I finally did it. I thought and thought and read and read and decided to just try it…(that’s how I got myself into the deliemma of such a big Koi pond that holds way more water than I ever thought possible!!) Anyway…I put 4 cinder blocks in a square leaving a section open for the wood to be put in through. Then I stacked the blocks three high. After the second row I put a bar-b-q screen and put the 3rd row of blocks on that. I put a broken kiln shelf on that screen. I put a piece of metal on top of the 3rd row of cinder blocks. Took my raku pieces that I had poured from a mold – they will be made into my rain chain when done – painted them with raku copper stain. Let dry. Put them into the kiln on the top of the kiln shelf. Lit the fire (coal on bottom, paper, sticks, then old 2x4s. Kept the fire high enough so that the pieces were surrounded in fire. I did see a time when it looked like the stain was wet…I should have taken them out then but I waited another 15 minutes cause – well cause – I didn’t know what I was doing:) When I did take them out with the tongs I put them into the bucket with newspaper. I should have poured the water into the bucket where they were burning with the newspaper…instead I took them out with the tongs and put them into a bucket of water....I got confused at that point obviously!! Once they cooled I could see the different colors but there was a lot of brown. They bubbled a lot which I guess means they got too hot??? They are still pretty so after I scrub them and clean them up some, I will use them to make my rain chain once I get the rest of the pieces that go with it fired. I will try again tonight hopefully.
Phots: top left is the kiln; top right is the first bell I took out; bottom left is another bell, bottom right are 3 bells and 3 balls. It will be a rain chain but I have to raku the beads I poured to go with the chain before I can put it all together. Then I will try it ALL again and see if I can get it right this time:)
