The first bisque

My friend Tom White (potter in Northfield, MA) suggested I do a bisque firing in the new kiln first. This was excellent advice and it offered me a chance to play with the burners and get to know the kiln a bit before trying a reduction firing.

Results:

• Nothing blew up!
• The cones were quite different front to back.
• The "bag wall" or row of baffle bricks needs to be extended along the whole bottom shelf.

Tanner has mixed up about 9 or 10 new glazes during the past month - and I plan to fire her up again in about a week. I'm running another bisque in the electric kiln tonight and hope that will be enough to fill the gas kiln with test pieces. The new kiln has 24 cubic ft. of stacking space, where as the electric kiln has only 7 cubic ft.