Kiln unloaded

I dodged the bullet, so to speak. One third of the kiln was under-fired slightly, that the thermostat and cone were indicating . The kiln was stalled and the wind started to make me nervous at that time. I was more worried about the bad oxidation and glaze crawling , but most pieces were fine. I can re-fire them later.

Now, I have pieces to list on the Etsy. This will be the first 2009 pieces, as well as the first kiln load in almost one month.


And, this is my new teapot. I am quite pleased.

Kiln unloaded

I dodged the bullet, so to speak. One third of the kiln was under-fired slightly, that the thermostat and cone were indicating . The kiln was stalled and the wind started to make me nervous at that time. I was more worried about the bad oxidation and glaze crawling , but most pieces were fine. I can re-fire them later.

Now, I have pieces to list on the Etsy. This will be the first 2009 pieces, as well as the first kiln load in almost one month.


And, this is my new teapot. I am quite pleased.

First glaze firing of 2009

First firing of 2009 is done. I offer the sake and salt to the kiln god for the first firing of the year. I decided to fire the kiln yesterday despite the winter storm warning, while trusting the weather man again, he said, "the wind is not the issue today." Wrong! The wind started gusting crazy after the sunset, when it was too late but continue firing. It stalled the kiln for couple hours from raising the temperature, and the oxyprobe reading was all over the place from the oxidation to the reduction. I peeked the kiln today, might not be as bad as I thought yesterday. I hope several custom orders come out good tomorrow.

Good news out of this firing. Last December, the oxyprobe meter stopped working. Since then , I bought the multimeter (UEI DM383B) off the ebay, and fired with it along with a friend's oxyprobe in December . It read the atmosphere the same, but the temperature was off 1 readings at the beginning and off 2 reading toward the end, which made me nervous.

I have been toying with the broken oxyprobe meter with a multimeter for a while. Am I familiar with electronics? No. I have no idea how these diodes work. I can check and read the meter and solder things, though. It was broken and I had no thing to lose. I checked reading of the resistances, and replaced two diodes which I thought the reading was wrong. No, my reading of the diode was wrong.


I found a repair manual for multimeter, which lead to the IC chip, which the oxyprobe meter have three, and ordered the same ones ($5 dollars!) on the web store . Replacing them was easy, and Bingo! IC for the LCD was the problem. Also I messed up the calibration by turning the knobs inside.


The oxyprobe actually worked after successfully calibrated with friend's meter(meaning I get the same reading). I cannot believe I actually fixed the meter!

First glaze firing of 2009

First firing of 2009 is done. I offer the sake and salt to the kiln god for the first firing of the year. I decided to fire the kiln yesterday despite the winter storm warning, while trusting the weather man again, he said, "the wind is not the issue today." Wrong! The wind started gusting crazy after the sunset, when it was too late but continue firing. It stalled the kiln for couple hours from raising the temperature, and the oxyprobe reading was all over the place from the oxidation to the reduction. I peeked the kiln today, might not be as bad as I thought yesterday. I hope several custom orders come out good tomorrow.

Good news out of this firing. Last December, the oxyprobe meter stopped working. Since then , I bought the multimeter (UEI DM383B) off the ebay, and fired with it along with a friend's oxyprobe in December . It read the atmosphere the same, but the temperature was off 1 readings at the beginning and off 2 reading toward the end, which made me nervous.

I have been toying with the broken oxyprobe meter with a multimeter for a while. Am I familiar with electronics? No. I have no idea how these diodes work. I can check and read the meter and solder things, though. It was broken and I had no thing to lose. I checked reading of the resistances, and replaced two diodes which I thought the reading was wrong. No, my reading of the diode was wrong.


I found a repair manual for multimeter, which lead to the IC chip, which the oxyprobe meter have three, and ordered the same ones ($5 dollars!) on the web store . Replacing them was easy, and Bingo! IC for the LCD was the problem. Also I messed up the calibration by turning the knobs inside.


The oxyprobe actually worked after successfully calibrated with friend's meter(meaning I get the same reading). I cannot believe I actually fixed the meter!

Fulted bowl trimmed.

I have been glazing last three days, and the kiln is finally loaded. I hope I can fire the kiln tomorrow. There is the winter storm warning in effect, expecting solid 8-10” of snow. It will be all right as long as not much wind to deal with. Will see.

Here is the video of the trimming the fluted bowl I threw the other day.

Fulted bowl trimmed.

I have been glazing last three days, and the kiln is finally loaded. I hope I can fire the kiln tomorrow. There is the winter storm warning in effect, expecting solid 8-10” of snow. It will be all right as long as not much wind to deal with. Will see.

Here is the video of the trimming the fluted bowl I threw the other day.

Syracuse

We had a spring-like weather today. I visited Clayscapes Pottery and Eureka Crafts in Syracuse.
It is a little over one hour drive from Rochester.

I highly recommend Clayscapes Potterty if you are in need of pottery supply. Owner, Don is knowledgeable and goes miles to accommodate your needs. They set aside the batch of clay (2-3000lb) for a month so I can test the clay from the same batch. I had burnt by the bad batch of clay so many time in the past. The clay manufacturer strongly recommends to test the clay before using it, but it is very difficult to do so. In the past, 40 boxes of clay were delivered to home. It usually takes two -three weeks to know the firing result of the clay, and meanwhile I got to use this new clay since I do not have enough space to keep more than 40 boxes of clay. If you have the bad clay, imagine how much of work to lose. Clay problems included bloating, pieces of glass, cracking, mixed with different type of clay....
I needed some bag of glaze materials today. I had very good time with Tim See, who teaches and has studio there. He showed me his latest pieces for the Smithsonian Craft Show in April. Oh, these were amazing !!

The Eureka Crafts carries my pottery for over 15 years. They are one of the first galleries who carried my pottery, and gave me the wonderful advice and encouragement for the started-out potter and now. If you walk into the store, you are greeted with great collection potteries and other crafts. The Eureka Craft and the Everson Museum of Art are the must-visit place for the great crafts.