Jim's First Fully Manual Gas Firing ^6 Reduction

Jim played with old stuff from the pantry, oat flakes, odds and ends of clay.... and made really fun masks. 

Jim one-fired this piece - done in ^6 reduction. 

Many of the textured masks came out with just texture. The second from the left on the bottom isn't colored or stained in any way. The oat flakes burnt off leaving what looks like oat flakes behind. 

The extrusions will be a sculpture installation somewhere in the yard. We've got lots of yard art. That's part of the fun of living in the desert where you can leave sculpture out all year long. 


Jim had never fired the fully manual gas kiln before. I gave him instruction, he went and fired by himself. When the kiln stalled during reduction, he took Mel's advice (thanks, Mel) and backed off on the gas. Solved the stalling problem. The cone packs, both top and bottom, showed extremely even firing. The kiln wasn't packed full - and that may be the reason for the really good results he got.