All potters will understand the need to get "just one more piece" in the kiln. You have a deadline: a show, someone's birthday or Christmas presents that have been ordered. The problem? You have a small kiln, or a full kiln, or too many things you are trying to get done. I played this game with my last bisque firing and that makes a difference too. If it is a bisque kiln you can stack and lean and invade the personal space of every piece in there. If it is a glaze fire, you need to have gaps between every piece, nothing is allowed to touch and definitely NO STACKING!
My deadline is a show and I had a new product I wanted to add in at the last minute to my already full kiln. I unloaded everything I had loaded and stacked more pieces in wherever I could. Here are the pictures of each shelf. (Minus one, I realized I forgot to take a picture as I took out the last piece. I got too excited to unload!)
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| Top shelves pre-fire. |
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| Top shelves post fire. |
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| I had an extra half shelf with short items on the top. |
Here is where I missed taking a picture. This shelf included all the new items plus some small things stacked and piled in.
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Bottom shelf, I added items inside each mug. Minis and baby bowls got stacked
and leaf ornaments and pendants added wherever they fit. |
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Leaf ornaments and pendants. There were a couple casualties here that
could have happened anytime from making to loading or even in the firing. |
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| Bud vases (new item), dishes, mugs, minis, and baby bowls. |
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Beads, pendants, kids' items, whistle, soup mug, wine trivet/plates
and a spoon rest, and some stemless wine glasses. |
Here is the tally of what I got in this kiln:
- 17 mugs
- 42 baby bowls
- 9 minis
- 12 dishes
- 13 bud vases
- 5 cups
- 1 whistle
- 1 soup mug
- 2 wine trivets/plates
- 1 spoon rest
- 13 pendants
- 98 kids' items
- 17 beads
- 149 leaf ornaments
- 85 leaf pendants
Making the total of pieces fired: 465! This is my new record. I've done just over 200 in this little kiln before, and it does make a big difference when you add in all the little items and do pretty much all small pieces as opposed to having one shelf dominated by a serving bowl or some taller pieces. Now to glaze it all...
