A Kiln: The Opening...

 So we went to unload the kiln to day.  And I have to say that I was quite worried that I had ruined the whole load.  My fears stemmed from not being able to see the top cone pack.  A cone pack is a set of pyrometric cones, each cone is designed to melt at a certain temperature.  Usually we place two sets with a series of consecutive cones, one on top and one on the bottom of the kiln.  We do this so that we can track of the temperature, and make sure that it is firing evenly.  While firing this kiln, for the first time by myself, I couldn't see the top cones.  So I didn't know what the temperature was on the top, but I did know what the bottom was.  The whole time I was firing the kiln I was afraid that the top was getting way to hot, and I was thinking that the glaze was melting off the pots and on to the shelves, or that a pot had exploded and knocked my cone pack down. Anyway, back to unloading the kiln.  When we opened the kiln it turns out that the top cones were fine, they hadn't exploded, melted, or disintegrated.  In fact I under-fired the kiln by one cone, all because I thought that the top was way over fired.  So we unloaded the kiln, tossing the work that was cracked or overly warped.  When we got the work home we divided the work into three piles. 

 One pile was for the work we will list on Etsy. 

Pile two was for work that needed to be fired again, in hopes that they will turn out better if fired to the correct cone.

 Pile three is for work that looked good, but had a crack or some other small flaw.  This stuff we will use around the house or give away if someone wants one of them.

 I will start taking pictures of the work tomorrow and we will start posting the new work to Etsy on Wednesday.  We will be taking a week or so off work for a stay-cation at the end of October.  We are hoping to make quite a bit of work during that time, and we will re-fire the work from this kiln load with the work we will make during our stay-cation.  So look forward to more finished work toward the beginning/middle of November.