Firing

My firing went well. After going back and checking my old kiln logs I felt like I have been firing too fast at the beginning of the firing. So I slowed down, especially between 1400 and 1650. I also did a longer body reduction, 45 minutes instead of 20. Not a hard reduction, I'd say it was medium, long flame out the top front peep and barely a wisp out of the middle front. Maybe that's more neutral. This was at cone 08. Anyhow it's what I did. Then I oxidized for 10 minutes then back to neutral. At 2100 I oxidized again for 30 minutes. I started putting the chunk in when the 8's were going down. I put in 5000g of 'chunk' which 2500 of is whiting and the other 2500 is soda ash and baking soda (See Gail Nichols book, Soda, Clay, Fire). I tried to stay around cone 9, my colors seem to be brighter at cone 8 and 9. After I was finished putting the soda chunks in I soaked for 1 hour in oxidation. I then shut the burners down and crash cooled for 25 minutes by pulling out the damper and opening the soda/salt ports.

The stacking was a bit different. I don't usually put those tall pots in the middle of the stack, but the top has been so bad I didn't want to sacrifice them again. Turns out it would have been fine. Anyhow, the back of the kiln was dry in places. I need to work this out either by spraying some soda solution in or by putting 'soda cups' back there.

I did not go with the diagonal burner arrangement this time either, doing so may help push the soda to the back so I may try that in the future.

Okay that's my update. I'll post some individual pot images tomorrow. Thanks everyone for checking in and being supportative.