Thursday, August 12, 2010

Bisquing and Grooving

I kept putting it off. It's hot out there. Loading kilns in 90+ temps is just no fun. But I've been on a producing jag of late and I've got to start getting my ware carts cleared off to make room for more pots.

I started off (as I usually do) with the "new" kiln. It's already eight or nine years old now, but I still use it almost exclusively for bisquing. Pretty li'l thing, though...



Then I moved on and loaded up the ol' gal...


I fire both with natural gas. But unlike lotsa folk who live in residential areas and try (usually with little success) to fire a kiln on natural gas with residential pressure, I've got a real flame thrower. The gas company set me up with a meter that's as big as...as big as...as big as, like, a really big gas meter. (I put that "like" in there so as to relate to my younger readers. I'm still working on putting everything in the present participle tense. Cool. I just did it.)

Anyway...

I've got a two inch gas line leading to both kilns, and I have two pounds of pressure available. I can fire both kilns at once if I so choose.

I'll candle overnight. I've got some huge bowls in there, as well as some 12 pound pumpkins. When I have the luxury of pre-heating large pieces, I invariably take it.

I was going to post my new youtube of the "Hard Times" (Stephen Foster), but I'll save it for later. I'm more excited about a couple of artists I've recently been introduced to. I betcha can't listen to 'em just once!




2 comments:

  1. I like my kilns. There are times when they're a bit small -- when I'm firing them in rapid succession just to get ready for a show. But since glazing isn't a great joy to me, it's nice that I can glaze a kiln full in a day. And it's nice to be able to see work go from start to finish in a week if I want to.

    I've got some great equipment.

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