Almost there.

Not much to report today. The pots are all out in the barn, about 2/3 of them are wadded. 222 pots to be exact, I wonder if that's good luck? The shelves are cleaned and ready to go and I cut a bunch of new posts as well. I don't know if I need them but I do have some that are getting pretty gnarly. The kiln holds in the realm of 200 pots with a variety of sizes so it's nice to have extra to choose from. I have quite a few larger bowls so that will probably bring the count down a bit.

More pots.


I sort of fixed the gap in the kiln. It came to me the other day that I did this last year, though the gap wasn't as bad then. I didn't take any photos of the process to fix it but here is what I did last year. I did pretty much the same thing this time though I put blocks on all the corners to keep the strap from sticking on the sharp brick corners. I was able to close it to about 1/2-3/8" which is tolerable I suppose. This was as tight as I could get the strap without breaking the mechanism. I really have no idea why the kiln is walking so bad. Maybe I built it too tight? But then why would it keep expanding? Why only on the firebox side? I guess the weight of the stack buttresses the other side pretty well. I've heard lots of stories about catenary arches walking but it usually takes longer than six firings. Hmm....I think I'm going to have to think about bracing.


Tomorrow is going to be a long day consisting of chopping the remainder of the wood and stacking the kiln. Somewhere in there I have to teach a class as well.

Cheers!