Another firing successfully completed with some interesting clay tests. It’s the testing of new ideas or technologies that are the pieces I linger over during unloading. This time three new clays from Primo were dotted throughout the kiln and a tweak of my standard clay mix.
I wanted to see how the clays flashed and reacted with the flashing slips. Also inside was a newish idea using water as a resist, splashing water on a piece then pouring a glaze that responds with colour variations due to thickness, kind of a randomising of the process.
We were lucky with the weather, somehow picking the one decent fine day of the week to fire. I’m noticing a slow creep in the wall above the throat arch, instigated by some excess clamming on the outside that I removed before this firing, but there was still about 4mm of creep towards the bag wall. The main consequence is an increase in drips on pots on the lower throat step. No effect on the firing of the kiln so far but does indicate that my H30 bricks are closer to end of life than I had hoped.
