The first pressed 22D is dry, so she is stuck down at the bottom of the kiln where she fits nicely and also an inch away from the kiln walls. I decided the best position to fire these is flat on their backs rather than standing upright on their tops where the center webbing and the bottom could possibly sag downwards a bit from gravity when the clay gets soft from the heat. I can fit two of these in laid flat. So to do that I can use 5 of my nice tall posts to support the octagon shelf which in turn supports the 2nd sculpture. The 7 small…

I took the two sculptures out of the kiln a little while ago, they look good. The beaver started out 22″ x 13-1/2″ and when the clay was bone dry he measured 20-7/8″ x 12-3/4″ and then after firing the final measurements are 19-1/2″ x 12-1/4″, so the shrinkage through the processes amounts to about 11% for this clay. He weighs 28# The white clay I won’t be using, I got some of that thinking it could be glazed, but having white clay and red clay in the same molds will cause cross-contamination with white bits getting on the red and vice-versa and that could be a lot of trouble…