Monday, July 5, 2010

KILN UPDATE

The elements arrived on Friday and I started prep to replace the elements that afternoon. I removed all the pins I could find and separated the kiln rings. On Saturday, I removed the electrical boxes and sniped the crimped connectors and removed the elements and replaced them with new ones.

By 4PM I had the new elements installed and started a cone 06 test fire. The kiln fired even and faster than it has been. Just a little bit of swearing and momentary lapses in sanity and the kiln is like new.

Out of my recent glaze fire, I got an adjusted test glaze out. I have been working on a Ki-Seto style ash glaze with copper accents over and under the glaze. This recent test which is a combo of wood and husk ash has come out somewhat close to what I was after. I am after a wetter, more glistening style of Ki-Seto and not the rougher aburagi style glaze like Hori Ichiro. It needs some work and some fine tuning, but ever journey begins with the first step.