A couple weeks ago I received my kiln which was shipped on a wooden pallet. Of course, since I’m so resourceful (and cheap) I decided not to throw away or burn such a great collection of wood, I decided to turn it into something useful. And the way I have my kiln room (garage) set up, I decided a shelf would be quite nice under the end of the workbench and next to the kiln. The more I thought about it, the more inconvenient it seemed until I remembered that there was a great invention a little while ago…. The wheel! So I turned the pallet, along with a couple pieces of extra wood and some wheels into the Kiln Cart. It is actually really sturdy and efficient. I haven’t actually fired the kiln since I have made the cart but it gets all the kiln stuff out of the way easily.

This has the potential to be a great weekend, not just because Monday is President’s day and I don’t have to go to school…. My dad is also planning to come down and put up some clay studio walls.

The kiln is up and running! I fired it up last Sunday to see what it could do and I wasn’t dissappointed. I did a Fast Glaze fire to cone 06. It took exactly 4 hours from start to shut off. Then I let it cool overnight. According to the test cones it overfired slightly. Everything else was fine. The gargae didn’t burn down, the electrical hookup seemed to function as it should and the vent did it’s job. Except the vent system isn’t fully installed so I just shot the fumes out the garage door and some of them came back inside. When I actually fire it for real I’ll either have the vent completely in place or I’ll put on the 8′ tube to get the fumes away from the house. So now I’m ready to go. I’m working on getting a full bisque load ready to fire.

This is how I stay warm since my wife won’t turn the heat on…

Some more good news! My wife let me spend our retirement fund on some necessary supplies. Last week I recieved my shipment. Plenty of glazes and some nifty tools and gadgets to improve my ceramic production and get me through my first glaze firing. Apparently I timed it just right so the order was delivered in between cold spells which kept the glaze from freezing. I hope to get some family members down here this month to help with an extreme studio makeover. My brother (the electrician) and my dad (who was a construction worker in another life) said they would come down some time and help me enclose my clay studio and add some more lighting and outlets. My plan is finally coming together!

Now I’m ready to hit mass production phase…