Once the fired kiln is opened, all the pots are there and ready to be unloaded. It is lot of fun to see all the pots in their final state. All the pots are fired to full cone 10 in a reducing atmosphere. They are fully vitrified and ready to be used.This is an image of the kiln being loaded. All the pots have glaze on them, but the final color of the pots can only be seen after the firing. Each shelf layer of the kiln can hold many pots.The kiln door is closed after all the pots are loaded. After 3 hours of pre-heating, 12 hours of firing, and 3 days of cooling, the kiln is ready to be opened.The Fired Earth Pottery kiln has fired 10s of thousands of beautiful pots. Built in 2001 by Donovan Palmquist, it fires efficiently and evenly.It gets hot in the kiln!
Built by Donovan Palmquist of Master Kiln Builders (www.kilnbuilders.com) with the help of Rick McKinney and a crew of friends (Reid Schoonover, Sue Messer, and Ann Lindeke) in June of 2002. This kiln fires beautifully: efficiently, evenly, as quickly or as slowly as I need it to, with even reduction, and has produced thousands of beautiful pots. This kiln is a unique asset to pottery class spaces in NE Wisconsin – gas kilns are rare in class spaces, and produce incredibly beautiful glazes, and superior and very hard fired clay!
Technical information: The kiln has about 40 cf of stacking space. It is powered with a single blower burner divided into two burner tips entering the kiln at either side of the chimney in typical downdraft style. Three 14 x 28 inch kiln shelves form the stacking base. The kiln is typically fired in medium reduction beginning at cone 06 at the bottom peep (this yields good carbon trapping with a high soda ash shino), and ending at cone 8. From cone 8 to cone 10 I fire in a less intense reducing atmosphere. That is, at cone 8 I pull the damper, reduce the gas, and keep the temperature moving up steadily but not too fast until cone 10 (2350 degrees F) is halfway down.
