Last January I took glad delivery of Blue Tsuru, my ginormous front-loading L and L Kiln. I think I mentioned it on a webpage I no longer maintain. You might remember. It looked like this:
She was placed, leveled, wired-up and test fired.
Things went wrong.
Irrevocably.
No one’s fault, really. Shit happens.
And here we have the “18 1/2 minute gap” while things were rectified.
Throughout I continued to make new work, sometimes firing it in my smaller kilns, but building to the first load for this one.
Fast Forward (another tape-derived term) to this month.
We did two successful low and high temp test firings, to everyone’s great relief.
Here’s the first bisque loading, in which I thought would cram her full. Turns out she’s not just ginormous, she rivals the Big Room at Carlsbad Caverns
And, since we are paying complete attention to what the electronics, the thermocouples AND the actual temperature is on each shelf, here are the cone-packs from that firing. Not sure why the bottom did not register our heatwork witness cone goal, but too cool, especially for a bisque, is better than too hot. These are problems we can work out!
Turns out Hot Out of the Kiln means more than ever this year.
Liz Crain — who has no words for that moment of opening a kiln after a firing. There is nothing like it. “Christmas” or “Surprise Party” pale horribly in comparison. It is its own moment of grace. A bolt of enlightenment. Every time.
So glad you got your “new” big kiln back up and running!
Thanks Terry!