Best firing yet?

I'm happy to say that this last firing was one of the best firings we've had so far....

The first chamber was great, just the right amount of reduction giving nice warm colors, with nothing getting over reduced and turning brown, or oxidized and turning pasty. We started up right away Sunday morning (the last day of the firing) building up embers and pushing them back onto the first row of pots.


I really love the contrast of the warm clay colors with the cool greys and blues that come from the pots being in close contact with the embers. What was surprising though was that we got those colors all the way through the first stack.
This little guy got some nice color at the very back of the first stack which is usually an area I had come to expect some light ash and flashing.... Pretty exciting. Next firing I might try tightening up the grates a little to see if we can't build up even more embers.


The second chamber came out well, also. The new bag wall started out perfect. At cone 5 we had only had to move the damper 1" and things were perfect top to bottom. However after that the top of the kiln started to slow down. We kept making damper adjustments and it came out alright, however I found out afterward that the bag wall started to lean into the firebox. It never fell over, but it leaned enough to constrict the flame. I'll save my thoughts on bag walls for another post, but I've been thinking about them a lot, so expect more though post about bag walls soon.
For now though we're trying to stay focused on the Fall Art Tour. We've been told to expect quite the crowd this weekend. Here are some more pots from this last firing:





Sorry we had already started to price pots when I took these pictures.


We also made some juice cups. We are planning on serving apple cider to people, and though it might be nice to be able to let people have their apple cider in some handmade pottery. I threw around 70 of these little guys. I'm not sure how we're going to work it... maybe free juice cups for the first 20 or so people each morning? Come early if you're in the area.
They got a great firing. Lots of nice color.

I hope people can come out this weekend, the kiln is all cleaned up and ready for tours, the pots are all clean and ready for new homes:
Now we just need to get the house cleaned up and put them all up for display. Hope to see you soon if you're in the area, if not wish us good luck. We'll let you know how is goes.
Joe