2nd gas firing came out a little under fired on the bottom couple of shelves. On reflection the whole kiln needed a little more heat work, it had reached the desired temp on the thermocouple and cone 9 was down on the spy hole on the top shelf but it was still quite upright on the bottom shelf but we didn’t know this until we opened the kiln. It’s slightly frustrating that there is only one spy hole on such a large kiln as if we could have had a quick look at the bottom cone and kept going but it is such a lovely kiln and we are so lucky to have it to fire in I can’t hold it against it! I think I have worked out a formula to determine how much ‘out’ the thermocouple is (compared with absorbed heat) as the kiln climbs and will create a graph for future firings to test out the theory. It might help us second guess what the bottom cone is doing in future? Having said all that I am pretty glad this pot didn’t get any more heat work as the glaze would have run off it completely. I think It’s a little too drippy and the recipe probably still needs a little stiffening with some more clay and Quartz and perhaps a small reduction in the ash content? I think both the clay body and the ash I am using in this one must be particularly high in alkalis? as the recipe is 70:30 clay to ash at the moment which under normal circumstances (using a ball clay, China clay or kaolin) would produce a dry ash glaze. But this one it is a real dribbler!?! and. I do wonder if the fact that I am using clay from the seaside is making a difference? Has it absorbed a higher level of Sodium from the sea salt? Is this causing a low melting point/dribbly glaze? All said and done I really like it’s colour and the way it works with the clay. At least we got good reduction again in this firing too. This was the main thing I have been dreaming of, clay with life and soul !! #gasfire #reductionfiring #ashglaze #flux #greeb #bowl #pattern #yorkshire #northyorkshire #saltburn #sea #clay #ash #drip #dribble #croftpottery (at Rainton) https://www.instagram.com/p/CktVDAODZtg/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
