FrogBlog — Buy Kiln

I love my big, very capable kilns, but so many times they just are not the right solution for my smaller projects. Having a smaller multi-use kiln for making jewelry, firing metal clays, making drawer pulls or glass bracelets, small ceramic projects, pulling vitrigraph stringer, bead annealing, and enameling is just a must in my studio. I'd be lost without my little wonder of a kiln! Here are some kilns that I really like as they do A LOT for the money... It's definitely hard to choose which one is best. It really just depends on what smaller projects you...

Everyday prospective buyers ask me which type of controller is better; the 3-key or the 12-key. What I tell them is "There is no better... it reallly comes down to what you have or can afford." A 3-key controller can do almost everything a 12-key can do, but it just takes longer to get the programming done. And, it doesn't matter if it's a Paragon, Olympic, Evenheat or Jen-Ken kiln... all 3-key controllers work the same way. If your impatient or easily distracted, like me, a 12-key might be the right choice for you.  Either way the digital controller, either...

It's a fact of life that humans are nomadic. We try to settle down in one place, but as comfortable as we get, we eventually pick up all of our stuff and move it to another location. As an artist I am certainly not immune to this condition. Over the last 15 years I will have moved my studio 4 times. First my home, then my first real studio out of my house - 8 years, then the next one - 3 years, now this one - 2 years. The reasons always seem legitimate; bigger space, which eventually raised rents...

When I first started fusing glass in 2001, the subject of venting your kiln was really not much of a discussion. Everyone vented the kiln to cool it. The kiln manufacturers would wince when the topic came up. They hated it, but we all thought that was what we were supposed to do.  In glass fusing we called it "crashing" or crash cooling. We basically opened the kiln at 1470F (full fusing temperature) and then let cool air into the kiln until the thermocouple reading was below 1200F. This might have to be done a few times to account for...