A Little of Wadding

Levi and I are loading the wood kiln today. There's a lot of work involved in loading. One task is wadding pots. Wadding is made from some kind of refractory material, and is used to keep pots from sticking to shelves, the floor and other pots during the firing process.

I use two kinds of wadding. One is a 50/50 mixture of kaolin and alumina, which I use to separate lids from the main pot on lidded pots. The other kind of wadding is a mixture of equal parts sand/fireclay/sawdust. I use this to separate the bottom of each pot from a shelf or the floor of the kiln.

Here's a few pictures of me wadding a casserole (made by Levi):

Basic shape of my wad for a lid

I actually glue it down with a basic white glue.

After about eight wads, I place a drop of glue on each
wad and set the lid on top, pressing down lightly.

Finished casseroles