Bisque Load

People are always extremely surprised to see a full bisque load in the kiln, even other potters have are surprised at my procedure.

To see the kiln- it looks like complete and utter chaos! One person told me it looks like a kids toy box with everything just thrown in. There is actually quite a bit of organization and fine tuning to delicately squeeze it all in there.

My goal is to get as much in the kiln as I can. Being that stilts and kiln shelves take up precious space, I try not to use them. Often times they are needed, especially with many tall, fragile and/or odd shaped ones.

1. I start by nesting the bowls on a large table.
2. Next I stack flat items- plates platters with the larger on the bottom.
3. Put the above items on the bottom shelve of the kiln.
4. Figure out what size furniture you need to hold up the shelve above the nested items. Use smaller items to fit any spaces and thin slab type pieces on top if you have room without going taller than the kiln furniture.
5. Put the shelves in. I use two 1/2 shelves per level which sit on 4 pieces of furniture. They they share two of the 4 furniture stilts so there is support under the two corners and the middle of the curved side.
6. Find all the larger, odd shaped items (those that you can't put anything on top of and have it stay stable (IE pitchers) and put them in. As you can see in the video, I put them on their side, it is easier to stack on top of them that way and they are strong to put more on top of.
7. Fill in around and on top of the layer or put another shelve in,which ever works for the pieces (and courage) you have.
   
8. The last thing i put in are the tall things which didn't fit in already as well as those things which I can put something else on top of it, like mugs. If you put cylinder forms upside down, it is easier to stack stack on top of them.

I have had really good results loading the pottery to be bisqued in this manner. Here are a few tips:

• Be sure the weight of each bowl, plate or platter is sitting on the base of the the one below it and not on the vertical wall.
• Never, never put a large platter or flat slab piece on the bottom shelve- they always crack.
• If you have a lot of flat slab pieces, stack them on their side vs flat or do single layer. The bottom one always cracks.
• The crazy stack needs to be stable with out large gaps, as the clay shrinks during the firing, you want everything tight so it shrinks together.
• things don't have to sit pretty on the shelve, they can be placed in which way as long as it is stable and won't move during the firing.
• Fragile items are typically last and don't have anything on top of them.

I put together a video showing a bisque load being done... click here to see it on you tube.