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Tempting The Kiln Gods


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Last Wednesday I started a glaze load at 5:15 in the morning. By 9:15 that night, it still had not reached ^5. :angry:

 

I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count, as to who needs new elements in her 25 year old Skutt 181 KS. Yup. This girl! Fortunately for me, my husband is in Tacoma [275 miles to the west of me] and could pick up the new elements from CAC, thus saving us on shipping.

 

Of course, clueless individual that I can be, I didn't have any witness cones in the kiln for this first glaze firing, so I really have no idea of just how near or far away I was to the target ^5 temperature. She had managed to reach ^06 for bisque in the past without much difficulty, or so I had thought. I've since found out that 8 and a half hours with a modest to light load was probably a bit excessive. So I just figured it would probably take in the neighborhood of 10 hours to reach ^5. That's what I get for doing my own thinking, huh?

 

Once the dust had settled and the kiln had cooled completely, I set about unloading it. It was pretty apparent to me that the bottom element was the only one trying to pull its weight, as only the pieces on the bottom tier appear to have come any where near where they needed to be temperature wise. These were all of my small pieces, mugs mostly. The next two levels look like cat poo in a thunderstorm! :wacko:They didn't even come close to reaching ^5, I think.

 

I spoke to my kiln guru on Wednesday night and he said it would be no problem to re-fire the load once I have my new elements. My questions to y'all are as follows:

 

1) Can I apply a bit more glaze to the pieces that didn't come anywhere near temperature? (I noticed that there were a few places where I didn't get the glaze quite as heavy as I'd like it to be.)

 

2) Do I need to reapply kiln wash to the shelves? It looks to be still pretty much intact, but I noticed a bit of color, almost as if someone had used a spray gun, surrounding where each piece had sat on the shelf. I can only assume this is due to the outgassing of the glaze?

 

I dunno. Like I said, I'm still pretty clueless to this whole process. Just kind of flying by the seat of my pants here. Experience is, after all, the best teacher. Right?

 

Your thoughts are very much appreciated and welcomed. And if you think it would do any good, go ahead and give me a good dressing down on the Do's and Don'ts of glaze firing. Though I will say, my butt is already pretty sore from the kicking I've been giving myself for the past couple of days! (note to self: Buy some dang witness cones!!! :angry: )

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You can reapply glaze to the areas that are thin by heating them up first in an oven.  If it's really thin it might be hard to get enough glaze on it to make a difference.  Sometimes reglazing works other times not but it doesn't hurt to try.  Make sure you wash them with soap and water before heating them up, any oil from handling them left on the pot will make a difference on how it reglazes.     Denice

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1) Can I apply a bit more glaze to the pieces that didn't come anywhere near temperature? (I noticed that there were a few places where I didn't get the glaze quite as heavy as I'd like it to be.)


 


2) Do I need to reapply kiln wash to the shelves? It looks to be still pretty much intact, but I noticed a bit of color, almost as if someone had used a spray gun, surrounding where each piece had sat on the shelf. I can only assume this is due to the outgassing of the glaze?


 


1Yes you can reappy glaze-warm the piece 1st


Refiring the glazes  they often turn out different than one expects.


2 No need to wash shelves the colored rings are normal and do not worry about it as its just offgassing.


3 you can buy cones and elements online as well.


Mark

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Thanks folks! I really do appreciate the help!!!

 

I'm not overly concerned about getting unexpected results with the glaze on the pieces that didn't get anywhere near ^5. I just kind of figure that 1) it's a learning process and 2) that just means there's a bit of a story to tell about them! [that's my story and I'm sticking to it! :lol: ]

 

Is there any particular temperature range I should be shooting for in warming each of the pieces up? Do I need to reapply the glaze while they're still warm? Or do I let them cool off a bit?

 

The kiln sitter cones [^5] that I have start out life as a light-ish shade of green. It did manage to change to an off white-ish color but there was no deformation of the cone. Any guesses as to how high the kiln might have reached?

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cold glazed pots do not want to accept a new, wet layer of glaze.  it will slide down and not stick . amy, any method of warming the pot will work. warming is the important thing. just be sure to apply the glaze immediately.  if you wait until it cools again, it won't stick.  you are overthinking the moisture in a gas oven. i have used my last pm so i am posting here.  

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