oddartist Posted August 16, 2016 Report Share Posted August 16, 2016 No - NOT a kiln sitter - more like a little totem you place on your kiln for luck when firing. Many bags of clay ago I had purchased a used kiln but was terrified to fire it. I had no idea what I was doing and the internet wasn't quite a thing yet. I posted on a bulletin board (yes, I am old) for someone to hold my hand through my first load. The girl who answered brought over a project to work on while we brought the beast to life. I had nothing started so she suggested I create a 'kiln watcher'. She said it would bring luck and watch over your wares while firing. I still have that thing and even recently made it a little kitty all it's own to keep it company while it sits atop every load I fire. I'm just curious what type of superstitions you've got or heard of regarding clay? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oddartist Posted August 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2016 Sorry - slow connection fooled me. Didn't mean to repeat myself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted August 16, 2016 Report Share Posted August 16, 2016 Do You Employ A Kiln Watcher? Mine all work for free so I save a lot of money Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bciskepottery Posted August 16, 2016 Report Share Posted August 16, 2016 http://community.ceramicartsdaily.org/topic/12636-qotw-are-kiln-gods-superstition/?hl=%2Bkiln+%2Bgods Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Selsor Posted August 16, 2016 Report Share Posted August 16, 2016 many many years ago I visited Vivika and Otto heino when they were still in New Hampshire or Vermont. I was in a group from Mudflats on Boston and we went on a studio tour. Visited Michael Cohen, Gerry Williams and the Heinos. Vivika and Otto had over 400 Kiln Gods around the frame of their kiln. I employed them when I was teaching at the university in Montana. After I retired I went back to see if I could have some of them for memory sake. They had been thrown away by the new teachers. They thought they were bad juju. Unfortunately, the roof caught on fire the last week of their first semester. just saying. Marcia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denice Posted August 16, 2016 Report Share Posted August 16, 2016 I would see the people firing the kilns in college make a new one for each firing but I never acquired the habit. Denice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Selsor Posted August 16, 2016 Report Share Posted August 16, 2016 Marti Geiger-Ho wrote a book on the Kiln Gods around the world. her name on here was Kiln Goddess. Marcia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pres Posted August 16, 2016 Report Share Posted August 16, 2016 Kiln gods I do not use or employ. However, I always have a few cone packs drying on a firing. As to employing someone to watch my kiln. . . . I could not pay them enough to do the hours I do, from 5 or 6 pm til 2 am. Rather do it myself anyway as I use as much temp color to watch the kiln as I do the cone packs. Cone packs are only so good as long as you are near the end of a firing. I don know of anyone that sets kiln packs for quartz inversion or other stages in the kiln. In the long run there is as much wizardry of science as there is precision of science. best, Pres Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Selsor Posted August 16, 2016 Report Share Posted August 16, 2016 I have always seen them around kilns where I worked. Undergrad, potters studios, Grad. school. For firings in school, someone from the firing team made a kiln god for their firing. Tradition. In Spain I saw many kilns that had been blessed by priests with a cross marked on the wall. Potters there also had statues of Santas Just a and Rufina, the patron saints of pottery. They were martyred in Seville for selling pots on a Roman holiday. When I went to Seville's great Cathedral , one of 3 largest in the world, I visited their chapel. I was more interested in that than Christopher Columbus's tomb...but that was interesting too. Marcia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilly Posted August 16, 2016 Report Share Posted August 16, 2016 No. Goes completely against my non-religion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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