Oct

First October Kiln Firing

It was a bright sunny morning, perfect for the first kiln firing of the season!

We still haven’t quite unpacked from Burning man…

Before firing I had to do a bit of maintenance to the kiln, as well as some spot touchups on the kiln shelves.

: This wasn’t crucial but I wanted to test out the kiln repair cement and make sure I knew how to use it.

: More preventative maintenance.

: Kiln shelf touch ups!

I did two firings, both to a soft tack.

Both firings came out beautifully. A couple of pieces needed more firing but all in all I’m please with the result. Here’s the finished product that’s come out of this firing so far…

I’m in the process of putting them up in the Etsy shop as we speak. I’ll post a new pendant each day. 🙂 Two of them are already up.

Until next time! :3

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Oct

August Kiln Firing

Hello world!

I’ve wanted to post this for awhile now, but dying computer plus the memory card going MIA for a bit kind of put it on hold. Anywho, here we go!

Woke up to a very abnormally chilly morning in Mesa, and cracked open the garage door to see…

What is this madness?!?

…very gentle rain, which is practically unheard of in the summer. If we get rain during this time of year it’s usually the torrential monsoon downpours, complete with lightning, thunder loud enough to set off car alarms, and flash flood warnings.

It was a nice change. It make the kiln cool off quicker. xD

So I shut off the A/C and set up shop in the the lovely messy garage.

One does not simply unpack from Burning Man.

The first firing of the day was for a soft-tack fuse. Here’s the first kiln shelf layout:

I’d been experimenting with a lot of frit, as well as some fabulous scraps I got from Hayden Brook Studios on Etsy. (Digression moment: LOVE their scrap! Lots of color and texture. I will be using much, much more of this type of glass).

I use super glue to hold the pieces temporarily together so I can get them from my studio to the kiln without losing anything. The glue burns off clean long before the glass starts to melt, and to vent the fumes I keep the kiln cracked open for about ten minutes, or until the pyrometer reaches 750 degrees.

Aaaaand roughly 45 minutes later we have results!

A few of the other pieces are missing from this shot because they didn’t fuse enough, so I added them to the second firing, which was supposed(keyword) to be a medium fuse.

With this firing I learned that the difference between medium and full fuse can be as little as two minutes. I kind you not. Two freaking minutes. 😛 They fired to a full fuse, which I personally don’t care for, but I like more structured, geometric designs. Some of the above glass just didn’t work, so they got added to the scrap bin(another post for a later time).

Anywho, here are the final results of the weekend’s firing.