Gay's kiln god

Kiln Firing Day

At last, the day arrived to fire the new kiln! Gary built a high-fire propane-fueled pottery kiln a couple of summers ago, and it's taken this long to get everything ready. We had to have enough bisqued and glazed wares to fill it up, all the apparatus ready for firing, a full propane tank standing by, and so on, and all of this took a couple of years to accomplish. Our friend Bud Larsen -- Kiln Guru and Raku Master -- came out yesterday to walk us through it, and we had the most interesting day.

On the morning of Tuesday, August 20, 2013, Gary and Bud began by making sure every piece was glazed and clean. Both Gary and Bud had pots and mugs and bowls to fire, so we set it all out on a nearby table and handed pieces to Bud while he stacked the kiln. 

The kiln stacking went pretty quickly, much to my surprise. The next step was to brick up the doorway of the kiln. 

While Gary bricked up the kiln, he set pyrometric cones in strategic places, so that we could monitor the temperature at the end of the firing and ensure that we had reached the optimal heat. We set up a cone 8, a cone 9, a cone 10 and a cone 11. Our goal was to fire to cone 10. This meant that we wanted to see cones 8 and 9 melt, and then watch for cone 10 to melt.  When cone 10 melted, we would know that we had reached the optimal temperature. 

Gary finished bricking in the doorway, leaving a couple of places for peepholes and a hole for the pyrometer, so we could monitor the temperature as the day went on. By monitoring the temperature with the pyrometer, we were able to adjust the heat of the kiln and make sure it was rising steadily throughout the day.

At 10:30 a.m., the guys fired up one weed burner to start heating up the kiln slowly. 

.... to be continued.  :-)  Next installment soon!