i unloaded my first electric kiln firing on sunday....
the kiln was loaded full of test pieces. i was trying to accomplish two things in this firing. it was composed completely of pieces that i had made for the dual purpose of relearning to throw (as all you potters out there know, you have to relearn to throw after a long break) but these pieces would also serve as giant test pieces for the glazes i am experimenting with. let me explain... i have always fired in a gas reduction kiln or a salt kiln. these are often the really large kilns you see built out of bricks. they are fired using gas or propane as their means of a heat source as opposed the smaller commercially manufactured kiln i am using now that is powered by electricity.
this adventure is new for me. while i have some experience firing electric with my 4-H pottery, using an electric kiln as my sole means of producing pottery is completely new. the atmosphere inside the kiln is completely different than that inside a reduction kiln and especially a salt kiln (which is a gas kiln but salt is added during the firing). i am branching out into really new territory. i tested 6 new glazes as well as 8 variations of the ash glazes that i love so much. i am very pleased with ash glazes. below is an example of one of the ash glazes with melted glass in the bottom of the bowl:
i was also completely stoked about the turquoise pictured inside the mug on the top and the temmoku pictured in the tumbler on the bottom of the picture:
the pumpkin (upper left, pay no attention to not-so-great glaze application, it is just a test piece after all!) which will i will pair end up pairing with an ash glaze create finishes similar to my reduction fired work...
overall there was some serious misses, but more than that, there were some serious hits! i am so pleased! with any luck (fingers crossed) and a lot of work, i hope to have a solid collection of marketable and sell-able pottery by the end of the month!
