And so today, on my last day home before heading back to Ottawa, we are trying to squeeze in a wood firing. A lot of people always thought it was so quaint and nice that I was a potter before, 'oh wow, I wish I could do something I loved everyday', those kinds of things. People often romanticize being an artist, when there is real reason for the term "starving artist". (Also, pretty good reasons for why I'm back in school :p) So here is the reality of being a potter. I spent the week cleaning, decorating and glazing my work. This began with cleaning out the spray booth, something we've made (a mesh, open window, wooden box and fan) to suck out the spray and chemicals when we glaze. It gets pretty coated and covered, but even so, this simple home made spray booth is literally saving our lungs a world of hurt and cancer inducing chemicals. Our complex and technologically advanced spray machine (shop vac put on reverse, mason jar+nozzle) allows us to apply glazes evenly and lightly instead of the mess of dipping everything. Once this is all done (usually about a week of full time glazing (a normal day of glazing for me is starting around 11 am and finishing around 8 or 9 pm), comes the loading and stacking. This seems relatively simple, but ends up taking around 2 or 3 hours each time. The kiln needs to be loaded in a specific way, allowing for glazes which react to heat differently to be placed properly (some places in the kiln are hotter than others, and some glazes can run or drip), while allowing space for the flames to pass through, and also trying to find the perfect balance of packed in nicely, not touching, and not wasting space. With my father and I both working, it's not soo bad, and luckily this time, it's not -20 outside and freezing. Once the work is stacked (2 rows of shelves, front and back), we have to brick up the kiln opening with 2 layers of fire bricks. So once the kiln is loaded, bricked off, and cleaned up, we're ready to start. My father started working this morning around 7 am, and we got the kiln finally started at 2:30 pm. We start slow, with only one fire box lit, as the pieces need to raise in temperature slowly, roughly up to 1500*F in 5 or 6 hours. Once we get to that temperature, we can start reduction firing, (where we burn more oxygen in the kiln than can get in, causing flames to shoot out and making the glazes react in different ways), which will last another 8-10 hours. On a good day, we can fire successfully in 13 hours or so. On bad days, it can drag out for 15-17 hours. That all depends on how it was stacked, how much would we use, how often we stoke the fires, and tons of other variables (how many pies I eat while firing). Luckily, there are a lot of perks, as Ayano has mastered, including drinking hot chocolate and guarding the marshmallows, and later making smores on the open coals. So these pictures are the kiln in full swing. With both fire boxes going, and heavy reduction taking place, we generate a lot of black smoke, filled with carbon. This is what will allow our copper red glazes to change, burning all the oxygen molecules up in the glaze, and coming out red. Otherwise, if we make any mistakes, the glazes will oxidize, and come out white/green. It's a delicate balancing act we have to keep up for several hours, as we struggle to have the temperature rise, without losing that reduction burning. And so, finally at 7:30 am, we finished the firing. We block off the kiln, allow the temperature to stabilize inside, and we will let it cool down naturally and slowly over the next 2 or 3 days. One benefit was seeing a beautiful sunrise just as we finished. And so, now for an hour or two of rest, before I'm back to Ottawa. Good Morning :p
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