these bottles are a new thing. when they're leatherhard i squish them between two boards. the one on the right has a rope texture impressed into it. mmmmm......moonshine.
this is an old favorite, but continually challenging. its really hard to do this fluting on a surface that curves two ways and then keep the lines straight.
this is what is left of the rubble when my kiln crashed......twice. yep thats right. i collapsed it twice. enough said.
here she is in her current state. i still have to put up a chimney, insulate the exterior of the arch, do some more steel work, and build in the door. so i guess you could say this is about halfway done.
for all my fellow kiln firers(is that a word?) you'll notice that i've put in a hinged door. i told myself after my last kiln that i would never brick up doors again. it takes forever and it can be hard on your back. the top of this kiln is well above head height so there is no way i'm bricking and unbricking that every time i fire.
the hinge is my own design(though i'm sure its been used somewhere.) all i have is a welder and an angle grinder, so i couldn't do complex cuts or bend anything. so this is the solution i came up with. the male piece is just a short piece of 3/4" rod welded to angle iron welded to the frame. the female part is just a piece of angle iron with a hole in it. three of these along the frame hold it up, and it swings quite nicely. the biggest problem will be bracing it for the weight once i brick it up. haven't figured that one out yet. its funny how much more complicated things can become when you try to simplify things. if i would just get over it and brick up the door i wouldn't need all this fancy steelwork. but i love a good challenge. thats probably why i'm really doing it anyways.
