Tip toeing to the cliff

I know I’ve written about this before but all the difference in the world can be related to how the pot was cooled. You want matte surfaces- slow cool. Shiny vibrant surfaces- fast cool.

The bowl at the bottom was fired in the wood kiln to Cone 12 in 32 hours and then cooled for 5 days. The wood kiln is 9” of hard brick and even after 5 days of cooling is a bit of a sweat box to enter into. I took a bowl from that firing and refired it in my gas kiln and cooled it in 24 hours. The gas kiln is 4 ½ inches of insulating firebrick and cools much quicker. My phone photos don't do justice to the surfaces. 

This is the reason why people are down firing their crystalline glazes to get the formation of matte crystals. Personally I like the fast cool. Once while in England we fired the kiln off went to bed tired and woke in the morning to find the door of the wood kiln had fallen out and unloaded itself. To our surprise the pots were amazingly beautiful and not cracked as one would expect. Don’t try this at home!!!

When Bruce Dehnert was here to fire the wood kiln he removed the top three courses of bricks in the door within an hour of shutting the kiln down. I swear I could see the pots pulsing. All was well for a beautiful firing.

We’re all tip toeing to the edge of the cliff and the cliff is 11 miles away.