April 2011 Wood Firing

As many of you may have read here earlier, we built a wood kiln last summer that until just recently had not yet been fired. Last week, we finally got that first firing in and this past weekend it was unloaded. All told, there were five different clay bodies and 11 glazes. This is a more photos, less words post, so... without further word clutter. Here are the pics.

Kiln loaded ready to brick up and fire

Building ash in the ash pit

Kiln in a reduction atmosphere

We reached just over 2300 degrees with cone 11 down on the top of kiln, cone 10 bent on the bottom

Post firing, ready to be unloaded

Kiln load of about 150 pieces unloaded and ready for inspection

A few of my favorite pieces

Slacker

I've been having some computer problems of late and haven't had an opportunity to write anything about my wood firing last weekend. But I've also felt that it would be a better post if I had some photos of the pieces that came out of the firing. As excited as I was to have the first firing behind us, I'm even more excited to be able to open in tomorrow and see all the treasures inside. Next post - photos of pots and some of the firing.