Firing Up The Kiln For The First Time!

Well, last week we finally got the finishing touches on our kiln room’s ventilation system, which means that today we could load up and fire for the first time!!

The first things on the agenda were, of course, our test tiles, which had to undergo their initial bisque firing––a lower temperature firing (a mere 1945 degrees F)––in order to become hard and sturdy enough to stand up to glazing.

“Why 300?” you might ask. Well, it isn’t madness, and it isn’t Sparta ;-) We have our reasons! Read on for more details…

You can’t see all 300 in the photo above, but trust me, by the time we were done, they were all in there and we’d filled the kiln!

So, why?

Well, we have two different kinds of clay and are going to have between 8–10 glazes at any given time (we hope!), and we want our students and members to be able to see not only how they each look on their own on each clay, but also how they look in combination with each other! That means a pretty big grid for each clay type, with over 120 tiles in each. We hope it works as well on the wall as it does on paper! We’ll know soon enough.

Tomorrow, after all, we’re mixing up our first batches of glaze!

For now, we’ll leave our kiln to it…

Our Amaco electric kiln is almost ready to fire in this picture, with the last shelves and test tiles ready to get loaded in

Now, some of you may remember us mentioning that we have three kilns in our kiln room. Our Amaco Excel is the first one we’re firing up, as we’re doing some repairs on the others, one of which has a very special legacy. More on that in a future post!

For now, keep watching this space for more glazing updates and Open House news (don’t forget to mark your calendars for Saturday, April 20, from 12–5 pm!). Dates and extra details on our Upcoming Events and Calendar page!

See you soooo soon!