Studio Update: Week of 2/27

This week we fired the wood kiln! We did the very dignified first light of the kiln on Monday morning. I wasn't on the first shift but I hung around outside and worked on some small batches of earrings for the sale we are having the following week. I came back for my first shift from midnight to 8am. We made some campfire potatoes on the kiln as a little 3am snack. Yum! Most of this week was consumed by the wood kiln and consisted of a very abnormal sleep schedule because of it. I did manage to fully fire and glaze the earrings I starting on Monday. On Wednesday I grinded down some bits from a cone pack explosion in a previous soda firing. Brian saw me doing this and stated "my luck is going to turn around soon" after noticing how unlucky the past several weeks have been for me. The next day I unloaded the test kiln with yet another batch of test tiles, and I finally got a result with no pinholes! ( We will credit this to Brian who told me that my luck would turn around). I am hoping that these results will be consistent on forms larger than my test tiles, I will have to fire just one or two cups first to test it out. The thing that finally changed my results were bisquing way hotter to cone 03, and glaze firing lower to cone 5.

Image 1: The lighting of the wood kiln

Image 2: Earrings in progress

Image 3: Wood kiln potato being cooked

Image 4: The Kiln Pad is so pretty at night!

Image 5: no pinholes!!!

Image 6: test tiles, color tests and earrings, oh my!

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