The "Eh" Team

Here is the Team Canada Women’s Wood firing team moi, Chris de Takesy, Teresa Dunlop, Cassara Kennedy, Jen Drysdale and Energizer Bunny Anne Marie Rowe. We were minus Emma Smith so Cassara Kennedy stepped up as a closer. Duncan Aird normally shares the harem with me.

 I’m not sure how many firings we have done together in the last couple of years but we all know our roles. It is a bit like clock work now. We plan on 100degrees F an hour, hold at radiant heat for 4 hours, proceed at 100 degrees an hour and hold for about 6 hours between Cone 6 and Cone 11. It works out to be about a 30-32 hour firing. The door was our kiln Banksy Anne Marie Row.

It was the perfect Ontario weekend with beautiful blue skies and cool evenings. We had a good blend of wood so it was a bit like being a wine maker. A bit of light red pine o noir , a little blend of white ash Chardonnay and we had a nice supply of big red merlot walnut. We had a couple of hangovers once from an entire weekend binging on the big red merlot walnut so adding some lighter varieties allowed us to consume as much fuel with no hangovers. The surface area of the wood was really small so it meant stoking often. It was like firing with arms full of matches. Our pyrometer went cuckoo with a final reading of 1542C which I believe is about Cone Infinity.  We use the pyrometer to show the gain but “never” rely on it.  We had Cone 11 flat and 12 tipping throughout the kiln. This was firing #15 for that kiln. It is not what I would call an easy kiln to fire. A good kiln takes a lifetime to learn how to fire. This kiln never lets you forget  that if you put half the effort in you had better be ready to accept half the results.