The students are fabulous at problem solving. Alexandra took her knowledge of wood burning stoves to set up a schedule for the second team to mix the oak and the scrap wood for optimum heat and then for the third team, Monique designed a sandwich of a layer of poplar or pine, then oak, and then a layer of poplar and pine again. The temperature rose nicely but stalled and then we used only a mixture of poplar and pine to finish the firing. Ms Zhang cannot wait to open the kiln; she noticed all the beautiful colours in the ember bed. And once again we are all grateful to Keith and his table saw and Matt for bringing batteries that worked for the Oxyprobe. All of the students showed up and the first entry in the log book showed that the temperature today was warmer than when we fired in October. The wind wasn’t a problem either. The only nuisance was the damp.
Wool really helped! There was food and laughter and well…did I say blessed? We will open the kiln together on Friday but it is hard to wait. Oh, and leave it to Monique – she decided to burn an entire pallet!
