Pres Posted May 20, 2020 Report Share Posted May 20, 2020 HI folks, nothing in the pool again. I have been loading the kiln today, and it reminded me of something that happened years ago that might make a good topic with a few laughs. Seems we may need a good laugh lately. So my newest contribution to the Question of the Week is: QotW: What is the silliest thing you have done or seen done dealing with Ceramics? I was teaching Ceramics 1 at the HS, and someone asked me to come check out her small kiln. She said that the kiln setter was not working and that she had over fired her last load. I went to her house, the 6 cubic foot kiln was setting on the floor, and the lid was up on the kiln. It was obvious she had overfired, but had cleaned up pretty well as she used a shelf to protect the floor of the kiln. So I started checking out the setter to see what the problem might be. All seemed to be in order, but the drop tab would not swing down. I asked her if this was the first time firing, and she said no, that she had fired the kiln several times over the last few years. Hmmm. Did something happen to the kiln lately I asked. No, we had just finished cleaning up the area, and moved it back into place. I started looking around and noticed a handle on the floor near the kiln. Turns out they had left the dust pan on the floor, and as it was late at night they had placed one leg on the dust pan. Since she didn't have shelves other than the floor shelf she did not realize the kiln was not level. QotW: What is the silliest thing you have done or seen done dealing with Ceramics? best Pres Benzine and Hulk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldlady Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 how about the day when i was loading the kiln and i readjusted some items on a shelf and put the shelf down, loaded another one above it and continued to the top. when i opened the kiln and removed the shelves, one had a vase stuck to the bottom of it. there was no post next to the vase and it was about a quarter of an inch shorter than the other 2 posts across from the vase so i never realized i had put the shelf down on the vase and not a post. and i thought i had formed the habit in the beginning of putting the posts in first before loading anything. Hulk, Pres and Benzine 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 (edited) Silly or stupid-its a toss up lets see back in art school early 70s -well lets call him Ed (to protect the stupid) stacked the 36 cubic Alpine with bisque ware one late afternoon and started a candle falme on kiln and left-I was throwing late after after a few hours we all heard a huge Kabam sound and dust shot out of kiln room in huge clouds. What the heck we all slowly went it to see what that cpould have been??? Seems Ed did not know about lining up all the posts on top of each other on shelves-he just put them where he felt like and the whole load collapsed to the floor taking out all the greenware-all 26 cubic feet of it.Many people where not happy with Ed after that. Lets move forward about 5 years and Ed was firing his 1st homemade catanary arch kiln-it was propane-he had trouble lighting it-has the gas on and then turned it off and went for more matches-started the burners again and Kabam as the kiln had lots of heavy propane still trapped in foor area it went off like a bomb. The arch went up -he was crouched to the side and was knocked away of front wall as both front and rear walls blew out and arch came down in pieces-a complete loss of wares and kiln. He was ok but shaken.I was about 25 feet away at the time. Fast forward about two more years Ed called me to see if I was interested in buying all his stuff which I did at that time.I figure I saved many many a pots from destruction getting Ed out of clay . Never heard from Ed again but if you hear a huge Kabam sound he may around still. Edited June 23, 2020 by Mark C. GEP, LeeU, Hulk and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liambesaw Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 (edited) In school we had three different firings, 5 kilns. We had lowfire/bisque, cone 6, and cone 10. The lowfire and cone 6 were always done in big top loaders, and the cone 10 stuff was saved for the big walk-in gas kiln outside. Students would put their work to be fired on big rolling shelves clearly labeled with the firing temp, well one of the TAs grabbed two carts of porcelain and loaded them in the gas kiln, grabbed the stoneware and loaded it, and after the professor checked, gave it the go ahead to start the firing. Well one of the porcelain carts was not porcelain, it was a bunch of another TAs lowfire slipware. They had to replace sections of the floor, and after that, no more lowfire clay, and all clays had to be purchased from the school. I talked to a person who is currently going there and it sounds like they're down to two clays, cone 10 stoneware or cone 10 porcelain, and use a cone 10 stoneware for raku. But now they also do 2 wood firings a year, which I'm very jealous of. It wasn't the person loading being silly though, it was the other TA who was pretty much trying to run a business out of the school studio. He got in trouble for making sinks and selling them as well. Edited May 21, 2020 by liambesaw Hulk, Pres and Benzine 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pres Posted May 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 I remember the salt, and gas firing I did. I was a grad student at Penn State taking Summer classes. My firing partner and I used a small salt kiln outside that had no door, had to be bricked up. We loaded up ware from everyone including a lot of our own. All went well, until about 1am, when the bricked in door started bulging out about 1 1/2 f feet. We scrambled around to try and find a way of bracing it up and did so with some T supports that were somewhere nearby. We got to where we should put in the salt, did that right, but did not close the damper before hand. Really dry salt firing, but not a failure, if the door had collapsed I don't have any idea what would have happened. I don't think it would have been pretty! best, Pres Benzine, Hulk and liambesaw 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 Low fire and high fire programs will always sooner or later have this diasater-its not if its when If you are the teacher trying this approach of low and high fire you are sitting on a ready made disaster.It will ruin a lot of equipment and furniture and work-just will take some time no matter how you set up the checks and balances. I had outlawed any low fire clay in my studio in the 70s-I had a few pugs outside of 06 clay -some tine in the 80s some found its way in the glaze fire-wahat a mess-threw out low fire clay and never looked back. Benzine and Pres 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pres Posted May 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2020 Teaching in HS, I made the decision to transition from ^06 to ^6. Itw as a personal decision on my part, but in the long run I believe it benefited the program. That transition however made me aware of the fact that low/high fire clays and glazes would not mix. So I did not allow anything in the studio unless the clay came from the studio. bst, Pres liambesaw and Benzine 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liambesaw Posted May 22, 2020 Report Share Posted May 22, 2020 1 hour ago, Pres said: Teaching in HS, I made the decision to transition from ^06 to ^6. Itw as a personal decision on my part, but in the long run I believe it benefited the program. That transition however made me aware of the fact that low/high fire clays and glazes would not mix. So I did not allow anything in the studio unless the clay came from the studio. bst, Pres We were only allowed to buy clay from the school as students. The TAs or studio assistants as they liked to be called, were allowed a lot of latitude in what they wanted to do. After they switched everything to cone 10 it made recycling clay a lot simpler too, everything was just tossed into a single bin and what came out was the "free" clay. A mixture of stoneware and porcelain all plugged together was all I could afford at the time lol. Pres and Benzine 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeU Posted May 22, 2020 Report Share Posted May 22, 2020 I was infatuated with the ceramic process and work of the Pamunkey Indians, a Virginia tribe located within a day trip from VCU's School of the Arts where I was earning my BFA in ceramics. I had studied the work of the Maria Martinez and other native people's doing pit firing & burnishing black & red wares and I knew the Pamunkey's were just beginning to resurrect their craft. I lucked out and got to tag along for a few weeks with an anthropologist who was assisting them with research and reconstruction of their history and the reestablishment of all aspects their traditional way of life. I got to learn about making/firing/finishing the pottery along with them and just couldn't wait to do it on my own. Silly me. Apparently the small back yard of an urban apartment, with fussy neighbors and even fussier management (something about not liking the smoke-go figure) was not an appropriate place to do my thing. I might have given them some lip about why the heck can't I do what I choose with my little patch of ground, but they were having none of it and threatened to kick me out--only the fact that I was a single mom with a young child saved my butt...but I had to cease and desist with the backyard bar-b-ques! Pres, Denice, Benzine and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pres Posted May 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2020 Reminds me of the years in the beginning when I had an old electric kiln, just replaced with a new L&L. The school had a courtyard in the center of the complex that was walled by classroom 4 stories up all around. I was in the basement, and a door led out to the courtyard. I decided to get permission to do Raku in the courtyard with the electric kiln. I read up on everything, and made certain we could reach temp in time, and made certain to unplug the kiln from the industrial extension leading out. We had burn barrels for reduction, I mixed up some glazes. . . and we went at it. Did it for about 3 years with teachers learning to close their windows in the Spring other wise get smoked out! About the 3rd year they made a decision to put Central Supply in the HS building. They roofed over the courtyard, and put in double doors with a ramp in. No more raku. Never did determine if it was logistics, or a sneaky way of getting rid of raku. . . Forgot to mention that the Superintendents offices were on the first floor on one wall facing the courtyard! best, Pres Benzine and LeeU 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pres Posted May 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2020 Opened a glaze load this morning. Turned off yesterday at 3am. AS I was lifting the lid off (I use two handles on the kiln lid to remove and place on. As I often fire my sectional with 4 sections) One of the handles broke, and tore my hand on two fingers. Luckily the lid was mostly on the floor so it didn't get damaged. Nothing a few bandaids couldn't handle, but bled quite a bit. Load is great, get to grind and ship out the last of the Communion sets this year. best, Pres Benzine 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted May 22, 2020 Report Share Posted May 22, 2020 Prep-Your lid is loose sitting on top?? no hinge? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pres Posted May 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2020 20 minutes ago, Mark C. said: Prep-Your lid is loose sitting on top?? no hinge? Yeah Mark, my lid is not hinged as I switch between 3&4 sections. I have had this set up for years, then about 5 years ago I put on a new thicker lid, and added a second handle. I lift the lid off of the floor to put it on the kiln no matter how many sections, not a problem. However, the handles are sheet metal hollow rounded. the handle broke near the end of the grip close to the screw plates. best, Pres Benzine 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denice Posted May 22, 2020 Report Share Posted May 22, 2020 Like everyone else I have seen my share of kiln disasters. The worse one was the year I was graduating from college, it was the last firing for the year. A friend had begged the master students to put some of her pots in the firing. Some how she had gotten some low fire clay mixed in, her pieces on the top shelf melted and ran down the pots below. I am not sure if every piece was ruined but it sure looked like it. I didn't have any work in it I had already started working with C5/6 oxidation and usually fired at home. A few month later I came home to find a dozen 5 gal buckets of dried up clay sitting in my driveway. She had left a note saying she was giving up clay. I called her and asked what cone the clay was and she said she didn't know. Fortunately we had a area in our yard that always need fill because of a creek. Denice Benzine and Hulk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benzine Posted May 23, 2020 Report Share Posted May 23, 2020 Hmmmm, off the top of my head, I'm going to go with this one: During my fifth year teaching, I had a Ceramics I class, in which I also had a couple "helpers". I forget what that District called them, but essentially they got a credit for helping a teacher, with whatever they needed. Generally I would only have one per class, but for some reason, I accepted both at the same time. Anyway, the way we recycled clay, was by having the students hand mix the wet reclaim, with a dry clay powder. I realize now, this was it's own level of stupid, and it was just something I did, because that's how it had been done by the previous instructor. I had a couple students, who needed more clay, and the clay powder was out. So I sent my helpers to get another bag from storage. The students mixed it with the reclaim, and that was that... UNTIL, some of the projects made with that clay were fired. Said projects partially melted. Unlike several of the other stories, this was not a Low Fire/ Mid-High Fire issue, because we only used Low Fire. Instead, it was a label reading issue. The helper students grabbed a bag of dry GLAZE powder, without looking at what it was. Am I partially to blame? Absolutely! I should have double checked, and in their defense, the bags looked identical, minus the stamped label, which is partially abbreviated. Luckily, there wasn't enough glaze mixed with the clay, to damage anything. The projects didn't even stick to the shelf. Basically they were large scale Egyptian Paste sculptures. And fortunately, the contaminated clay was easy to find, and dispose of. The worst part was that the students lost a project that they worked on. They still got a proper grade for it, they just had nothing to take home. Pres, Denice and Hulk 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hulk Posted June 23, 2020 Report Share Posted June 23, 2020 (edited) Silly, yep; many, many ...and just three years in! Mentioned previously (somewhere in here), my inexpensive scale came with two calibration weights - ooh, I thought that was a mistake, haha! Having calibrated the scale with one of the two weights, the reading, of course, was off by 50%, which I finally caught when I'd learned about adjusting specific gravity (glazing) - my cheap plastic graduated cylinder is wrong! Oh. Up to then, no problem mixing glaze batches, as the proportions were ok, however, wasn't very happy comparing my one, two and three pound pieces with what I was seeing others do online. Haha! Have been a bit happier since recalibration, as a pound of clay goes a bit further than half a pound... No one got hurt. Perhaps not silliest, however, for me, silly includes dangerous and disastrous, e.g. (not ceramic related), cutting tree/shrub branches at an angle, well away from the next join, leaving behind a long sharp stake and obvious potential for injury/death. Edited June 23, 2020 by Hulk silly Pres 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pres Posted June 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2020 I guess all too often the things that cause the most concern at the moment, in retrospect, can bring the most laughter. We realize our stupidity when it happens or just after, but learn the lesson. best, Pres Benzine 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benzine Posted June 26, 2020 Report Share Posted June 26, 2020 On 6/23/2020 at 11:01 AM, Pres said: I guess all too often the things that cause the most concern at the moment, in retrospect, can bring the most laughter. We realize our stupidity when it happens or just after, but learn the lesson. best, Pres And sometimes that concern, doesn't even involve us. I was talking to a teacher, at a nearby District, during our Conference Art Show. Her students had some nice Raku pieces and I asked about the set up they used. She informed me that she used their normal electric classroom kiln, and had a nearby exterior door, where they carried the wares for reduction. I asked, "So you turn the kiln *OFF* before reaching in with the *METAL* tongs right?!" She kind of chuckled and said, that she hadn't thought about that. Now she could have been using sarcasm. However, know that I've known her for several years, I'm honestly not sure she was... Hulk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pres Posted June 26, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2020 Yeah, I used the electric raku outside with and extension cord, always unplugged before opening kiln. Don't know as a problem, but read in one text where hot air is a conductor so I took precautions. Better safe.. . . . best, Pres Hulk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hulk Posted June 26, 2020 Report Share Posted June 26, 2020 The steeped in safety culture of the Steel Mill (where I worked for several years) changed my life - doesn't mean I don't make mistakes, doesn't mean I don't (stupidly/silly-ly) do dangerous things - just "see" somewhat differently. A safety measure only has to "work" one time. The opposite is, sadly, also true. Pres and Benzine 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Beller Diesel Posted June 26, 2020 Report Share Posted June 26, 2020 My personal dumbest moment was back in college while loading the outdoor soda kiln in sub zero temperatures while not turning on the gas burners to heat the inside of the kiln. The posts and the shelves were so cold (they were kept outside) they froze the wadding, and when it melted, it shifted the stack and the whole thing fell over. I was not popular for this particular move. Hulk, Benzine and Pres 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinR Posted June 26, 2020 Report Share Posted June 26, 2020 Re raku firing. The first one I was involved with was in my teacher's basement. A 10 cu ft electric kiln with pulley that lifted the lid. The shelves were built up so that only the top layer was used. Once the pots reached the required temp the lid was lifted (I don't know if the kiln was turned off) and the pots were tonged into garbage cans through the basement window. How many rules does that break? It never happened again and the house didn't burn down (miracle) and no one was hurt (another miracle. Lin blackthorn, Benzine and Hulk 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benzine Posted July 1, 2020 Report Share Posted July 1, 2020 @Callie Beller Diesel Should have pinned it on a fictional student. "Oh no, I didn't load the kiln, that was Bradjelina!" @LinR That story, "Yikes!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Beller Diesel Posted July 1, 2020 Report Share Posted July 1, 2020 @Benzine You had to sign up for kilns, so everyone knew I had loaded it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denice Posted July 1, 2020 Report Share Posted July 1, 2020 When I was in high school did our Raku in our class room, we pulled the pieces out of the one electric kiln the school had and put them in a galvanized bucket filled with newspapers and put a lid on it. There was a big sink nearby and they were taken out of the bucket and washed while they were still hot. This is the same teacher you left the kiln on all night and melted his pots all over the shelves. He burned down the clay classroom a few years after I graduated, the board of education had a huge gas kiln brought in to replace the small electric kiln lost in the fire. He must of fired it on the weekends, I can't imagine firing a gas kiln around students during class. Denice Hulk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.