Thursday, January 10, 2008

Kiln Disasters


Ok. So all potters have disasters. I've had them before, and I'll have them again. But two kiln disasters in one week really sucks. Granted, they were both totally my fault. But I am still pissed anyway. This first is a glaze disaster. These pictures show a sampling of the total destruction that a new glaze can do without testing. I can't yet mix my own glazes due to storage constraints, so this was a commercial glaze that should have been more stable. It was of course the most expensive of my new glazes. Anyway, it pinholed, it crawled, and it blistered. About half of my small kiln load was ruined. Oh well.

The second kiln mishap happened tonight. I threw a couple of 'big for me' pitchers. One was about 14-1/2" tall when wet, the other about 12-1/2". I let them dry for what I thought was ample time and they didn't feel wet or cold when I started the kiln, but the bigger one blew up anyway. There I was, throwing a teapot, and BOOM! It didn't really mess anything else up in the kiln, which is a good thing since my S&P shakers for the Mud Team competition were in there. But it was still one of my favorites, and I really loved the shape. Now it has a big ass hole in the side.