Bisque Fire - Dragons and Rockets

We have the kiln loaded about 2/3rds. There are several rockets, all of my closed forms, and Julie has some wonderful dragon pieces, including a large pitcher and a teapot with matching cups out of porcelain.

We candled the kiln overnight, since we were uncertain whether my rockets were a hundred percent dry. Candling warms the kiln enough to drive the physically bound mositure out of the clay. In our case, overnight is about seven hours, since Buffy woke me up for some unknown reason this morning at six thirty.

I used a hand mirror to check for mositure. The lid of the kiln is propped open with a piece of fire brick, so I slipped the mirror under the lid, and checked to see if there was any condensation on it. There was none, so I turned all of the switches on the kiln to low, and closed the kiln.

Two hours later, I again checked for moisture. I had to use my kiln gloves, since the handle on the lid is getting hot. Again, there was no moisture. I turned the bottom bank of kiln elements onto medium. Checking our firing log, we will turn up one bank of elements every hour, working from bottom to top, until they are all on high.

I bought some brass from a hobby shop during the week on the way home from work. More stuff for the ray gun handles.