Friday, June 13, 2014

Making

I'm back at it in the studio, making pots and getting ready to fire the new kiln.  My first firing is tentatively scheduled for next Sunday, the 22nd.  I have my electric kiln hooked up, I haven't fired any pots in it yet but I did fire my cast burner ports and it performed admirably.


I mixed up my usual four batches of clay which is about 1300 pounds.  That used to be two firings worth, not sure what it is now.

I'm slowly getting pots made but I'm having trouble getting a rhythm going.  I'm used to making large runs of pots for two wood firings.  30 soup bowls, 20 serving bowls, 60 cups, a dozen teapots, etc. With a smaller kiln it seems ludicrous to make enough to do 3 or 4 back to back firings.  So the cycle will change, 8 cups here, 4 serving bowls there.  That's going to be tough for a workaholic type potter like me.  For me working on pots is an addiction, at the end of the day I need to see boards full of pots, and of course it's never enough.  It's hard to stop at 4 or 6 or 8.  My studio was setup to hold enough pots for two firings with the idea that I would eventually be building a two chamber wood kiln.  For a variety of reasons I decided last year that a larger kiln wasn't in the cards for me.  So, I dunno.  I'll figure it out though.

Cheers!