firing #2

here are some photos from my second firing. the firing was extrememly successful. i had a heck of a time getting this one to fire evenly because of some massive west texas winds whipping across here. i would have waited but i had a last minute order for christmas, so it had to get done. the winds were causing the back-bottom of the kiln to fire about 4-5 cones hotter than the rest of the kiln. i slowed it down to try and even out the temps and it was moderately successful. a nine hour firing turned into a 13 and a half hour firing. i ended up using a good amount more wood and ended up with a bit more ash than i would've liked. it ended up with cone 10 bending everywhere except the back-bottom where i'm guessing it ended up somewhere between cone 12-13.



the front oxidized a bit, but it was just a few pots.


this was fired on the bagwall, and for some reason the pieces there just don't get blasted the way i thought they would. it looks just like any other pot in the kiln.


mmmmmm....

here are my obligatory plates wadded with seashells. just about every vapor/wood firing potter does some form of these. space is a serious commodity in kilns, especially wood kilns(plates are space wasters), so stacking them just makes sense.

this "leaf" design is something new for me. i'm ok with a brush when i have good ones. my handmade brushes were stolen a couple years ago when my studio was burglarized, so all this brushwork is done with one of those cheapies from hobby lobby. i can get good brushes off the internet, but brushes are sort of like pots, they need to be handled before you purchase them.

this is my favorite from this firing. i loosely brushed a thin slip on hakeme style in a couple of layers to give the surface some depth. where the slip is thickest it cracked a bit, love it when it does that.

this is one of my slab platters that didn't make the cut. i'm having some structural issues with the big ones, i'll figure it out soon enough. this was about 20 inches end to end.

my green ash looked amazing. for some reason this glaze has so much more depth in this kiln. the formula is as follows:

custer feldspar: 4

wood ash: 4 (i use mesquite)

ball clay: 2

red iron oxide: 1.5%

redart: 1.5%

bentonite: 3% (for leatherhard glazing)

well, there you go. happy holidays.