There's always this push and pull mixture of excitement and dread before you open the door of a recently fired kiln. Will your work be perfect, just the way you set it in the kiln? Will it be in tiny shattered bits all over the kiln floor and beyond repair? Will it have a few cracks? Or finally, will the cracks be enormous? There are countless other possibilities that I'm sure I'm forgetting but I'm sure you get the idea.
Well, Momma bah didn't make it. But, on the bright side, she should be an easy repair.
The crack wraps all the way around her body, but it's clean and nothing shattered off. There are some big cracks that run lengthwise on either half but I should be able to fill it in with something. I've been using wood putty but it's terrible and comes off really easily with water. I'm open to suggestions, if you have them?
Baby bah did make it though! Hooray! I forgot to check her for small cracks, but she's solid. I was too preoccupied with analyzing Momma sheep's break.
The firing it's self went great! Slow and steady, so I don't think there's any thing I could change there.
I think if I attempt this scale again, and I likely will, I'll have to change how I build. (I don't think I said how big she was in the last post, but she's almost 5 in length). I'll probably try firing it in two or three pieces and assemble post firing. There's less chance for hairline fractures to get out of control that way. I think the weight of this piece and the warping created a lot of cracks I wasn't able to see. I might even throw in a few structural supports, though I'm not so keen on them. I'm fairly convinced they cause more cracking. Maybe if I cut them out as part of the shell when I hollow it out, instead of inserting them after I hollow out the piece.
C'est la vie!
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