Firing tonight.......

While I was ill over Christmas, my delirium-fuelled days played out to a background of back-to-back Carry On films on TV, my favourite of which was Carry On Screaming, a rather anaemic homage to the Hammer Horror films of the same era.

At the end, Kenneth Williams, who plays an undead non-vampire zombie (?!), tumbles into a vat of bubbling liquid, surfacing briefly to scream 'Frying Tonight', which, when I first saw it as a child, I thought was hilarious.


Obviously, I was easily pleased in those days.

Anyway, I mention this trivia for no other reason than I was loading the kiln earlier today and idly musing on firing puns..... as you do.  Admittedly it is a very boring task, meticulously placing dozens of extremely fragile, tiny doll parts onto firing sand, carefully maintaining an even spacing between each one so that they don't stick together as they expand then contract during the firing process. 

To the untutored eye, they might all look the same, but there are limbs for 6 different dolls on this shelf, in two colours of porcelain, and when full the kiln will contain the result of around 4 week's work, from casting, soft-firing, soft-cleaning through to the stage of bisque firing.

Generally, the day after a bisque firing I get an order for a specific porcelain doll or toy which I have to make from scratch, which means that I will have to start another batch of casting, necessitating spending a further 4 weeks working towards filling the kiln.  

Perhaps I should get a smaller kiln.......