Bloody kiln.

I’m annoyed. 

It’s really hard trying to work out a kiln. The settings and controller are all straightforward, however what happens inside the kiln is an absolute mystery. 

I’ve now completed four glaze fires and overall, it’s been a mixed bag. Some great hits - my midnight sapphire glaze has reacted well, although will run if too thick. But there have been major fails where the glazes simply haven’t worked - and it’s not that I don’t like the colour, they aren’t vitrifying correctly. (I think that’s the word). One of these bad glazes ran off my vase and fused onto the kiln shelf. 

So I thought it might be good to try ‘kiln cones’ to check the temperature my kiln is actually firing at, and see if I could get a better picture. Kiln cones are small pyramid-shaped ceramic tools used to measure heat work (the combined effect of temperature and time) inside a kiln. The way they bend and slump as they absorb heat indicates the temperature you’re working with.

What did mine do? 

They melted and stuck to the kiln shelves. All the shelves are now ruined and I have to hope that I can chisel the goo off and still use them. One of the nasty cones melted onto a plate and ruined that too.

After a bit of research, I realise that I bought the wrong ones and shouldn’t have placed them directly on the shelves. I mean, how was I supposed to know????

Anyway, I’ll keep going and hope that one day I’ll open the kiln and be happy with everything in there.

A cone splat. And no, to those who have experience with kilns, I didn’t put the protective batt wash on the shelves as I was too keen (impatient) to start firing glazes. I regret that decision now.