Kiln Q & A Sesh with Conor Muldoon of Trinity Ceramics scheduled for 4.21.21(updated))

Send all your ‘burning’ questions (see what we did there?) to [email protected] by April 14th! Attend in person by registering via DMS Calendar here.

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I don’t to officially register. I won’t know til a few hrs before if I can attend.

I don’t want to take a spot from someone that can definitely come to the talk.

Can I be a ‘drop in’ if things are going well that day and I can come up to DMS?

The spots are not filling up too quickly so I’m sure registering is fine or showing up is fine.

Make sure to send me your questions ahead of time at the [email protected]

Gosh, this is surprising considering how much dialogue has centered around the kilns and how they used in the last year. hmm…

Could be some people find toasters boring? :slight_smile:

On another note, why is it necessary to submit questions in advance?

I’d love to come and listen. However, I’m scheduled to work until 7 pm that day. No specific questions.

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Should We not always be students!? :slight_smile:

I think Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle would want us to be seekers of truth, always.

Freddy- this would be an excellent chance for you to learn about the kilns you’ve expressed so much interest in. Can we count on seeing you there?

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No worries. We will make the info available.

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Thanks for the opportunity but I believe I’ll pass. Resistance heating with a timer…Hrm, its a toaster! Pretty sure I’ve got that down. Good luck with your event!

I have gathered a great list of questions which includes all of the different complaints/questions we have had over the years.

It should be great information!

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Well, but we’re getting excited because sometimes the toast is underdone, and sometimes it’s burnt. Plus, heat chemistry is not well understood by the artist communities. I’ve noticed, both here and on the FB Amaco group, that many folks without specific kiln training tend to think of it like magic. Or voodoo…

And, by kiln training, I mean extensive classes in the nuances of heat chemistry. We do well with our training, but none of us really understand the entire cycle.

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When the toaster is stuffed with toast adjustments have to be made. If not, its underdone. If the toaster is set to high and you get burnt toast.

It too has been my observation that many here and elsewhere believe that the toaster is a black majick box. Rather than use the scientific method, things get focused on to the n’th degree and obsessed over. Further, lots of users fail to understand that all things are not equal and every load fired will be different due to the community firing aspect. It will always be a “best effort” aspect and never be perfection due to the size and composition diversity of the pieces. The sooner that everyone can understand that the end result in community firings will be always be variable the better the outcome will be.

I would suggest the book " The master and uses of fire in antiquity" by J.E. Rehder as a base upon which to build a better understand of pyrology and how we got to this point with kilns and furnaces.

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Right, we might get lost in the details sometimes.
Thank you to Monika and Amanda for setting this training up so we can learn more.
On a side note, you’d be sorely disappointed if you put toast in the kilns, organic materials burn out at over 2000 degrees, so it would be, um, toast.
Plus the piece next to it could get adversely affected:(

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You do realize when referring to it as a toaster that I’m making a gross over simplification right? Most toasters use nichrome/K1 wire just like the kiln does. Further I’m not suggesting anyone put bread it in the kiln. I’m making the analogy between the two and how they operate. Just like electric baseboard heaters and every other electric based resistance heater. Electricity + resistance = heat.

I do:)
My point was simply to illustrate why details matter when operating in a community environment.

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Well… I mean you could use it in a sager firing. It may make for a really cool finish :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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You know humor is a thing, right? :wink: :point_right: :point_right:

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All credit goes to Gnome Maiden Maker Monika. :slight_smile: I just made the ‘signage’.

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