Grad School: Week 15

Worry is not competence, but we make do with the former since the latter may reside only in our imaginations -- or in summer, when it's not really needed.

-Richard Russo, on Autumn in Maine

I had a successful firing of the salt-kiln this week and have worked out a few of the bugs. This time i sprayed in 5 lbs. of salt in solution rather than dumping in 2.5 lbs. Also, i stalled the kiln out at around cone 7 in order to prolong the firing. Those burners are super powered. I could have wrapped things up at ten in the morning if I wanted to. Someone told me at some point that "pots like prolonged exposure to high temperatures." The same person also told me to, "end the firing on a hot note." I had to ask what the hell this meant and he said that the kiln gets turned off at its hottest temperature. Makes sense.


It takes some time to develop a good relationship with a kiln. A trusting, reciprocal, and healthy relationship. You have to learn its likes and dislikes, what makes it temperamental, when to push it and when to let it do its own thing. Only then can you get the thing dialed in. Sound like a lot of emotions to put into a bunch of bricks and some natural gas burners? You bet it is. It's not the most intimate relationship in my life, obviously, but i do think about the kiln when we are not together.
It takes some time to get "dialed in" with a new kiln and i made good progress to that end this week. Five of these Yunomis will get shipped to AKAR this week, it is that time of year again. This Friday is my first Committee Review where i present the best work of the semester.
Then there are papers and presentations, a pottery sale, cleaning, and i am off for Christmas. Am i gaining competency or learning to worry more here in grad school, as Richard Russo puts it? Probably both. I am starting to learn about what art comes from the subconscious and what gets made from the conscious mind. Week 15 is over, that is for sure a definite.

This last round reminded me why I love salt-fired pots, despite the labor and long firing process. They were the first decent pots i have made here that look the way i like. That this only took two firing is good. At Northern Clay Center, it took me a year to get that kiln to behave.

Towards the end of this week, i was trying to remember how many firings that have ended with me lying on a studio table late at night, waiting for the temperature to please go up enough so i can go home a lay down on a bed. Let's just say i believe in a long and aggressive pre-heat. Thanks for reading and to those potters firing for the pre-christmas rush, i wish you and your kilns many happy days, not nights, together.