Pinch, punch and all that!
I’ve been on a bit of a mission over the last couple of weeks… As some of you will know, I will be back for my second year at my seasonal job running the tea room at a plant nursery at the end of March so it has been on my mind that I need to get ahead of the game and get a batch of stock made to lighten the load while I readjust myself to the world of work (and remember what a clock is for).
The dusty boards came out and I made loads of my pins including lots of mushrooms, frogs, forget me nots and some (hopefully) lovely things for Spring and Mother’s Day.
Making ceramics is a slow process, especially when the drying weather is sub optimal. I’ve been nursing my clay makes for almost 2 weeks to ensure some of the bigger pieces are flat, smooth and going to fire well. When drying clay too quickly it can warp and crack ruining all your work to date.
This week I’m including a video of me loading the kiln and chatting a little about the process. It was 5°c outside when I was filming this so I’m trying hard to stay warm…
I’m glad to say it was mostly a successful kiln load. No huge disasters or explosions (which is always a bonus).
So now it is on to as much glazing as I can fit in to the next couple of weeks… I’ll be back soon with the next stage.
I’ll leave you with something nerdy… in an attempt to make firing the kiln as ‘green’ and economical as possible, we (when I say we, I actually mean my lovely husband) monitor the kilns electricity usage and choose firing times that area on the cheapest and greenest rates.
Here is a graph showing real time energy use from the last firing…
This was a larger load of clay and the temperature outside was cold so both of these variables are taken into account but not always easy to predict. I started this program at 11.30pm and when I returned to check the following morning it was still trying to get to top temperature of 1100°C. This is part of my decision process to continue making with earthenware clay rather than stoneware which is fired much higher (and costs more for me and the planet) whilst making non functional ceramics… but that is a topic for another day.
For now, Sending Sunshine.
Jess x