Face Jug Re-Fire

Jeff and our friends Paul Haigh and Rose Hardesty, fired a wood kiln in Carthage last month. Luck would have it that it was during the hottest days of July, not the best time to wood fire. Unfortunately they didn't get the reduction they wanted. It's hard to fire a wood kiln that your aren't all that familiar with. Paul had a deadline to meet so Jeff offered to re-fire his face jugs in our gas kiln. Paul came to the studio and loaded his pots in the afternoon. Jeff gave it a good pre-heat until bed time, then continued the firing the next day.

It was a lot of fun to see the door come down, revealing pots that are nothing like we make!

Paul was really happy with the results. He had some Green Man jugs that were just fabulous.

The tiki jug really looks like it was carved from wood.

I had a couple of  lackluster wood fired plates that I made two years ago and were re-fired in this recent wood kiln... they were now fired AGAIN in the gas kiln. Two of them actually look pretty good. I will get some pictures once they are sanded.  Third times a charm!

Fire Away...

Jeff worked into the evening, loading the kiln and bricking the door, while I cooked dinner in the warm kitchen. Hmmm... I wonder who got the better end of that deal?! He lit one burner and "candled" the kiln for a couple of hours, turning the gas off just before we went to bed. Early this morning he turned one burner back on. We always fire slowly, and this time probably a little more slowly. Jeff has a vessel sink in there that is being re-fired, hence the extra caution. I am sure the firing will go late into the night.

Jeff saves the day!

What a week it has been. Remember our firing over the weekend, the one with all of the Christmas orders? When we un-bricked the door on Monday, half the kiln was filled with hideous glazes. It seems that the bottom reached temperature and the rest was spotty. We also weren't sure if our new batch of green glaze had some bad gerstley borate in it. I just wanted to puke. My mind raced ahead to letting everyone know that they wouldn't have their pigs for Christmas and having to refund boatloads of money. Jeff told me to calm down.

He was going to re-fire everything in the raku kiln. We couldn't re-fire in the bigger gas kiln, because we are getting ready to have the tank moved and we pretty much drained it with this firing.

Here are examples of the re-fire results in the raku kiln...

I love the way this glaze combination re-fired! The orange is beautiful.

Jeff also got great copper reds from this little kiln. He had some tests that were a rich, deep red.

The green pigs were packed and shipped before I took photos, but they all looked awesome.

Nuka white always looks good. This double bowl was fired in the raku kiln. Luckily all the whites in the bigger gas kiln also looked fine. What a relief. I told Jeff he is the kiln wizard.

I have spent the last couple of days packing pots. Late yesterday I took a car load to the post office, just before they were about to close. When I got out of my car, there was a despondent looking woman, sitting in her car with the door open. She asked if could help her. Of course my first thought was, she is going to ask me for money.

I was wrong.

She said that she needed to pay bills, her English wasn't good, and she didn't know how to write the dollar amounts in english. No one in the post office would help her. I told her I would bring my boxes inside, and then I would see what I could do to help.

She had three bills. Her checks were all signed, she just needed me to hand write the dollar amounts and find on the bill, who to make the check payable to. It took maybe five minutes.

She was so very thankful and appreciative.

We all hear so much negativity towards non-english speaking people in our country. Most commonly heard is if you are living in the United States, learn to speak english. 

My grandparents spoke both English and French. My great grandparents lived in this country for a long time and never learned to speak English. I wonder if they experienced prejudices back then.

The Kiln Gods (and Jeff) saved me from a major stress this week. It was a small token of repayment for me to help someone else who was distressed and needing a helping hand.

...and that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

Re-boot

Yesterday was off to a fabulous start. Jeff and I finished loading the kiln and the burners were lit by 12:30.

Somewhere around 600 degrees Jeff heard a "pop". Looking through the peeps he could see that a salt glazed lamp that was a re-fire, had exploded. This is the reason that re-firing things that have been hanging around makes me nervous! Thankfully he was near the kiln when it happened. He turned off the burners and we let it cool overnight.

This morning he unloaded the kiln. Cleaned up the mess. Re-loaded, and we started again. You can see the exploded culprit to the left of ginkgo vase. It sent shards up to the shelves above so I am really glad Jeff caught it.

Don't those pigs look a little nervous?

We are a day behind for our show on Saturday, but not so far behind that we won't be able to unload on Friday afternoon. Our orders will still be shipped on time.

On the family front...
My Mom has been moved from the hospital to the rehabilitation unit at a nursing home. She is still very weak but I think this will be a better place for her at this time. I think it makes her feel like she is a little closer to going home. She is happy that my brother is there. I am playing it by ear as to when I will make another trip north. So glad I made the switch to a smartphone with unlimited texting! It has made it easier for us siblings to stay in touch without constantly calling each other.
Sometimes technology is a good thing.

A Second Chance

I am not a fan of re-firing, but Jeff is. This week we had orders that needed to be shipped and had extra space in the kiln. Jeff decided to re-fire some pots. Along with orders.
My biggest fear. Blow ups that will injure pots that need to be shipped!!!!

Remember this sad little pig from last spring?

He was granted a new life via re-firing...

He is glorious in all his wood fired juiciness! Sort of like plastic surgery only more affordable.

The rest was a mixed bag. At least no orders were harmed by them.