Back Again!

After a lovely combination of three week vacation and major kiln repair, I am finally able to post some new work! After a major overhaul of wiring, and 2 element replacements, I made a test batch of tiles and a big bowl, to see if things were back to normal.

A happy sight indeed!

Not only that, the kiln seems to be getting it all done about a half hour early.

Great efficiency. Thank you, kiln.

Now that I can depend on proper firing, I can re fire the plates I had to re do after a horrible amount of breakage, just before I went off on holiday. (See previous post).

I cant say I minded running away from disaster.

So today, I am happy to report very spiffy looking plates, and as is often the case, the re dos are even better than the originals.

I now know to never, never fire during very damp conditions, like rain storms....that is in fact what probably broke all the plates in that fateful load. It was raining cats and dogs that night. If the temperature in the kiln was also inconsistent, before the repairs, then that surely didn't help either.

This week we had a lot of rain too, and I waited until an entirely rain free day, firing in the afternoon, just to make sure.

I waited to re fire this lovely pitcher that was under fired in one of the firings before the repair...thank goodness it didn't fit in that final load.

I have 5 more plate re dos to fire yet, and a few new pieces, including some soup bowls that will have fish and orchids on them...I feel so relieved to have the kiln working. I was all traumatised by that broken stuff, and was afraid to fire the re dos! Now I can relax , I think.