As you may remember, JE artists Kathy and Lois were hard at work on their Christmas ornaments. They rolled the clay into large slabs, used cookie cutters to create tons of fun shapes, used straws to add holes to each ornament, stamped each shape with the Jean Elton logo, and once they dried, they were each cleaned up around the edges.
Next, they were fired in the bisque firing. How did the bisque turn out? See the pictures after the jump.
The ornaments were fired in the electric kiln, as seen above.
In a bisque firing (or the first firing), the pieces can be stacked on top of each other.
The electric kiln was stacked full of shelves like this with piles and piles of ornaments.
If ornaments aren't given enough time to dry before firing,they will break in the kiln, as seen here.
Here, Lois is unloading the kiln by removing the shelves.They are very heavy!
Finally, the bottom of the kiln and the last of the ornaments to unload.
The ornaments are stacked according to their shape and put into boxes.They are now ready to paint!