Week 7 - I Fire a Soda in Record Time
This week, I bricked up and fired the soda by myself! The firing went smoothly aside from the candling; I loaded a leather hard cone pack in and had thick wadding under my sculptures and was nervous that they’d explode, plus the right thermocouple needs to be replaced and the pilot was very weak, so it took some time for me to fine tune it to be a good temp for steaming out. Since I was only firing to cone 5 and didn’t have pots anywhere but the bottom, I only had one cone pack and didn’t care much about an even firing. As you can see in my log, I ramped the kiln extremely quickly once cone 010 dropped. I’m certain the top of the kiln was at least cone 7, since 6 dropped halfway despite my attempts to only fire to cone 5. I’m very happy with the results of my sculpture, but this obviously won’t fly if I’m firing a full kiln with glazed pots. I plan to fire my stool to cone 10 in a few weeks with my propriocepta that are in the works and some dark clay test pots and will aim for a slow, steady climb.
Sculpting wise, I finished up this wacky rock cup and am still working on finishing my two propriocepta. Which take forever. I feel that I’m continuing to push and refine these forms in small ways, so the work doesn’t feel totally pointless.
Oh! And two of my cups were accepted into the Mudflat Cup Show in Somerville, MA. Woohoo (:
BTW I found this in the back post-bacc studio space. I’m really worried about them.
weekly gratitudes
~ my community here & strong long distance friendships
~ taking time to rest and care for my body
~ sun and warm weather
thinking about…
Taking baby steps towards externally expressing as the person I know myself to be inside. Trying to be mindful about thinking in absolutes; everything is in flux, everything is impermanent and changing, nothing is absolute. Fighting societal and internal pressures to perform in specific ways so that I may be accepted/perceived the way I hope to be. Focusing on what feels/looks right to me rather than what I think will be most valued/accepted by others.