When I started my journey into sculpting, I knew one of my biggest challenges, no sorry, it was my biggest challenge, was to get my own kiln. Being disabled, and trying to travel out to use other peoples kilns just wasn't an option as there firstly wasn't anything that was close enough to myself, but also the challenge of trying to move delicate sculptures, whilst in my wheelchair, plus find a place that had a wheelchair friendly set up was quite the logistical nightmare, my only other option was to put up a GoFundMe post and keep my fingers crossed that I had enough support for people to donate. Thankfully even though I'd not sculpted anywhere near the amount of sculptures nor was my sculpting at the level of quality that it is now, however I had enough support to be able to get myself a little second-hand kiln with some furniture, which was a godsend as I had nothing at all to put inside a kiln for firing.
Since getting that kiln I've had a lot to sort out regarding the room it was going it, the shelving to put drying sculptures on, ventilation, heat protection etc. I am there now and just have the heat proofing to put on the walls and I'll be ready to fire. I can fire without it as the kiln is pulled out and away from the walls, but I'd rather be safe and have everything in place before I put my first piece in.
Sadly there are a few pieces that have been broken, well had bits knocked off them when moving them from the cabinet to the kiln room shelving, however its not huge loss as they were far to big to put into my little kiln away, so I'll break them up completely and then rehydrate the clay and reuse it to make the same animals just smaller. The only couple that haven't broken, but are still to big are the little fawn, the Hispid hare aka the Assam rabbit and my big badger, however I think I'm going to redo the badger anyway, as he really is to big and heavy and I think that now I've been sculpting for 9 months everyday, that I could do a lot better creating something smaller but just as sweet.
However, after moving the kiln went over her just checking everything looked ok and noticed that some of the heat proofing in the lid had come away, so I wrote to a couple of experts regarding this and a couple of other questions. I am ok to use my kiln however I have been informed that I need to replace her as soon as i am able too as she's an old kiln, here elements are a little worn, though they still have some life these, they will need replacing soon so its just cost over and over which I could do without.
My ideal situation would be for a company to sponsor my sculpting, which in turn they would either get me a second hand kiln or new one and I would advertise they name with everything that did to bring traffic to their business. Sadly I don't know of any businesses on a level that would sponsor me, however I do hope that might change in the future.
Lets hope all my hard work pays off.
Speaking of hard work, time to get back to sculpture number 33 I wonder what that will be
Take care all
Dee
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