It is about time!

I ordered a new ceramic kiln in June. The lady said two weeks - ok, two months later it finally arrived. At the time we also ordered 4000 pounds (2 tons) of clay! Our studio is down a long, steep, gravel drive and there is no turn-around, so we had the kiln and clay delivered to our house instead. The 18-wheeler arrived and unloaded three pallets, two for clay and one for the kiln. Luckily, he had a lift-gate and a pallet dolly and was able to move them very easily into our garage.

The next problem was how to get it all to the studio. Well, we knew that the best thing to do with the clay was just to take it a little at a time as we need it. There really isn't any place to store it at the studio anyway. But the kiln weighed close to 1500 pounds. Again, we were a bit lucky that most kilns are built in sections and come apart. We spent most of the first day just breaking down the kiln into pieces that we could handle. We were able to get it in our van and it only took two loads out to the studio, and then of course, we had to put it all back together!

The next obstical was that it needed a 90 amp breaker and our panel box was already full. So that ment we had to upgrade our entire service. I will have to say that our electrician worked very fast and was able to get the panel switched and completely re-wired, a new disconnect inside for the kiln and a new breaker box with main disconnect outside in about five hours. That may seem long, but if you saw the mess it was in to begin with you would understand.

Last night we were able to load it. It was amazing how much we could fit into it.

This morning John, Clint and I woke up at 5 am and went down to start the kiln for the first time. It was very exciting. It felt like the first time you take a new car out for a ride.

We have a couple of shows coming up and we are all busy getting ready. Clint actually let me take a picture of him working on the wheel (although he said I have to pay him $5 for the picture.)