Well, I fired the soda kiln last week and it was such a terrible firing that I'm putting the door right back up and refiring the whole load over again tomorrow! During the last firing, my soda sprayer broke and I had no way of spraying the soda into the kiln. I did dump soda into the firebox, but I knew with this crossdraft kiln that it still wouldn't be enough, because I always have to spray soda all over this kiln to get success and I would end up with dry pots. Since I don't use much glaze and use mostly flashing slips, dry pots can be pretty bad. And bad they were....all gray and dry white pots. So, I'm just replacing the cone packs, didn't even take out one pot, 99% of them looked horrible, and I'm trying again tomorrow. Crazy potters, why do we do these things? Why?
Ok, so now that's where I am, giving it yet another shot. I have a craft show this weekend, here in Bakersville, check out this link for info and I won't get these pots out in time for the show but I'll just have to rely on the pots I do have in stock in the showroom. Hopefully that will be enough. With all of the other shows I have coming up in October and November, I was desperately relying on this kiln load to be great, so I have to give it another shot....
We'll see..first thing to do on the list is head to the store and buy two, not one, but two brand new shiny sparkling garden sprayers. I'm never having that happen to me again and I'll always have a backup from now on! That's just too much work to lose to risk that happening again! crazy potters crazy potters....what we do for pottery.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I'm sorry you have to do this, but it's the right thing to do. After 2 firings, those are going to be some nice pots. Refires are always sweet!
Sorry about that, I guess the silver lining is you didn't have to reload them. Ugh. Hope this next one is spectacular for you.
What a shame, Joy. I always have a couple of sprayers on hand after this happened to me. Call me! Either buy another one, or borrow one of mine before the next firing.
Another option is to just throw some salt in there. My last few firings I've used about a pound of salt. It really makes the flashing slips pretty bright, which may not be a look you want.
what a drag... good luck on round two
Hope firing #2 is better. The backup sprayer sounds like a good idea.
Post a Comment