Someone, please help me!!

I don't believe it. Everything is going wrong again. I'm running out of time and I can't even find a blinkin' firing schedule on the internet. The only schedule I could find for cone 06 firing was 11 hours long! I thought the glaze firing was supposed to be shorter than the bisque firing?

I haven't even finished glazing yet because I forgot that I had to take my Mum to the dentist this afternoon, and I've just spent the last hour or so looking for a firing schedule.

And I don't even know how I'm going to get my stuff to the show. I found out today that the MoT on the car has expired, and all my friends with cars seem to be busy.

Is it normal to have to face this many obstacles when preparing for a show??

Edit: Ok Linda, calm down and think rationally. Just do the 11 hour firing and see if you can postpone setting up until the evening. And if it comes to it you'll have to get a taxi there with your pieces (and just hope that he/she doesn't drive like a maniac like they usually do, and that your pieces survive the journey). See? Problem solved :)

Closer inspection of the kiln contents

I did as much glazing as I could last night, until I was ready to collapse into bed. I still have more to do today, but I'm right on schedule for set up tomorrow. :) I can fire this afternoon and the kiln can cool over night. My business cards still haven't arrived yet, which I'm not very happy about, but anyway... back to the pots.

When I got the tiles out of the kiln I took a closer look at them. Scott inspected the break for an air bubble, but just as Kim predicted, there was no evidence of an air bubble at all, it was a really clean break. What I did notice was a strange discolouration in the centre of all of the tiles.


I searched the net for this but couldn't find a thing. Then I remembered reading about carbon coring. I looked this up and it was described exactly as it appears on the tiles.

For those who haven't heard of carbon coring (as I hadn't), it occurs when the bisque firing is done too quickly (I wish!) or when the "reduced" atmosphere (as in reduced oxygen) is introduced too early in the firing, by putting the bungs in the holes too soon (likely). I placed the bungs in the holes at just over 300c, and the other pieces seem fine, but as these tiles were piled up on top of each other it would have been harder for the carbon to evaporate. Carbon coring can weaken the piece as well, so maybe this contributed to the breakage?

Other pieces that weren't as perfect as they seemed at first were the pitchers/jugs. They both had very fine cracks in them along the crease where the pitcher starts to bowl.


These were only surface cracks, they didn't go all the way through, but I thought they might still be visible if I glazed them with clear glaze as I had planned. Thankfully I had a tub of wax resist and a big bottle of white glaze!! So I painted over the image with the wax resist and then glazed the rest of the piece in white.

Another thing I will have to remember for next time is to be careful of contamination. After painting the squirrel in brown slip I must have handled it with brown clay on my hands. Although not visable before the firing, when I took him out of the kiln he had dark brown finger prints on him!! I've glazed him anyway, and I'll just have to see how he comes out. It's pretty much the same for the whole kiln load though isn't it? As Whitney Smith says: "Clay is one thing. Glaze is another. Combining the two is a path taken by crazy people." I suppose I still won't really know if I have a show or not until tomorrow!!

Kiln opening day!!

Watch this space!! This is the post that will be updated as soon as the kiln is opened!!
Updated!! Scroll down to see!!

Well, I was trying to stay up with the kiln all night, but I was so tired I had to go to bed around 3.30am. I got a couple of hours sleep, and then Scott checked the temperature for me at around 5.30am. It had finished it's ramping and was about 5 minutes into it's 15 minute soak time. I cancelled that seeing as it's just a bisque fire, so that I could go back to sleep without wondering if it had switched itself off or not. I figured the pots should be hot enough without the soak. If it only reached 950c in parts of the kiln, that would still be hot enough, but the elements surround the whole kiln from top to bottom, so it should be fairly even in there. I'll still soak for the glaze firing, just to make sure.

After 590c the kiln was on full power, and it managed to go the remaining 410c in approximately 1hour and 20 minutes!


It was very warm in the conservatory this morning! Well, I suppose I can call it my studio now, but it still needs lots of clearing out before I can set some shelves up and get all my clay and glazes out there. Anyway, what I did notice is that there was no smell! So it was definitely the carbon and sulphur burning off the pots. Scott said he thought the smell was like a struck match.

The kiln is cooling down much quicker than I expected. In 6 hours it had cooled down by about 700c. I thought it would take as long to cool down as it had to fire, minus the soak time.

So this afternoon I shall go out and buy some silts for tomorrow's glaze firing, and maybe by the time I come back the kiln will be cool enough to open! :)


Update: I am sooo tired! But I suppose it wouldn't be fair to keep you all waiting any longer to find out what happened.

Thank you to Kim for the advice on when to open the kiln. After reading your comment I went right ahead and opened it.

So now for the answers to the two big questions - Did everything survive the firing? and Will Linda still be having a show on Friday?

Well, sad to say, no, not everything survived the firing. It didn't seem to hit me straight away, but once it had sunk in I felt like crying...



with JOY!!! Only one thing broke!! Woooohoooo!!! I had you going there for a minute didn't I? Yeah, sorry about that, I couldn't resist. :) Wow, I couldn't believe it, a near perfect firing, and the one thing that broke was something that I least expected - a tile! See how the broken one has completely moved from under this pile...


These were bone dry, so I'm guessing that this was an air bubble. Dylan's mask broke before going into the kiln, so now that it is fired I shall glue it together before he paints it.


Despite being damp when they went in, the pitchers/jugs were absolutely fine, which I'm relieved about because if they exploded they would have damaged everything else in the kiln as well. This white clay is absolutely beautiful. I hope it stays close to this colour after I've clear glazed them. I just want to eat them!


And even the tree fairy vase, which I broke and repaired while it was in it's bone dry state, survived! It looks like the feet on the squirrel are fine too. You see how the brown clay has darkened?


Phew! I have a show!! I am sooo excited now! I feel like this is my first proper show and I feel like a real artist now because I have done everything on my own, even the firing! I couldn't have done it without all the wonderful advice and support from you guys though, so thank you so so much!! Wooohooo!! :D

And now, I have lots of glazing to do!!

Update on the firing

Well, I don't think I will be having any clay time today - I am still so anxious about the firing, I just don't know what to do with myself. I thought this was supposed to be good for me??

The kiln has been soaking at 90c for about 4 hours now, and there is still moisture coming out of the kiln, so I have programed it to soak for another hour.

In the mean time, I have been a good little potter and detailed everything in my "log book". Ok, it's just a note pad, but it's just as well because I made such a mess of my graph earlier that I had to rip several pages out! (er... I made a mess several times over!) I should have paid more attention in school. (or maybe it's just been too long!) Let that be a lesson to you kids! You never know when you are going to need these "pointless" skills that you learn at school!



(Ok, so I spelt schedule wrong, but today I am having trouble spelling my own name!!)

I found I needed to write out the schedule on paper first to help me to key it in to the programer, because I was in such a state! So I didn't just write it out for future reference. And the graph is to help me "visualise" it.

I have to say a big thank you to everyone who has given me advice and support. And Keith's post on log books couldn't have come at a better time!! Thank you all!

Edit's with updates likely!

Edit: Hmm... it's getting really smelly out there now! At first I thought it was maybe the smell of the carbon and sulphur burning off, but it smells a little like an actual burning smell now. Is this normal? We've checked and we can't see any evidence of scorching anywhere, and actually the surrounding floor and walls aren't hot at all. It's only up to about 320c so I have quite a while to go yet! I just can't believe how smelly it is! I should have left the conservatory door open, but it's dark and I was worried that every cat in the neighbourhood would see it as an invitation to move in!! I have opened the door slightly now though. The door between the conseratory and our house has been kept closed though, except when I go out there to check on things of course, but then we have the draftiest double glazed door in Britain so it's no wonder the smell is seeping through! It won't kill me, will it?? :)

Oh, and I remembered what the really important thing was that I had forgotten... stilts for the glaze firing!

PANIC ATTACK!!

I'm having palpitations, my stomach is in knots, I'm dripping in sweat and I'm hyperventilating, and I want to burst into tears. It can only mean one thing - I'm firing my kiln today for the first time!! I thought this was suposed to be fun??

I had a look on the internet last night to see what I could find out about firing damp pots. A couple of people stated that they put their kiln on "a slow bisque firing" and everything was ok. Not very helpful is it? I can only assume these people actually have a setting on their kiln that says "slow bisque fire"!! Well, rightly or wrongly, I have set my first ramp at 30c up to 100c, and then 50c up to 300, then 100c up to 600, and full up to 1000c. Scott helped me load the kiln, because I can't actually reach the bottom!

Edit: A big thank you to Kim for her advice on this. I have now altered my program to soak at 90c for 30 mins, but I will keep checking for moisture and will alter the program accordingly. Thankfully I can change the program even while the kiln is firing. Thank you so much Kim!


How come I've worked so hard for so long and produced so few pieces?

This firing has every ingredient for disaster - I've repaired pots that were bone dry, a couple of the pots aren't dry enough, and the kids pieces are probably full of air bubbles - and yet I'm hoping for a miracle!

Here are the jugs/pitchers by the way, finally finished with their handles.


And here is the comparison to the previously made jug.


The spout and collar is much bigger this time round, and I think the "bowl" part looks rounder. Scott thinks they look better this time, and so do I. I probabaly should have made a stencil to use in the future. Oh well.

Wish me luck with the firing!! You never know, I might even have some clay time today - I'm going to have a long wait watching the kiln!!

Clay Day 23!

I can't believe I am near the end of the challenge!! I have been so tired lately (so what's new?) and to be honest I'm not sure which wears me out most - the clay time or the blog time!! I'm having to really push myself now, but I can't give up when I'm so close! And when I have a show in 5 days time!!

So, here are the jugs, nearly finished. I just need to scrape the surface to neaten up the slip inlay, and attach the handles, which I hope to do tonight.



These are no where near going to be dry in time for the firing tomorrow. But my ex-tutor John said that pots can be fired at about 10 degrees centigrade per hour to dry them out. Does that sound right to you? I'm going to scour the internet tonight to see what I can find.

Once again I've kept the slip inlay design simple. Scott said he prefered it this way. Let's hope the buyers at the show do too! What do you think? I thought Emma looked better with no face as well!

Also today I got myself a little comments book ready. This is what it looked like to start with...


... and this is what it looks like now...


Ok, I'm not a great mixed media artist, but it looks better than when it had Tesco written on it!!

There was something else that I thought of the other day, something really important, and now I can't remember what it was!! Oh dear!!

Right, I must see if these handles are ready for me to attach, so that I can go to bed!

Clay Day 21 and 22 - good news, and a thank you :)

Yes, yes, yes!! The good news is that my kiln is now properly wired in and ready to go!! Yippeeee!!!

I was planning to fire it tomorrow, but with all the disruptions I still haven't managed to finish my jugs/pitchers. I confess, I didn't actully have much clay time yesterday, but I did try! I rolled out my clay and cut out the pieces I needed for the "collars", but they were too floppy for me to do anything with, so I had to leave it until today. Here is the progress so far.



I'm wondering if I've gone too big on the collars this time, but maybe they won't look so big once the spouts are attached. I shall add the spouts after uploading this post, and then it's time for bed!

I'm getting very excited now! Up until now I've been concentrating on the clay side of things, but with less than a week to go I now have to think more about the display. At my lowest point (Wednesday, clay day 19), when I wasn't even sure if I would still be taking part in the show, I found it quite theraputic to remove myself from the kiln situation, have a break from the clay, and to go into town and shop for the other things that I will need for the show. So I didn't do much clay that day, but I was still working towards the same goal.

Thank you all for your encouragement over the past week. It means so much to have support from people who know what this means to me.