New kiln on the block
December 31, 2008 by cynthia
Whew. My kiln problems–I’ve been essentially kilnless since July–are about to be resolved. FINALLY.
I won’t go into the full saga–it’s a sad and pitiful tale that hasn’t completely ended even yet–but yesterday I ordered a new kiln. It won’t be the intelligent kiln of my dreams, not at first, but the door’s open for expansion in that direction. And it’s a bit radical, as least as far as glass casting is concerned, so I’ll still have plenty to experiment with.
The kiln is coming from Olympic and will be here in three weeks. After months of searching through ovens that did everything from making bricks to baking pizza, I discovered that Olympic already made a ceramic kiln amazingly close to the casting kiln I had in mind. They were a bit surprised at what I proposed, I think, but extremely accommodating about making the changes I needed for a reasonable price.
Lots to do before then, including getting an electrician out here to expand my studio circuit box. (When I moved into this house I had a second box installed just for glass equipment–it’s been a lifesaver more times than I can count)
And I’ve decided to hang onto Bertha, my poor old worn-out Skutt GM-1414. My friend Les reminded me that Skutt’s been working on a new controller that might help Bertha get through lengthy casting cycles without breaking down every nine months. I spoke with the very nice guys over there and they’ll revamp things for me at a surprisingly low cost.
Bertha’s still too shallow for about half the stuff I do (or any of the casting collaborations I suddenly find myself being asked to do), and her busted lid makes a lot of things problematic. Still, she’ll be a good kiln for flatter castings such as the pate de verre portraits and my interminable color and texture samples, as well as the tackfuses or even the rare flat-fused piece. Besides, it never hurts to have a kiln to experiment on–I saw one experimental casting configuration a couple months ago that would be interesting to try…
So, after six months of no kilns A-tall, in about a month I’ll have TWO kilns…assuming I can figure out where to put them. That may be an even bigger challenge.
Hi Cynthia,
I ran across this post and thought, how can you be without a kiln for 6 months??? Mine was having problems in November for a few weeks, got it fixed, then developed problems again this month…out of commission for a couple weeks and should be fixed tomorrow. I’m having minor fits because I can’t use my big kiln (it’s only a Paragon Fusion 8, small compared to yours). Geez, I need to count my blessings that I haven’t been without for 6 months like you! And I’m thinking I need a back up kiln and I don’t even do the type of work that is your caliber!. I’m marvelling at how you managed.
I have been drooling over larger kilns, hoping this will be the year I can afford the big kiln I want and not thinking it will be in my future this year. *sigh*
I’m really anxious to hear about your new kiln when it arrives. I’m certain you will post your opinions and looking forward to it.
On another topic, hope your dad continues to make a good recovery from his fall.
Kathleen
Well, it’s just one of those things. I had this idea for a kiln-cum-testlab that I wanted to explore, so I got with a kilnbuilder to get that going and figured I’d rent/borrow kilnspace until I had the new kiln.
Then it took awhile to set the basic specs, he wanted two months to build the kiln. End of two months, he hadn’t done anything, so I went looking for a different kiln. That’s how the days kinda added up to six months…
Now the new kiln’s on order, but I may be moving up north to help out my parents for awhile. Since Rocky (which is what I’m calling the new kiln–I anthropomorphize the heck out of stuff) has to be hardwired into the studio, doesn’t make a lot of sense to have an electrician install her while I’m not sure if I’ll still be living in this house. So…Olympic’s waiting to finalize kiln construction until I actually know where I’m going to be living.
In the meantime, I’m working with Skutt to revamp the controller on the GM1414 to better support casting. If I can figure out how to get the controller off the kiln without breaking it, they tell me they can deliver a new controller in a week. I’ll still have all the limitations of the poor Skutt–broken lid, wonky strutts, short ceiling–but at least I’ll have a kiln. And when the new one comes in this’ll become backup.
But for now, I *still* don’t have a kiln. Sigh.
But thanks for the kind thoughts about my dad…and the REALLY kind words about my work. Much appreciated.