New pallet fired wood kiln at the Energy Exchange

Here are some photos of the new pallet wood burning kiln that Mark Peters designed and built for the Energy Exchange. The kiln was started around 6am and at 1:30, when I got there, it was at cone 08. Earlier they were cutting the pallets in half but just after I arrived they started loading full pallets.

I can't wait to see the results in another 4 days or so.Opening a kiln is always done with great anticipation and more so with a new kiln. Fourteen of the fifteen pots I brought to help fill the kilns, 40 cu ft setting space are in this maiden firing. All my pots have either Linda's Yellow or Randy's Flashing slip on the exterior with two  my celadon based liners. Some have oribe accents in the leaf and fish designs.

In my soda kiln I try to position the oribe pieces at the front to protect them from reducing too much; but I wasn't there for the loading, so it will be interesting to see their placement and the results. When the oribe is reduced heavily you can wind up with an unpleasant liver red instead of green. Sometimes I get an interesting combination of the green and red which I kind of like on some pieces.