I've struggled with my last few firings. Temperature all over the place, random oxidation, lots of less-than-stellar pots. I longed for the good old days, when the kiln climbed steadily, flame flickered in the chimney, and the bottom cones dropped just slightly ahead of the top. When I could shut down with cone 10 touching on the bottom, knowing the cone on top would drop that last quarter-inch on carryover, and the pots would come out lovely and warm-toned and iron-spotted.Guess what? It happened again!
Last Thursday's firing was the best I've had in years--only the slightest swipe of oxidation along the right door sill, affecting half of three pots, cones dropping in lovely sequence, firing done by 7 pm at just 69 units of gas. And the results, when I opened the car on Sunday, looked like this!
Ain't it beautiful?