Firing #11 report and stokers gallery

Firing number 11....

We were quite lucky with the weather this go around... it was beautiful.

Maggie and Charley kept themselves occupied during the firing inspecting our wood supply...

We started the firing off with scrap wood we got from a local wood worker.

Unusable table legs? Not bad...

Brazilian wood scraps?

Amazing! This stuff was like rocket fuel in solid form. I've never seen wood burn so hot. We didn't have much of it, and what we had were tiny pieces, but it carried us cleanly up to 1200 degrees. With our commitment to local materials, we felt a little strange burning wood imported from South America, but the scraps were destined for a burn pile behind the furniture shop before we hauled them away. It's probably not a material we will ever have access to again, but it was an interesting experience.

We made some changes to the firebox for this firing. We adjusted it so the grate system and pots are now on the same level. We also further closed down the spacing in the grate system.



We finally reached our limit with our grate system. Between cone 08 and cone 7 we ended up having to open up some secondary air above the grates to help burn off the embers. However once we were above cone 7 we could close down the secondary air, and the new grate system worked perfectly. We easily kept a fairly large amount of embers piled up on the pots in the front of the chamber. We peeked in this morning... The pots look great!

So onto our stokers gallery:

Aaron Weaver came out Saturday morning when I was feeling somewhat exhausted and trying to deal with all the embers that I wasn't used to... completely saved me. Thanks Aaron.



Chuck helped out for a while earlier this cycle mixing glazes, and processing clay. He also came out to help finish off the firing Sunday afternoon.


And of course Christy! Christy tired of all the "butt" shots that the stoker gallery has provided in the past and decided to go for more of a "senior picture" feel for this stokers gallery.

I was there as well... running the camera... poorly at times.

Keith and Ryan helped to reduce the second chamber during our firing party, but we didn't have the camera out. Next time, guys!

Everything seemed to go smoothly. The firings seem to go a little smoother every time, as we make small adjustment each time. Still exhausting though..






And on a more somber note, our good friend and firer extraordinaire Don was on the way out to help us fire when he got into a car accident. His car was totaled and he spent the evening in the hospital. We would just like to take a moment to wish him all the best, and a speedy recovery.

Don at a previous firing

We'll post unloading pictures soon!
Joe