Shortening Sabrina

So, again lots of things I'd like to do but need to work the odds and ends of my day job to keep income stable.  But I finally was able to get a glaze firing going with Sabrina.

Now I removed the bottom ring.  I noted that with the side burner, if I got too heavy of reduction the flames came out to far out to the burner port.  So this caused me to have a much lighter reduction.  Not always a huge deal, but I would like better control. Now I have an idea, but in the meantime I am using only the bottom burner today as I want heavy reduction for my shino.

I only did MDS, Bone as a liner, and then testing out a new glaze.

Original glaze is called Apple Ash-1.  I am calling this variation Blue Apple Ash, as I am adding a colorant. I have a very small bowl going into electric to test this glaze out as well.  If anyone wants to try this, note that the percentages at the top of the page belong to another glaze, so ignore them.

Jessie is basically my firing partner when it comes to this (oddly Jessica, a different person, has become my firing partner for electric/oxidation firings).  Anyway, behold the beautiful wadding balls she made up. We were up sort of early, not too early as the sun is up only so early right now.

Here is the bottom shelf, you can see the right side has taller posts than the left. This is to create space for the flame and soda to work through the kiln.

Here is the second shelf, the shelf in the front is that taller side and the shelf towards the back is the shorter one and will have an additional layer on top.

Here is that third half layer.  I worried that with the missing ring I would not have enough space. I am missing only two pots I set aside for this firing.  Also, there are no odd shapes this firing so it all fits pretty easily together. Finally, I think I have hit the right balance of spacing for packing.  In the electric, as long as pots don't touch you are good and pack as tight as possible. In a fire based kiln, no matter what type of fuel, needs air space to work around. This is even more so for a wood fire or a soda/salt (atmospheric firings).

Here is the kick off ! (and I did not burn any eyebrows... so far)

Firing in oxidation. The top is open and none of the peepholes are plugged.

At 823* (I usually aim for 800, but caught it here) I threw it into heavy body reduction for an hour.

And as of this posting, I pulled us back into oxidation or a light reduction and am aiming for ^5, at that point I will put it in heavy reduction and shortly after add the soda/salt and then work up to ^6 or ^7.