Thursday morning and the kids are getting ready for school. John’s birthday was Tuesday and he is having a few of the guys over Saturday. Always something to look forward to. A bunch of teenagers hanging around the house. Oh well, keeps them off the streets.
Our kiln issues look to have been handled. After the test firing we had some questions and concerns about the new kiln. My theory is it had been sitting around for awhile before it was shipped and had absorbed more moisture than usual. The first test firing done in the way Shimpo recommended resulted in several cracks in the lid, floor, and most importantly in some of the side wall bricks. Not supposed to happen. We looked at our older kilns and while cracks do develop over time in the tops and floors, none of them have ever had a side brick crack. We contacted Ernest at Shimpo and Tim at Plainsman with photos and Ernest is going to replace the kiln.
I’m going to fire this next one , once we receive it,much more slowly than they recommend for the first firing to make sure we allow the bricks to lose any moisture they might contain. We may have to use the bad one once or twice as we have a very large order we have to push through. We have an order for 110 pieces due for pick up next Friday, the 16th. Just finished making them yesterday so we have bisquing and glaze firing to do in a week. Kiln capacity is at a premium.
Of course once the replacement gets here we have the fun task of exchanging the two kilns . Not sure how we are going to do that yet. Should be interesting.
That said we are very grateful to Ernest and Tim for standing behind the Shimpo Cone Art products. Helps us realize we made the right decision to stick with Cone Art.
Now Thursday evening. Today we worked on getting the 110 pieces to dry. Lots of humidity in the air for some reason. Transferred things to drying racks , moved the fans around a bit and waited. Not really, the waiting took place but we made use of the time by going across town to Plainsman and buying 20 boxes of clay and $500 worth of kiln shelves and posts. Back at the studio we unloaded the van and then I started kilnwashing the new shelves while Cindy built teapots and started trimming and sponging the platters.
Finally called it a day after 5. Tomorrow we hope to get a bisque load going. It is supposed to be rainy for the next few days so we’ll have to push things along as best we can to make next Friday’s deadline. The client is to pick up 110 pieces of pottery then. No pressure!
I’m also working with Chris Craig on some video for his project. We hope to shoot some promotional stuff tomorrow……
so I need my beauty sleep if I’m putting this face in front of the camera!….
nite
September 9th, 2005 at 8:42 pm Just a Hello, LaVonda sent me!