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offcntrWe never get trick-or-treaters at our house--it's a high-speed, high-traffic street, not many neighbors, lots of churches on enormous lots, so not worthwhile for kids to go door-to-door. We've even stopped buying candy; we just end up eating it ourselves, and neither of us really should.
Which is why I spent Halloween down at the studio, firing a glaze kiln.
It's a super-busy time of year. Three different glaze kilns were all loading yesterday--my big one, Don and Linda in the smaller gas kiln, and Shelley, Jon and Karen in the soda kiln. Fortunately, the soda kiln doesn't fire until tomorrow. It's tricky enough recording gas usage with two kilns firing simultaneously. Three might just break the treasurer.
Don likes to fire the small kiln overnight; he'll finish loading around supper time, start it off, watch it carefully through warm-up til body reduction, sometime around midnight. Then he'll set up his futon and bedroll on the work table and sleep until dawn, when he should just about be reaching temperature.
The bigger gas kiln is indoors, sheltered from the wind, so I can light it off around 8 pm and leave it to candle overnight. If I tune the burners just right, I'll be right about body reduction when I arrive around 6 am (if I'm too timid, I'll barely have red heat and have hours of extra waiting before the cones start to drop). This time I had it about perfect: cone 08 was down on top when I came in, not yet on the bottom, so I adjusted the air, gas and damper all at once, clamped the door tight and did body reduction right away. Meanwhile, Don woke up and checked his kiln, found cone 8 down, so we both had good timing.
He got cone 10 and shut down a little after 8 am, went home for a nap before the monthly meeting. I ran a few errands, tweaked the kiln, dropped off my ballot, tweaked the kiln, took minutes for the meeting, tweaked the kiln... you get the picture. For some reason, the top was running a good bit hotter than the bottom and not wanting to even out the way it usually does. I did finally get them within half a cone, but then the top pulled ahead again at cone 10, and I didn't want to wait any longer for the bottom, because if the top hit cone 11, pictures would start sliding off the pots. I expect carry-over to take the bottom to at least cone 9-and-a-half, which should be in the maturity range of my glaze, but I won't know for sure until Friday whether I have trick or treats.
Which is why I spent Halloween down at the studio, firing a glaze kiln.
It's a super-busy time of year. Three different glaze kilns were all loading yesterday--my big one, Don and Linda in the smaller gas kiln, and Shelley, Jon and Karen in the soda kiln. Fortunately, the soda kiln doesn't fire until tomorrow. It's tricky enough recording gas usage with two kilns firing simultaneously. Three might just break the treasurer.
Don likes to fire the small kiln overnight; he'll finish loading around supper time, start it off, watch it carefully through warm-up til body reduction, sometime around midnight. Then he'll set up his futon and bedroll on the work table and sleep until dawn, when he should just about be reaching temperature.
The bigger gas kiln is indoors, sheltered from the wind, so I can light it off around 8 pm and leave it to candle overnight. If I tune the burners just right, I'll be right about body reduction when I arrive around 6 am (if I'm too timid, I'll barely have red heat and have hours of extra waiting before the cones start to drop). This time I had it about perfect: cone 08 was down on top when I came in, not yet on the bottom, so I adjusted the air, gas and damper all at once, clamped the door tight and did body reduction right away. Meanwhile, Don woke up and checked his kiln, found cone 8 down, so we both had good timing.
He got cone 10 and shut down a little after 8 am, went home for a nap before the monthly meeting. I ran a few errands, tweaked the kiln, dropped off my ballot, tweaked the kiln, took minutes for the meeting, tweaked the kiln... you get the picture. For some reason, the top was running a good bit hotter than the bottom and not wanting to even out the way it usually does. I did finally get them within half a cone, but then the top pulled ahead again at cone 10, and I didn't want to wait any longer for the bottom, because if the top hit cone 11, pictures would start sliding off the pots. I expect carry-over to take the bottom to at least cone 9-and-a-half, which should be in the maturity range of my glaze, but I won't know for sure until Friday whether I have trick or treats.