The first firing of the Chicken Pot Pie Phoenix style fast fire kiln has happened and in a few hours we will open it up and see the results. I loaded it on Tuesday the 30th and learned a few things right off the bat. First, I need to order more shelves. Bricking up the door went just fine. Eric imagined it taking hours. Eric was having a hard time handing his creation into the hands of a bunch of potters, but he was able to work through it and say goodbye, sort of, it's not like he won't be the number one maintenance man for the Pie from now on.
Sarah, Brian, Eric and I met at the kiln at noon on the 31st and I dedicated the firing to my cousin Teri. She is battling breast cancer and started radiation this past week. Although she is in the struggle of her life and enduring pain, stress and obstacles that would kill most people, she is fighting like a soldier and keeping her mural up like you would not believe. I hope she could feel the love and strength we were trying to send to her that night.
I threw some salt to purify the kiln and area, read some quotes about Salt, Gratitude, Nature and Fire. We blessed the kiln with home brew that Brian and Sarah made, toasted to a good firing and lit it up with an egg carton. About a half hour after we lit the fire UPS showed up with the pyrometer. Eric refit the peep holes to accommodate and away we went. Good timing, although we had expected to do it without.
From then on it was pretty easy, almost like a vacation. We sat around stoking the fire, playing with it, chatting, watching the embers build. Much more laid back then an anagama firing. I will admit I was so stressed the whole time, while still having fun. The emotions from having my dear cousin on my mind just added to my near tears also. I was not expecting the emotions that would run through me firing it for the first time. So many unknowns and it's mine, not another potter's who has fired it dozens of times and knows just what to expect.
All in all it went really well. We reached reduction after dark like we had hoped so the neighbors would not be freaked out by the black smoke. I left it in the hands of Eric and Skye, one nonpotter and one that hasn't fired much, to take a nap at 3 am. I came back after a few hours and it was still standing, but the door was moving. Eric fixed that and we moved on, with me very tired and and emotion bag of whim. Sarah joined us again at 6 and Eric went for his own nap a little while later. We stoked and worked out different strategies to keep the flame in the stack, again so the people waking in the valley below us don't freak and call about a chimney fire. We played around with dampers and blocking the embers in the grate to build them up and figured out stoking patterns to control the temp a little more. The floor is cooler and we'll learn how to adjust that, but we got 12 soft on one pack and 11 and 10 soft on two others. Early in the firing the grate bricks started to split and I was really worried since I used the same bricks as kiln posts. After many hours of stressing over why Eric realized what was happening. We didn't leave enough slop in between the grate bricks for expansion. They were falling apart the whole time, but actually stayed upright. We will replace them and try it again, with slop of course. We shut down at 23 hours. This seems long, but we didn't candle it and it was 40 degrees when we started and went really slow at the beginning so that added to the length.
I'll let you know what the results are after today's opening.
-B
P.S. the door was built with Empire S and IdaHO bricks.
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