My New (New To Me Anyway) Kiln

A friend of my mothers, Tiffany, sold me my pottery wheel nearly two years ago and recently offered me a kiln. She purchased the two together but was unsure if the kiln even worked and when I first bought the wheel I didn't have the space for the kiln as well. However, now that I have moved in to my own house I have the whole basement as a studio and was hunting for a kiln when Tiffany offered to let me have hers. She did not want to sell it in case it didn't work but did not have a use for it herself so I decided to take it and give it a shot.

This kiln is a very old Duncan kiln. Duncan was bought out my Paragon and are no longer made but from what I read they are decent kilns. Paragon still sells parts for these kilns and even had a manual for my specific model on their website so I was happy I had some guidance.

The kiln was designed as an energy-saving kiln and is made out of what seems like a heavy-duty styrofoam that supposedly NASA uses as isolation. It is very lightweight and small. It is a manual kiln so I will have to fire on nights or weekends since it cannot be left unattended. That part of it is not ideal but I can make it work.

I brought the kiln home about two weeks ago and have read the manual cover to cover. Tiffany even turned the kiln on before I picked it up and said it did get hot so it does work. I just haven't been able to find the time to try it out for myself.

As I wrote in my previous blog, I plan to never again fire work at the Odyssey so I am banking on learning this kiln well enough to use for all of my work. As I said, it is very small and will most likely only fire two or three of my pieces at a time but I never make more than that at a time anyway so I think it will suffice.

So I vow that now that my special orders are complete I will take some time to enjoy the holidays and then learn how to use my new kiln. It seems like quite a process and I feel like I will learn the most from trial and error but I am up for the task and I look forward to learning how to fire my own work. So have a Merry Christmas my readers, and keep checking in after the holidays and I'll keep you updated on my progress.