Successful Firing!

Brenda salting the kiln

 Yesterday was a success in firing my kiln for the second go-around. I installed three passive dampers in the rear and sides of the chimney prior to the firing. That basically means I knocked three bricks into the chimney and replaced the holes with removable angle bricks. I hate to know how stuck those bricks are that got knocked into the chimney are! The passive dampers really helped with forcing cool air into the chimney which kept the heat in the ware chamber for a longer period of time. It cut down on my fuel usage too, which amazed me. It wasn't until it was above 1300 degrees Fahrenheit that the kiln really started eating wood, and even then it was not as much as I thought it would have been.

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 The above photo is of some of the draw trials I pulled from the kiln between the periods of salting. I am very excited to see the gray clay body and the blue cobalt slip colors look good! I am a little concerned about the amount of ash that accumulated from last week's firing with the additional ash from this firing. The below photo is of one of the last draw trials I pulled out from a particularly hot part of the kiln, but when I went to pull it out, it was slightly stuck and then trailed this long spew of salty ash behind it! It looked like a very thin sliver of taffy! When the kiln was crash cooling (I'm sorry I didn't have the mind to take photos) it was evident there is going to be a lot of runny ash glazed pots, which could be either really wonderful or really disastrous.