2nd Annual 50th Firing Kiln Opening, July 18, 2009
It’s a beautiful evening here on the mountain! This is about my upcoming 50th firing kiln opening, July 18. Everyone had such a great time last August, I’ve decided to do it again. Below is the post from last year explaining the event. I’ll be writing more as pieces are fired. I started the countdown a few days ago, and have some spectacular new pieces fired already. It’s a good thing I started early, because today one of the elements broke in my electric kiln during the bisque firing and the kiln is still on. Normally, it takes about 9 hours for this firing–today it’s been on 15 1/2 hours, with about another 2 hours to go. This kiln has been a workhorse and was purchased in 1989 when I still lived in Atlanta. I’m amazed the elements lasted so long. So, here’s an additional task ahead–replacing the elements in the electric kiln. What fun! It looks like the firings are going to be terrific this month, so I hope you’re looking forward to visiting my studio on July 18.
Here’s more about it, updated from last August:
The focus of this blog over the next few weeks is to talk about preparations for my upcoming 50th Firing Kiln Opening on July 18 from 11AM to 5PM.
For a number of years, I’ve wanted to do a kiln opening, but since raku involves firing one or a small number of pieces each time, it was impossible to do this in the traditional manner. So what I’ve come up with is to fire 49 pieces in the days leading up to the opening and then firing the 50th piece on opening day. The twist I’ve added to this event is to give the 50th piece away to one of the day’s attendees by drawing a lucky person’s name out of a “hat.” This piece’s retail value will be approximately $700(up from $500 last time–it’s really a GREAT feeling to give something of value away). Of course, the other 49 pieces will be available for purchase and as an incentive, I’ve decided that anyone purchasing work valued up to $500 will get an additional chance to win and anyone buying over $500 will get three chances to win. It’s important to state that you do not have to be present to win, as I will notify everyone the name of the winner on this blog.
The 50th piece will be fired between 2 and 4PM with an hour to cool down. If you’re from out of town and not here for the drawing, I’ll ship the piece to you at no charge.
For those of you who’ve visited my studio before, you know I have limited parking. I’m also located about 3/4 of a mile off of the blacktop. I’ve hopefully solved these problems by having helpers who will control the one way flow of traffic with portable radios and assist you in parking. One of my neighbors, Dr. Bob Abernathy has also graciously loaned me the use of his van to shuttle attendees if parking near my home/studio becomes a problem. There’s plenty of parking space along the road in our lower pasture for any overflow.
In future blogs leading up to this event, I’ll talk about my progress and include images of some of the pieces I’ve fired.
It should be fun! I hope you can come.
Steven Forbes-deSoule