Kiln Mechanics

[robby]

I made some progress with the kiln setup. I cut a hole in the lid to improve the air draw and venting, and I fixed the pyrometer. The new pyrometer came without documentation, and not only had a resistor with a broken lead, but it had a jumper that had to be removed before it was operational! I got the kiln temperature up to 1650F, and it ran best with only one burner firing. I think this means that I have inadequate gas volume. My next step is to connect it to a larger supply line, and get it to burn hotter, and on both burners.

Comments

[ccjohn.livejournal.com]

To make glazed clay things?

[robby.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'll be making reproductions of Pre-Colombian Central and South American art objects. When I was in my 20's I studied archeology, and read the specialty magazines. I remember these art reproductions advertised, and I recently happened upon all the master molds. A real artist spend years creating these objects...they're much better than anything currently on the market.

If all goes well, I'll eventually get a huge production kiln and hire people to help.

[ccjohn.livejournal.com]

The art market is so suffused with politics, it always skeeves me some. But this particular kind of art, seems more timeless. Good luck.

[robby.livejournal.com]

My target market will be people generally interested in history, and also the growing latino middle class that wants something that evokes their indigenous heritage. This stuff will not be terribly expensive, even if I stuck with the 1990 prices, I could make a good profit.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

This has nothing to do with your post, but I thought of you when I read this:

http://www.salon.com/2011/06/08/tomatoland_interview/

[robby.livejournal.com]

I'm in the San Joaquin Valley, and the local roads are littered with tomatoes falling from those huge double trailers on the way to the cannery. They seem to grow the Roma type tomatoes, on low bushes, that they scoop up, all at once, with heavy equipment. They are red and ripe when picked, but the plants and fruit are a world apart from an old-fashioned heirloom tomato.

I recently went out to an Indian restaurant, and Icould not eat the horrid sliced tomatoes that they served.

[ccjohn.livejournal.com]

You don't mean the oval kind? In Turkey, they sold tomatoes at little stands everywhere. I thought "excellent!" Until I ate some. They were OK, but no more than that, nothing like our cherry tomatoes or even Early Girls. I was told in the US these would be "cooking tomatoes." They were dull. Look great, taste like nothing.

[robby.livejournal.com]

I think that the oval Roma tomatoes have the potential to taste good, but in the article, the growers say that the market demand for cheap tomatoes forces them to select commercial varieties where taste is the last consideration.

[ccjohn.livejournal.com]

Here in freezing New England, still have some green cherry tomatoes left. I'm trying the paper bag trick.

Tomatoes, blueberries, I've read we should eat these whenever possible. I try to. The short growing season here, I wonder how deep are its effects.

[robby.livejournal.com]

I'm picking and eating lots of fresh lemons right now, and I still have beans peppers and straggling tomatoes. Soon I'll pull up the tomato plants, and replant that bed with green onions. With green onions, you eat the stem, but they do have little white bulbs as well.