Well, I got the new kiln- but didn’t have a way to vent it other than opening the garage door. We had to have an electrician come out and add an outlet for the vent fan- and then cut a hole in the garage to install the vent. Jared and I finally got the piping and electronics for the vent installed over the weekend. So I did a glaze firing!
…and am learning from failure! A lot of the pieces in this firing “bloated” which basically means that gases within the clay body didn’t fire out completely when bisque fired- so once the clay and glaze started to melt- the air got sealed in and made bubbles in the clay itself.
At least- that’s what I think caused it. Not all of the pieces had bloat bubbles- so I don’t think it has to do with any odd mineral content in our water. The glaze didn’t run- and nothing deformed- so I don’t think it “overfired”- which the kiln controller backs up.
So yeah. Lack of oxygen/ air flow during the bisque not allowing all the organics to burn out of the clay seems like the most likely culprit. I won’t know for sure until I do another full bisque and glaze firing… This is all a long way of saying that I have maybe half a dozen pieces that I consider sellable- meaning no bloat- no glaze flaws- food safe etc. I’ll try to get them photographed and up on Etsy tomorrow.
After that- the plan is to start over and make more things! If you have a request- let me know. I’m excited to start on a couple bigger robots though.