Relics of The Republic: Earthship Mast, Transmitter Number 2, and The Sad Life of Aegean Palace.

 Earthship Mast in all of its glory.

Let's start with a detail shot of Transmitter Number 2.

Now for the full view.

The sad life of Aegean Palace...  Here it is in its greenware (unfired) state earlier this year.

So Aegean Palace was made with a different clay body than my normal cone 6 clay, and could therefore handle much higher temperatures for a much longer period of time.  I included it in a wood firing I did last Spring.

Here is Aegean Palace peeking out from its spot in the back of the kiln.

Now let's get on with the firing.

We bring the pieces/kiln up to around 2400 degrees Fahrenheit and keep them there as long as we can.  The temperature is actually hot enough to liquefy the ash and turn it into a glaze.  This takes hours of feeding wood into the kiln.  But you can't just jam a bunch of wood in there and call it a firing.  You need to do it incrementally so you allow enough oxygen flow to interact with the wood.  Too much wood, or too much oxygen and the temperature won't climb steadily. 

Fortunately Matt is more of a fire bug than I am, so we are in good hands.

The rest of the crew.

Jenna soaking up some sun.

The piece survived the firing.  You can see the ash deposits on the top of the piece.

The piece survived the firing and enjoyed a sunny place outside in the backyard.  On one particular day, the sun was super conducive to finally getting a few good images of the piece, so I set it up on a tree stump and took some pictures.

See?  It looked pretty cool, right?

Anyway, I left it on the stump for a few hours and when I got back, a squirrel had toppled it over and it had broken in several places.  I guess it was a good thing I moved it from safety so I could document it?

Next time we'll look at some less traumatic work.