02 October 2012

Ready to Burn Some Wood

I've been happily loading the kiln for most of the last week. The weather has been grand and today Jason and I buttoned it up and gave it a couple of hours of pre-heating. We'll light up at 5PM tomorrow and than stoke for 24-26 hours. I want to soak the first chamber for a couple of hours at the top temperature to see if the bottom will catch up. We also opened up the bagwall some with the same idea in mind.
Full moon rising over soybean field.
The last pots made for this firing.
Making wads.
Gluing wads to foot
Each chamber is 40" dep. I first stack two 24"x12" shelves in the back and than a stack of 24"x16" in front. It's a lot of pots. I'm always amazed how it eats them up. That's my medieval jug/Doug Fitch homage in a sweet spot.
First chamber/ backstack
Second chamber/ backstack
Front chambers loaded and ready to go!

5 comments:

cookingwithgas said...

Gosh, that is a pretty load.

brandon phillips said...

That's a pretty kiln Dan. Every time I see a photo of it I get a little envious.

Have you tried using really thin pieces of wood to help get heat across the bottom? Like 1x2 or even thinner? I don't know the physics but it works. I keep small stacks of different thicknesses to help even the kiln out if need be.

Hannah said...

Looks fab Dan. Hope it's a good one.

Anna M. Branner said...

It's always so exciting!

Hollis Engley said...

Good luck, Daniel. I have no doubt it will be great.