Monday, October 25, 2010

I feel so productive!

I tested my kiln this weekend. Granted, I mostly refired items I had already fired, but it was really easy to program and when it was heating up I sat there working on other things with a bunch of rings, earrings and a pendant in the kiln. Such a nice feeling.

Here it is, all plugged in and ready to go. I have a Prometheus medium sized kiln, with an inner chamber of about 20 cm width. The lid lifts up and when firing it is down but not locked. It hardly releases any heat, despite the loose door and the peephole in the front. So far my cats have shown no interest in the kiln, but eventually after restructuring my work space, I may want to put it higher up somewhere. I don't want to risk any burnt cat paws.

A ceramic tile/shelf came with the kiln, and since I had no sensitive items I put everything directly on the shelf and fired at 800C for 30 minutes. All of the metal clay I had in the kiln was PMC3, which fires at relatively low temperatures.

This is what the items looked like after they came out of the kiln:

And after an hour or so in the tumbler:

:) Yay! I'm already happy with it. :)

5 comments:

  1. I love how tumbling does that! Mine come out the same way, like magic!

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  2. Congrats on the new kiln. That is a very exciting tool. And the pieces after they are tumbled look incredible!!

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  3. I love your space, and I am so jealous of your clay skills and kiln. Beautiful!

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  4. Yay! I love that little pile of shiny pieces. Thanks for sharing about your kiln. Very cool. Or should I say, hot!

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