After the winter hiatus, the soda kiln is firing again. Some photos for the curious, and a fun test for my camera:

Kiln room, from the front of the kiln. Hood overhead, shelves to the right, kiln ahead. Lit by flame and heat. Kiln light makes for some dramatic monochromatic shots.

Arch of the door; the silhouettes are so figural.

The insulating ability of soft brick is another thing that amazes me. You can see my gloved thumb at the left and of course the 2300 degree end at the right. The end I’m holding is warm, but not too hot to touch. As always, be appropriately cautious where heat and fire are involved. At the very least, the glove keeps arm hair from being singed.

I’m impressed that my camera got this picture. Digital editing adds clarity. You can see cone 9 down and cone 10 falling in the foreground, a little darker than what’s behind them, and of course glowing work in the background.

This equipment does the heavy lifting: back side of the kiln as firing is reaching completion. The body of the kiln is off the left of the frame; the lit brick surface is actually the chimney. Round thing is the blower; gas is the vertical line into the blower output. The gas/air mix tees behind the kiln and splits to both burners, one of which is visible in the frame.

End of the firing, cone 10 flat on the bottom. Infrared isn’t particularly good for your eyes, so we wear filtering goggles to look into the kiln. Through computer-screen intervention, this is safe to look at.