Tuesday, April 6, 2010

New Post

It's been many months since I wrote a new post to this blog. I never had the intention of stopping when I did, it just sort of happened. I suppose life is like that.

I always wanted to post some pictures of my cone packs. A cone pack is a small device that is used to measure the temperature (or, more accurately, the heat work) inside of a kiln. Normally one distributes several cone packs throughout the kiln so that a comprehensive record of temperatures inside the kiln is made. Any typical firing can have internal temperature variations on the scale of tens of degrees depending on where the temperature is measured. For instance, it is common for the top of a kiln to be at a higher temperature than the bottom of a kiln simply because heat rises. Furthermore, careful observation of the cone packs during the firing can be helpful to create the most homogenous temperature possible. Minor adjustments can be made to either heat up a cool spot, or cool down a hot spot within the kiln.

Since the entire island was inside my kiln I thought it was important to distribute my cone packs far and wide across the terrain. I placed cone packs at Northwest Point (the westernmost point on the island), Keefe's Point (the southernmost point on the island), Bussey's Ridge (the highest altitude on the island), an unnamed point on the east of the island, and near the kiln itself. Here are the photos of the cone packs where I placed them: