September 2017 Kiln News

Unloaded the bisque kiln. Everything came out fine, but then there are fewer surprises in bisque.

There were some new damp pieces, so I’m waiting before I load another kiln.

Both bisque and glaze aren’t quite enough to load a kiln.

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Loaded up a glaze kiln. The bazillion mugs had been glazed, so suddenly there was plenty to load. In fact, not everything got in.

So – it’ll probably be ready to unload Saturday. As soon as the kiln is cool, I’ll load bisque. As soon as that’s out, I’ll load another glaze. And then, probably next Friday, I’ll run another bisque to catch the finished pieces from Tuesday’s trimming class. That’ll depend on when those pieces are bone dry. Then I suspect that I’ll run another glaze. There really are a lot of mugs…

I noticed the mug abundace, too. That guy can really crank them out. I think he may have a caffeine problem…

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Glaze came out. Bisque went in.

Glaze: Generally pretty good. Christy’s big bowl did run, and stuck to the glaze tray. One big-ish pot that I was suspicious of (and put on a little cookie) ran. The cookie lifted it enough that the drips picked up a bit of kiln wash, but it didn’t stick. One little handmade thing had some serious glaze crawl (or it was planned and I didn’t notice when I put it in). Everything else is pretty good.

Everything that was dry got into the bisque kiln. So it’s just the stuff Brenda did today, and a small white piece that were too damp to go in.

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I was suspicious of the mirror glaze which is why I put it on a pillar style tray, hope I can snap it and grind it down. A lot of the metallics seem to run, maybe spraying it would help? Anyone else have experience with the Spectrum Mirror and/or Amaco Palladium?

Edit: Okay, wow, I’ve seen it now. That is some seriously ugly glaze! It’s darker than samples and blobby. It ran but it also looks like it didn’t fully melt out. Time for a round of test tiles!

We might need a smidge of hold to make it melt out better. I noticed a difference in the Amaco Temmoku with the 10 min hold, and that glaze might work better with that as well.

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Oh, and I don’t think any of us here are playing with the metallics. You might post it on the Amaco Facebook page. There was a lady on there who got the Saturation Gold to work. 6 coats (but that might be thin coats, not Amaco coats), dried in between each one, and I think it might’ve been Cone 5. Maybe it needs less melting??? Test tiles…

And I’ve loaded a bisque kiln. There was one sorta flat plate-like thing (really white clay) that was starting to crack, so I didn’t load it. A few pieces of really recent wet stuff didn’t get in. I’ll be loading glaze Sunday. That’ll finish out The Mugs and the big pieces that are glazed. Oh, and I didn’t put @meanbaby’s super-cool ring thing in – not sure if it was completely finished.

The next bisque will probably be next weekend. My throwing class will finish up Wednesday, and when their final pieces are dry, I’ll load bisque.

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I’ll be back in a couple of days and see if the donut bottle is ready to fire. It was really thick. Thank you for all you do Beth!

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Glaze kiln is currently cooling. Should be cool enough to unload tomorrow. Everything that was ready got in.

My current plan is to load bisque again Saturday. This is to capture the pieces from my throwing class that finishes up Wednesday. If their pieces aren’t dry, it may be Sunday.

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Loaded up a bisque kiln. Lots of folks had been busy, so there were many damp pieces that didn’t make it.

I’m doing glaze as soon as the bisque is unloaded and the kiln is cool. And then loading more bisque when the glaze is unloaded.

While I was up on the stepladder looking at the higher shelf, I unwrapped 2 bats of bone-dry items and put them over in the no-fire zone. If any of those pieces are yours’, let me know and I can show you how to finish up the bottom of dry pieces so that they look a little better. Otherwise, they’ll get recycled in about a month.

Rats! And I completely forgot the donut bottle!!

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So – Glaze kiln has been loaded.

Another bisque kiln will be run after that. I am planning on running a glaze kiln right after that, as there are some pendants that are planned for the 10x10 that didn’t fit in.

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That is fine Beth, no rush on the doughnut bottle. I am leaving Saturday for my GA Adventure. I am really busy getting things wrapped up before I leave.

The new teapot I’ve been slow drying. I’ll stop by and uncover it before I leave to air dry. I would like it to dry for 1 to 2 more weeks. The handle is a great concern, I may find some place high up to put it to dry.

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Glaze out – bisque in.

Glaze came out fine, overall. @meanbaby’s rice bowl is nicely adhered to its’ glaze tray, although the glaze didn’t run. Maybe the glaze seeped through? I made no effort to separate it… :slight_smile:

Some of the perfectly dry pieces didn’t make it into the bisque kiln. I did get the doughnut bottle in. It turned out to be too tall to sit on top of the 6" shelf I normally start with, so that took up a bit of space.

I’ll run glaze again Monday. That gives y’all all weekend to glaze things…

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Looked like the clay body on the drip bowl had a slight flux. The bottom of the bowl was not glazed, no drips. Just gave it a light tap and they came apart.

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Yeah! (and some more characters)

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