Here are some photos of the control panel after it was cleaned up. What a difference, without the thick layer of dust.

I have absolutely no idea how the controls on the thing work, by the way. Should be an adventure trying to figure it out.

I decided to pop the cover and see what was inside, and was pleasantly surprised. Looks positively brand spanking new. And best of all, reasonably simple. If anything is broken, it`s likely that it`ll be easier to fix because it`s analog. This is the box labeled `control panel`.

Next is the box labeled `magnetic switch`.

If anyone familiar with this type of analog kiln controller can explain how it works, I`d very much appreciate it.

Here`s the kiln after I got everything in place and cleaned up. Yep, those lids were actually blue…

Here`s the interior, is it not beautiful? (It`s best if you hear the previous sentence uttered by Fozzie Bear, or perhaps Grover). I know pretty much nothing about electric kilns, but to me those elements look really clean and hardly fired.

The lid is operated by an interesting, simple mechanism wherein as you screw the handle down the lid is lifted by the arm and can be swung away from the top of the kiln. This also allows for nice control of the opening of the top during firing. When I first saw this setup I kind of poo pooed it, but after assembling and trying it out, it seems to really work well.

One day about 5 years ago, I noticed a dusty blue metal box behind the shelves of ware containers in my mentor`s kiln room. When I asked what it was he said it was an electric kiln he had been given but never used, and did I want it? Said I could have it for free, because he got it for free, but that it ran on 3 phase 200 volt current.

At the time I didn`t have a studio let alone space for a kiln, or a 200 volt outlet, but it was always on my mind. Now, 5 years later, I have the studio and my new kiln cover for the wood kiln going in this fall, and wouldn`t you know it, a 200 volt outlet on the exterior wall of the studio that was put in for the immediate purpose of running a concrete mixer, but the long term purpose of running that kiln I`d seen years back.

The kiln is for firing Uwa-e, or overglaze enamels and it`s top temp is probably about 900C. It`s going to be a bisque kiln for me, since I bisque at around 750C. Doing a bisque in my propane kiln costs around $50 in propane. Firing this kiln will cost about $4. It will hold only about 1/3 of the gas kiln, but it`s still far cheaper. I figure $12 to $15 as opposed to $50 for the same volume of pots. A couple years of firings should make back the money (around $900) I spent running the 200V to the workshop.

Here`s the kiln after we loaded it up onto the truck. Boy was it heavy…. took 4 full grown grunting macho men to get it up there. To the left are the lids, and the control panel in the foreground.

In my previous post I mentioned the Old Karatsu kiln, Fujinokawachi, know for its paddled ware. Here is a picture of some of the old tokkuri unearthed from the Fujinokawachi kiln ruin.

For anyone interested, if you click on the link below you will find an animation of how to tie the cord (himokake) on wood boxes (kiribako):

http://story.turuta.jp/himokake/himokake.html

This is my pottery mentor’s website. If you look around you’ll find lots of other animations, images, and short movies. Very interesting. Tsuruta sensei will be doing a one day demo and talk during the kiln building workshop at my studio this fall. Workshop link is here:

http://karatsupots.com/workshop2010/workshop2010.html

I got several boxes (kiribako) in yesterday, so it was the perfect opportunity to explain how the boxes are prepared for their pots.

First of all, the pots are measured and I call the box maker, who then makes the boxes and sends them to me, looking like this after the plastic covers are removed.

It’s easiest to do them as a group, so I set them all up and break out my trusty brush, box signing ink, stamps, and stamp ink, and get to work.

Notice I’m too lazy to make my own ink by rubbing the inkstone in the well and adding water. I found this wonderful bottle of ink made for writing on wood boxes and it works better than home made. Something is added that makes it less fluid but still easy to write with, and it doesn’t have a tendency to bleed into the wood grain like straight water made ink does.

Here are all the boxes after being labeled with the type of pot contained, my name, and stamped. The stamp is the Chinese character ‘Ma’ or ‘Man’, which is the first syllable of my (Mike, or ma-i-ku) in Japanese. The character is normally written as 万　or 萬, but I looked up the ancient version and it is what you see on the boxes. If it looks like a bug to you that’s because it is, it’s a scorpion. Funny, the character ‘Man’ means ten thousand, I hope the poor bastard that first wrote that kanji didn’t encounter ten thousand scorpions for inspiration.

I like having the big red stamp on the boxes, as it draws the eye away from the severe case of PPCSD (Piss Poor Calligraphy Skill Disorder) of which I am sorely afflicted. I just repeat my mantra, “I’m a potter not a calligrapher” when I do a particularly bad run of boxes.

After all the signing is done and the brush is clean, I start preparing the paper lid cover, stamped cloth, and cord. Usually I’ve forgotten about the cloth and have cleaned and put away the stamps, so have to get the stamps and ink out again and stamp the cloth pieces. Here are the boxes with the paper, cords, and cloths all done. The whole process takes about 30 – 40 minutes per box, sometimes more if my mantra doesn’t work and I end up deciding to sand off the writing and try again.

And with their respective pots….