Soft Rain Better than Snow during Firing
Heavy smoke after a big stoke late in the afternoon
We fired the rest of the awards for the Uwharrie Mountain Run Wednesday. Firing started at 7 a.m. and we finished up at around 8:30 p.m. That's 13 1/2 hours, maybe our quickest firing yet. I preheated the kiln with a gas burner overnight and turned up the gas in the morning, adding small sticks from hardwood pallet scraps (Italian in origin) and then larger pallet scraps under the grates.
We took it easy up to about 1,000 degrees and then stoked heavy for the rest of the firing. Cone 12 was flat up front and cone 9 was down in the back when we stopped stoking. The picture at right shows a couple of pieces at the end of the firing just inside the kiln. It turned out to be a warmer day than forecasted earlier in the week, with soft rain instead of snow.
Seagrove Potter Phillip Pollet helped out toward the end of the firing.
Here's a little video of Levi stoking Wednesday afternoon, shot from the balcony of our home:
We took it easy up to about 1,000 degrees and then stoked heavy for the rest of the firing. Cone 12 was flat up front and cone 9 was down in the back when we stopped stoking. The picture at right shows a couple of pieces at the end of the firing just inside the kiln. It turned out to be a warmer day than forecasted earlier in the week, with soft rain instead of snow.Seagrove Potter Phillip Pollet helped out toward the end of the firing.
Here's a little video of Levi stoking Wednesday afternoon, shot from the balcony of our home:
