Monday, October 4, 2010

A Bad Week

I had a bad week last week. All kinds of things went wrong... my water system blew up and we lived like Little House on the Prairie for a few days - washing hands out of buckets of water, dirty dishes piling up on the counter, and taking sponge baths for a couple of days. Next, my daughter and husband came down with Roto Virus, vomiting through the night (and on me as well) and a 2am hospital visit for Mia. And to top things off, what would be more complete than a faulty kiln firing? The peppers that I have been so feverishly working on for weeks, though not completely ruined, are a mess right now. Somehow... I guess I didn't put the cone in correctly, or I got a faulty cone (yes, lets blame the cone and not me).

Anyhow, the cone is fused to the sitter inside the kiln. I called for help and it looks like I can fix it. The glazes on the peppers didn't vitrify, so the kiln must have under fired. I am so glad I went out there at 10pm to check and see if it turned off. The latch fell which should have turned off the kiln but the kiln was still running. I have enough experience to know to shut if off manually and check it in the morning when it has cooled. Although this feels like a disaster, I have faith that things can be saved. I did lose a couple of peppers - the glaze fused the lids shut. But that is a glazing issue. I'm still learning. These stupid vertical lids! They are so difficult! So once I get the melted cone scraped off the cone sitter I should be able to re-fire the pieces and get some good results. Hopefully? My photo shoot for the peppers is this Saturday. I better make it there with something to show for myself.

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