RESULT

My second firing and the results were in. Click on the pics below to see them larger.

I had got the finish I wanted.
So a bit of frantic potting up went on. I should coco!!!

Fireworks from albuca spiralis

Better get my name on them huh!!

Adenia ecirrhosa

beautiful stem on Adenia ecirrhosa

dorstenia sp.

Ceropegia Simoneae green form, growing very quickly now

The Ceropegia Simoneae was the reason I got into this. Bought this one about 8 months ago and now it is 3 times the length. Fantastic plant. I also have bought 43 varieties ceropegia now as I love them.

kalanchoe fedtschenkoi

moon pot -othonna tripinerva

The othonna tripinerva was straight out of the packaging yesterday so needs some time to revive.

one of my first "dark" oxide attempts

first potting- tylecodon reticulatus

Not had time to make pots for these Sarcocaulon patterson

but the flower is great

Sarcocaulon camdeboense in tin

leaf detail

So, there you go, it has been an interesting last few months since I got my wheel and kiln. I guess it has been about 3 months I have been trying to start pottery but eventually I am reasonably happy with my first results.
Cheers all
Chilli

First biscuit and some messy oxides

My first biscuit firing went well,

 

nothing  broke and the kiln work fine, first time of trying with the new controller. Brilliant.

Hmmm, then I went on to coating the pots with oxide, not so good!!

Having not done this before and not having much reference to it I just bunged on a load of oxide as i had seen youtubes of glazing.

This was not a good idea.

I then fired my pots. 

Next day I was up at 6, open the shed door to check my kiln had operated ok. It had, it had hit 1250c no problems.

Anyhow a few hours later I opened the kiln.

Damn. Not only had I forgot to add Batt wash to the shelves, the thick oxide had just gone black, some had run off the pots and stuck to the shelves.

Ok, you learn by mistakes.

At least some were ok

But not what I had intended.

Back to the drawing board, I had saved my best pots for the second go. This time wiping the oxide off.

All worked, no breakages, and the colour was fantastic.

Well, its taken a while but I realized a few weeks back that my kiln had been originally built for low firing only!!! The good thing about it was it has never been used hard and at only 7 firings since new it is in perfect condition. But to get it to cone 10 I had to upgrade the analogue controls to a digital setup and also a new thermocouple. Then we discovered it had no contactor ( the bit the controls the power on time ) luckily Stafford Instruments helped me out with good advice, thank you.Eventually tracked a guy down to do the electrics and last night it was working at last.Phew!!!
In the mean time I had been working away getting better at throwing, finding how to keep the walls stronger and working with coils etc.
Learning to control the fissures and generally throwing a lot of clay back into the bucket and recycling, It is a good idea not to be putting everything straight in the kiln.
This morning I took the plunge , loaded the kiln and have my first biscuit firing underway!
Fingers crossed for the results tomorrow, hopefully not too many explosions tonight!!

I decided I would like to learn the chemistry of glazes so bought a big selection of powders so I have it all to hand.

old controller and no contactor ..damn!!

new controller

all ready to go for first firing

My new chemistry set

first loads

 

working on formula's

my first glazes, hopefully a dark indigo wash for pots with scratched lines through it  and a white glaze to bring out the lines

Lots of new plants to make pots for and my ceropegia collection is up to 43 types.I think that is probably the biggest collection in United Kingdom. Hopefully I can put photos of the flowers as and when they appear.