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I was doing what I thought would be a straight forward, benign raking yesterdtay and I guess I let my guard down. The "kiln gremlins" came to play ard reminded me exactly what kind of dragon I'm messing with.

Single layer Spectrum white base, two layer black boarder, random scattering of blue transparent Spectrum to simulate sky with a design in the middle; should have been a walk in the park.

The places in the white base where there wasn't any blue bubbled with a passion. Typically, bubbles in a comb aren't much of a problem to manage; just pull some near by glass into it and it's over. Well, because there was only a single layer of base glass to work with, when I pulled it into the bubble, I left a thin spot for another bubble to form. I spent an hour chasing bubbles around this piece, 9 X 12, before I realize I had already lost the battle.

So, I figured, "what have I got to loose?" And that's a bad thing to say with a piece like this. I need more glass? Well, toss in a piece, which I did. It was about 5 X 7 Spectrum 96, I laid it in carefully and closed the kiln door; JUST IN TIME! I heard the explosion from outside. Putting roon temperature glass on top of 1650 glass wasn't too smart, DUHHHHH!

Well I was able to pull some if it back into the piece and actually beat out some of the bubbles; SOME of them. So, I figured, "what have I got to loose?" (I never learn) This time I added a spoon of Thompson's enamel to the mix and that actually worked. The bubbles are beat even if I've got this glob of color I can't do anything with. Then I remembered: This color of Thompson's has a COE of 90! Well, the mess in the kiln this morning made me want to take up underwater basket weaving. Between what was on the shelf, STUCK to the shelf, FRACTURED on the shelf, and the stuff I had to pull out of the walls of the kiln from the explosion, I realized, when it all goes wrong, even the wheels fall off.

Guess I'll go exorcise those gremlins and see what new and creative ways there are to foul things up.

Jerry

geezz.....all you needed was for the electricity to go out again.
Stand up, walk outside, spin in a circle 3 times , jump twice and go back in, that should do the trick.
Diane

hope you took pictures.

Diane wrote:geezz.....all you needed was for the electricity to go out again.
Stand up, walk outside, spin in a circle 3 times , jump twice and go back in, that should do the trick.
Diane

Now, should I find a rotting tree stump to stick my hand into as well? Or is that no longer politically correct?

Jerry

oops, can't do "no message" posts anymore...

OT OT OT

Jerry, sorry to hear about your terrible, horrible, no good, rotten day. Welcome to the club

I think you've probably appease the Dieties with this one so you should be safe for a few more firings.

Maybe an entry in a new category for the next WGW showing...best fouled up kiln shelf? I remember a recent thread where people were discussing things that can happen to kiln shelves and hanging them in their studio as reminders...ah well, it's Friday.

C.