With a little bit of luck

We are now finished making pots for the Baltimore show but continuing with our glazing and firing. Above is a photo of Steve loading the bisque and below you see us glazing and waxing.



Above is the loaded kiln before firing 2/12/10 and below shows the finished pieces.



The real story here though is that Steve got up again to check the firing at 5:30 am this morning and this time it was done and cooling fast. After checking the temperature of upper and lower levels of the kiln, he turned off the exhaust fan to slow down the cooling process. At this point it was down to 1700 degrees Fahrenheit. Sleepy eyed he turned the kiln back on and went back to bed to catch a little more shut eye. When he returned at 7:20 am the kiln was back up to full temperature! O no! We thought we lost the entire kiln load of pots because the length of time that the pots remain at a given temperature actually increases the "real" temperature the pots are feeling so......we really thought we were cooked! Imagine our surprise when we opened the kiln this afternoon and discovered that none of the glazes had run on the shelves or blistered and only showed a little extra stress!
These pots had two lives! That's a little bit of luck!


Here's a closeup of our favorite in this kiln. One of the colors on this pot (behind the turquoise) is an improved warm brown.... a keeper.