Saturday, November 27, 2010

Post Kurt's kiln info

To sum up the firing in Boiling Springs PA with Kurt. We fired the kiln with hard wood to 2400 degrees Fahrenheit over a Three day period in August. All in all the kiln fires very well (this firing was pretty much the first firing that we were able to fire the way we did) for a maiden voyage. There were some hiccups as illustrated in the text below. At the height in temp and the end of the firing we performed a 'hikidashi' style removal of wares from a central shelf through an opening in the middle of the door I prepared ahead of time with this in mind. Hikidashi involves removing wares to check the clay and glazing at different points during the firing. Sort of a elaborate set of draw rings. We also salted heavily after each piece was pulled. There were about 9 pieces removed.

You can see parts of this process documented in the set of pictures below this entry.

On a current affairs note. Jared, Kurt, Nick, myself, and the vast majority of the students partaking in the Fall 2010 Juniata College Ceramics program fired the anagama on campus just a few days ago. We loaded on the 15th of this month. Unloading should be sometime at the beginning of this week... It seemed to have gone very smoothly. I will try and document the unloading and I have a few images of the firing taken by myself and my Dad, there may be others. Expect these to be posted as soon as I possibly can.

Simon Leach has a tiny youtube video of the very end of the firing. I left at 10am that morning after working two shifts and hanging out kiln side since 3pm the previous day. He showed up in the afternoon the final day. Jared and Nick have cameos in the video. They are finishing up sidestoking the very back of the kiln. I'll give specifics on how we fired and how it finished up later. Anyway check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/user/sleachpots#p/a/u/0/OuljfkjU6nc

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