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bisque

Loading the kiln with a variety of pieces

Loaded the kiln today with a whole variety of pieces. For the first time, if I’ve counted correctly, I loaded pieces made by ten different people. Ten! That’s great. We’ve been having so much fun in the pottery studio. I’ve got some photos below going through the process of loading the kiln.

This load is for a bisque firing. So many of the pieces will look quite boring at this stage. It’s after this firing, and after the subsequent glazing, that all the interesting colours come out.

Some of the pieces waiting before loading the kiln. Actually, all the pieces have to dry out as much as possible before the firing.

In this image, you can see a couple of Gloria’s funky chicken wall hangings in the early part of creation.

Many items from many different artists.
That bowl at the front left is mine. It looks boring now, but I hope it turns out really interestingly after firing and glazing.
Love those two trays of Gloria’s
loading the kiln
Lowest shelf of the kiln loaded. There’s my bowl and Gloria’s two trays.
loading the kiln
Second shelf loaded. There are those funky chickens!
loading the kiln
Third shelf loaded. A couple of these pieces have glaze already applied, but it’s glaze that fires at a low temperature so it can go in a bisque firing.
loading the kiln
Fourth shelf loaded.
loading the kiln
Using a half-shelf to try and get everything in.
loading the kiln
Using a second half-shelf, and everything is in!

So now, after loading the kiln, it’s time to close the lid and set the process off. This bisque firing goes up to a maximum temperature of 1060ºC, which is also fine for some of the pre-mixed coloured glazes that we use as well. So, some of the pieces will be simply bisque fired and require a second, glaze firing that goes to an even higher temperature. The pieces with the pre-mixed coloured glazes will be complete when they come out of this bisque firing.

It’s always exciting to see how things turn out (sometimes it’s depressing when things don’t work well) and if something surprisingly good turns up. All I can do now is wait, and let the kiln do its thing.