All wrapped up ready for christmas

The kiln was lit yesterday morning at 7am, before dawn. Svend Bayer drove over in the fog to help me with the firing + experience the relatively short firing.

It was a beautiful firing - slow rise to red heat, reduction started at 3pm and a steady climb to 1250C. Cone 6 was over by 7pm and cone 8 was over at the front by 9pm.

By midnight cone 9 was over front and back and cone 10's were soft. Svend took the 3am shift and by the time I got up cone 10's were down throughout and cone 11's were looking soft. Often the morning sees pretty concentrated work nudging the kiln out of its overnight slumber and coaxing it up in temperature, but today it was lively and raring to go. Cone 12's were down by 12.30pm, the embers were raked away from th front of the pack and the kiln soaked for an hour. By 1.45 everything was clammed up and it was time for a celebratory ale to toast the firing.

Fingers crossed for equally good results! It's going to be a long weekend......