Now Back to our Regularly Scheduled Blogging

I fired my first bisque here in Austin yesterday. I had to head home before the kiln had finished and was pleased to return this morning to find out that the kiln works after the move and that the studio is still here after the first firing.

I bought a kiln vent from Bailey. I got the double-kiln vent even though I only have one kiln at the moment. As I was started the kiln I looked at the instructions and it said to get a standard 4" pipe cap if you only have one kiln hooked up. I didn't have the "standard" pipe cap on hand so I made do with what I did have.

On the making front, I got a round of plates thrown. I have to send a plate to an upcoming show at the Ferrin Gallery so I'd like to get these in the next bisque. I'm planning on giving these guys the CityScape treatment that most things seem to get these days.

Big Kilns are hard to move to Texas

I spent the afternoon on the phone about how much it would cost to move my gas kiln to Texas.  It definitely isn't cheap but it's a lot cheaper than either buying or building new.  

First I'll need to find a studio space that will permit the kiln...otherwise I'll be selling it and I'll figure it out from there.

Like I said...the worrying has begun.

Kiln Progress

In addition to seeing all that's going on this weekend I've been steadily glazing and am now about halfway done loading my gas kiln.  It's rare that I'm fully glazed before I start loading.  This time I am except for about 4 pieces that I'm not sure I want to put in....they'll go in if I need them though.

I forgot how much easier it is to have a full choice of pots to choose from for each spot in the kiln. This kiln is getting packed nice and tightly with very little wasted space.  Even though it felt like it took me forever to glaze I'm glad that I'm not looking at a shelf in the kiln and then trying to find a half dozen pieces to glaze for that specific spot....I guess I'm a slow learner.  Now...perhaps I should go make those cone pads....like I said, the kiln is about halfway stacked.  

They'll have a little time to dry though.  Because of my schedule I can't start firing tomorrow until mid-day.  Then, I'm planning on firing this kiln as quickly as possible.  My body can't handle all night kiln firing like it used to.  Hopefully the quick firing will yield as good results as Brandon over here.  

Firing Day/Night

I turned on the pilots about an hour ago after a marathon glazing session in the studio. 

My studio right now makes that electric kiln below look clean and organized.  I'll hopefully get it back to somewhat normal tomorrow but today I have no intentions of rectifying that situation.  Once again, that apprentice idea for Austin is looking like a smart move.

I plan on letting the kiln climb slowly this evening and then fire it off through the night.  If all goes according to my grand plan I'll be reducing the kiln by 6am and then just wait for some cones to drop before lunch tomorrow.  

The rest of this weekend is going to be spent getting my booth ready for CraftBoston. I have a corner booth but am bringing a new setup that my friend Ben is helping me put together.  The only thing I'm worried about is that I don't know how I'm going to do the lighting.  I usually bring a conduit pipe setup for pipe and drape.  This time I want to avoid having a corner post in the front, open corner.  That leads to the problem of hanging the tracks since I have no way of lighting the front corner now.  Words aren't working with this description.  I'll try to get some pics up this weekend to explain myself better.

Time to brainstorm....if only my brain was working.   

Done

Cones are down....nothing to do but wait...and make a few more pots tomorrow for another firing next week.