my first glaze firing was 266 clay, the dark brown clay that is one of my favorites. The oatmeal glaze went over it really nicely. Above, jugs and a handled wall pot. Below, the jugs again.

My kiln goddess. I painted her with blue and purple underglazes and wiped most of it off, letting it stay in the patterns I stamped on her. Most of the purple burned off, but the blue shows well.

Golden luster mugs.

Stamped handles.

Golden luster and oatmeal bowl.

Golden luster tumbler stamped with paisleys and an upsidedown wall pot in soda ash.

Paisley detail.

Turbulent indigo bowl.

Tiny turbulent indigo jar.

Lessons learned from the first glaze firing: I don't have to worry about the glazes running as much as I thought, so heavier application is possible, which will give me better color results. This is particularly true of the emeraude glaze, which you will notice is not featured here.

Biscuit

14 hours, 8 minutes. That's how long it took to fire my first bisque load in the kiln. It took about that long again to cool off enough for me to open it up.

With great apprehension, I opened her up, and here's what I saw.

Success! My pots were bisqued, and none of them exploded. I was so excited I forgot to take pictures of all the shelves before I unloaded them all. I did get a shot of the last level.

I set them all on metal shelves to await glazing.

I have a lot of wall pots, mugs, and my kiln goddess.

I also have some test tiles (in the bowl on the left), and a bunch of pumpkins and pieces of pie (in the other bowl - I'll explain about the pie later).

I also have some stamps and molds I made.

Here's the set up after I unloaded, and before I organized and cleaned up.

I spent the rest of the day making glazes. Seriously. The rest of the day. It took me more than an hour (and more than 2 hours for two of them) for each glaze to add the water and get it through the sieve. So now that I am through the first bisque, I can move on to worrying about whether I mixed the glaze properly, whether it will stay on the pots, whether the kiln will fire the glaze well...

Tested

CPLT, as in "complete." As in, I finally had a chance to do the test firing of my kiln. It took 17 hours and 38 minutes, which is why it has taken me so long to find that many consecutive hours of being home to supervise. Because you know, it gets really hot.

Red hot. And everything seems to have gone well, so I'm hoping to do my first bisque firing soon. And then a glaze firing with some glaze tests. So exciting!

Vented

My kiln vent is installed and ready to go! But it's hot enough to fire pots on the driveway, so unfortunately I'm waiting for a break in the heat before I fire the kiln. Above, the kiln vent hood on the outside of the garage. Below, the fan is mounted on the inside of the garage wall. The fan sucks air through the duct, which is attached to the bottom of the kiln. It then blows the air out the vent, which has a metal flap to keep birds and other critters out.

I should mention Brad Birkhimer, who did most of the installation of the vent and fan. He's an incredibly nice guy, and an extremely talented potter. He has an MFA in clay from WVU, and also studied abroad in China. Now he's working out of a studio in The Plains, and teaching at The Workhouse Arts Center. And from where I sit, he seems capable of doing just about anything ceramics-related. So if you're in the Northern Virginia area and need your kiln tweaked, a vent installed, or a wood kiln set up, he's an excellent resource.

Juice

This week, I am celebrating juice. Morning Sun, by briefmoments. Vintage Juice-O-Mat citrus juicer, TheFrontHouse. Vintage Aluminum juicer, RedHenStudios. Vintage glass juice reamer, TranquilityFarms.

White stoneware pitcher, TimeValley.

Pair of vintage drinking glasses, greenandpretty.

Pair of vintage juice glasses with wheat design, thesmittenmitten.

Set of four glasses, pocketvintage. Juice glasses, halcyon.

Bright Morning Print, jjmillustration.

Carrot juice print, dowellart.

...

Why juice, you ask? Because I finally got juice to the kiln. Don't get too excited, though, because I still have to have the vent installed. And then I have to work up the courage to actually fire it.

Swept

I swept out the garage yesterday, preparing for the electrician's visit. Sweeping reminded me of these sweet little brooms I had recently noticed on Etsy. Above, witch hazel brooms by jasperjane, below, rust colored turkey wing broom by BROOMCHICK.

Either of these would make a fairly mundance chore a little special, no?

Assembled, But Powerless

My kiln has been unpacked, located, and assembled. I had the Kiln Doctor come out and consult on where it should be located. My best options were the basement or the garage. There were positives to each, but taking all of the factors into account, he recommended putting it in the garage. I will move the two shelves that are along the wall behind the kiln, and put it in that corner. It's best to keep your kiln at least 18 inches from a wall. I will either set it in a permanent location at least 18 inches from both walls, or I will have the Kiln Doctor rig up a cart to put it on so that I can easily move it away from the wall for firing, and back into the corner for parking the car. The next step is to have an electrician come out and do his magic. There are some complicated factors, including making sure that we have enough capacity in the electrical box... The previous owners of the home have a lot of the capacity routed to baseboard heat in the basement. We had planned to take that out as we are refinishing the basement anyway, so I think that will free up enough power. If I can't free up enough voltage, the solution involves the power company and a lot of money. Cross your fingers for me.

The easy fire control panel, and the vent is on the floor on the right. Once the kiln is in place, the vent will be connected and mounted through the garage wall to vent the toxic fumes involved with firing.

I like the look of the bricks. Once the electrical work is complete, the Kiln Doctor will come back out and install the vent and walk me through some of the ins and outs of firing. Luckily, I have a large manual to read and refer to, and I will be asking a lot of questions at Manassas Clay, too. [I will leave you to determine whether the title is political commentary.]

Hot, Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas to meeee! (I do have the bestest husband ever. Ever.)

The truck that brought it was huge!