It’s been a long time between drinks as they say, this is my first firing since November last year. I have been busy sorting out a few kilns and doing workshops around the country so it’s not that surprising. Luckily, I struck a few fine, frosty days to load and fire the kiln in as this year we have been very wet.
Some of the pots that ended up in the kiln have been languishing on the ware rack since February, but once underway with the process, the regular rhythms of wadding and loading it was easy to get immersed in the process.
The firing got underway early and with the years first decent frost. I had help from Stuart and Mark, who arrived just on lunchtime and perfect timing to help push the kiln along. The wood I had to fire with was a very mixed bag, some excellent dry pine pallet timber kept back of the end of the firing and a lot of nail ridden rubbish, left over from the workshop firing earlier in the year, plus a demolished chicken coop.
The kiln performed it’s usual magic and was done around 12.5 hours later. The results were great with some very interesting slip developments going on.