Mistakes

Maybe it was all a big mistake. The breaker keeps shutting off when I am a few hours into my firing and after a retired friend (electrician) has come over to check twice and can’t find anything, I am not sure what to do. I phone the guy who sold me the kiln and he promises to come over and take it back to see what’s wrong. This is not an easy thing to do. It takes a whole day to get over here with all the ferries and in the summertime the overloads are guaranteed.

He comes anyways and takes it. He phones me 2 days later to tell me that the kiln is working in his shop and has reached cone 6 twice without any problems. Great. I go over to bring the kiln back home. I call the electrician who has put in the wiring and tell him he needs to fix it. Turns out to be a breaker problem. This is all such a hassle and it is costing me way more money than I have.

I fire a bisque and all goes well . Then 2 days before a gallery opening I do my first glaze. I am way behind schedule because of the kiln issue. And I am very good at procrastinating anyway. All my pieces for the gallery are in it and I try to copy the firing schedule from our guild, that I know so well. No problems until 3 hours after I put it to high. The kilnsitter has shut off. This is way too early. I look into the peephole and all 3 witness cones are gone (5, 6, 7). There is not much I can do about it. I should have never put all these pieces in there (not that I had a choice). It is too late now. I won’t be doing a soak to get my matte glazes to develop, because I have no idea what the temperature is inside the kiln. Obviously it is very hot and it became too hot too quickly. What a nightmare.

I called my friend and told her to keep her fingers crossed. I asked the universe if for once it could please not become a total disaster. I asked it about a million times that night. Please no melting glazes on the shelves. I have no money for new shelves.

The next day I open the kiln. Nothing melted to the shelves. Everything turned out well. Some pieces are glossy that were suppose to be matte, others are more blue than green but I am very relieved. I tell myself that I have to keep better track of what I am doing and read more about the process of firing. For now I feel nothing but happiness and relief.