Yesterday was taken up with firing the salt kiln again. We lit it at 7.30am.

Claude took Leigh and me to Ackland Grainger to buy proper vapour masks. I was able to buy North ones that fit my mask. I can still use the regular filters when I’m mixing glaze.

In the afternoon the media came to meet us and interview some for a local TV station. All good pr for Medalta and the Residency Programme. Handles on tankards and trimmed a plate. We organized another salt burrito-making stint. Jenn popped out to the Wholesale Food Suppliers just next door to buy 2 large sacks of Sifto salt. There are now lots of burritos ready for today’s and next week’s firings. There will be several – some light, and one more ‘heavy’ salt.Claude, Jin and I are happy to have finished that job!

Salting went on for a couple of hours. We added 24 lbs in 2 lb saltings. I quickly realized that the draw-rings I’d made for this firing were of H570 clay, not the H550 of last time. There is much less orange peel. We simply added salt until we felt there was a good melt. Peeking in (with a flash light) next day it looks as if there’s orange peel on some. Interestingly the left hand bag wall slumped into the left side. It became impossible to insert salt that side – slippery glazed bricks in the way..  Let’s hope the salt was nicely distributed anyway.