Clay Day 17 - a disaster

The only clay time I've had so far today is repairing the pot I broke this morning.


When your day starts this way, you know it's gonna be a bad day. And it was.

The kiln servicing man came today and found that most of the elements in the kiln were not working, even though they are in good condition. So he took a look at the wiring... it wasn't wired properly, and it's probably a good thing that it wasn't, because the wire isn't thick enough to carry that sort of current and it could have started a fire.

Now as it happens, the electrician was coming round today to drop off a fuse for us anyway, so the kiln servicing man waited for him, to explain the problem. The electrician was very good about it, and actually he's a really nice bloke, but he had taken some bad advice from a fellow electrician, and it was this fellow electrician who had done the wiring wrong inside the kiln, as he tried to convert it from 3 phase to single phase.

The conclusion of the matter is that the electrician is going to come back to replace the wire at no extra cost, and the kiln servicing man is very kindly going to rewire inside the kiln for me, but we will have to move all our furnature again and the electrician will have to lift up the floor boards again.

And I won't have time to bisque and glaze fire before the show.

But thankfully the kiln servicing man is going to lend me a tiny kiln, for me to bisque my pieces in. I will have to fire it every day until all the pieces are done, but then hopefully my own kiln will be working in time for me to do the glaze firing before the show.

That man is a life saver. Literally.

And now I'm going to eat my take away dinner (did you think I was gonna bother cooking after all that??) and then get on with some coiling, which I'm sure would seem much easier if I only had a bottle of Malibu...

ps. And then I dropped my dinner on the floor.

Edit: I've had a sleep and I got up again thinking I could start my day over again and it would be better this time. But the previous problems are still there. I'm just trying to figure out how I'm going to be ready for the show in time even if I use this little kiln. I have 5 days for firing at most, because the electric will have to be switched off when the wiring is re-done. The question is how much can fit in the little kiln? I plan to do a couple more vases and they will probably have to be fired one at a time. This is a disaster. Why is the whole world always trying to stop me from getting to where I want to be?

Edit: The solution
There is only one way round this that I can see. The kiln should be wired up properly by Monday evening. I shall have to stay up all night on Monday to do the bisque firing (I don't want to leave the kiln alone as it will be my first firing). Then the kiln will cool down during the day on Tuesday and hopefully be cool enough to unload Tuesday evening. Then I will have to stay up all night on Tuesday to glaze everything and load the kiln again in the morning. Then glaze fire during the day on Wednesday, and let the kiln cool down during the night on Wednesday night, ready to unload the kiln on Thursday morning, which is when I have to set up my table at the show. Talk about cutting it fine. It's not ideal, but I can't see any other solution.

What do you other potters think? Is this do-able?