What does Thomas the Train say - Accidents happen now and again
Sometimes just by chance. You gotta pick yourself up and dust yourself down. Put it down to experience.
Lesson # 105.1
What to do when your hard efforts blow up in the kiln.
Time to reflect and say SLOW DOWN!
It was, and is still, going to be a great learning process for me. I have never fired a raku kin for a piece this big before. Maybe I am just crazy but the final imagery that I see in my mind has to be brought to fruition. I can’t stop thinking about it.
You see, when clay or green ware is ready to go into the kiln for a bisque firing it needs to be 100% dry. I thought my sculptures were dry. It had been a week but perhaps they needed two or three to dry completely. If they are not dry you run the risk of having your pieces explode and take out other pieces in the kiln.
I will move on and make another round of sculpture circles/donuts out of high fire clay and let them dry completely this time. I hope you can learn from this over eager beavers mistake! Thanks for sticking with me and I promise you a final product by the end of summer!
li xiaofeng is Beijing artist who creates clothing piece made from traditional Chinese ceramics. He makes the clothing from ceramic shards coming from the song, Ming, Yuan and Ging dynasties, which are sewn together on a leather undergarment. Some of his projects include a suit jacket and tie as well as a number of mid-length women’s dresses. In xiaofeng’s studio, piles of ceramic pieces sit in bins sorted by date, colour and shape 
Porcelain is a ceramic material fired to temperatures between 1,200 °C (2,192 °F) and 1,400 °C (2,552 °F). The toughness, strength, and translucence of porcelain arise mainly from the formation of glass and the mineral mullite within the fired body at these high temperatures. 
You see, when clay or green ware is ready to go into the kiln for a bisque firing it needs to be 100% dry. I thought my sculptures were dry. It had been a week but perhaps they needed two or three to dry completely. If they are not dry you run the risk of having your pieces explode and take out other pieces in the kiln. 
The resulting flames and smoke are contained and controlled by covering the chamber and the pot is permitted to smoke for a few minutes. Then once more the pot is moved----this time it is plunged into a tub of cold water. The medium separates from the pot and the resulting pattern is visible.
