Just finished firing a bisque kiln (that’s the bottom shelves you’re looking at, with shelf posts in position), which means I got little if any sleep last night. From past experience, I have a few productive hours in me before I hit the wall so I better get to trimming those 6 large bowls waiting for me in the studio! On the way to checking the electric meter post firing (we keep track of KwH during firings), I noticed some buds on one of our Prickly Pears:
Can’t wait to see what the flower looks like when it opens. Pretty funky, huh? It was interesting to note that in addition to developing flowers, the plant has popped out some really sharp hard thorns…
Speaking of flowers, our Spiral Ginger is blooming. This dude is getting out of control and is trying to take over the flower bed. It’s funny, the plant clearly wants to grow out towards the sun (most of the plant is under a stairway) but the buds that make it out, don’t open and end up dying… (I’m sure there is a deep life lesson here but I’m too tired to ponder). This guy stayed in the shade:
Right, enough chit chat. Off to work with me. Hope you have a good day and stay in the shade people!
Nov 12, 2009 at 10:50 am
Whoa, tis a totally pretty flower, and a BOATLOAD of glazing to do.
Nov 12, 2009 at 1:31 pm
How many KWH’s do you use for a firing?
Nov 12, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Hi Jeff:
According to our calculations (we don’t have a separate meter for the kiln), a bisque firing is 50kWh and a glaze firing is 66kWh.
Nov 12, 2009 at 5:01 pm
beautiful flowers and nice bisque load, what is the tall thin square piece? almost looks like a paper napking holder, but then it doesn’t have an opening? curious.
Nov 12, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Thanks Linda. With two more levels above the bottom level I showed nice and full I do have, as Gary put it, a boatload to glaze!
Not sure which tall piece you are referring to. I’ve got two more slightly larger versions of the square vases I showed before with the heliconias (they are lying on their sides). Leaning against the kiln posts I have a bunch of tiles. I fire them this way to minimize warping.
Nov 13, 2009 at 1:00 pm
must be the square vases, sometimes things look different from the top down, thanks.