My head just exploded.

My head just exploded...I think so, anyway. I heard a popping sound, and then another, and it does not bode well for the future of my head.

To clarify. I'm firing my head---heh. See, even that sounds weird. There is a whole other language in ceramic work which doesn't mean the same (clearly) in regular language. This can be the case in many specialties; however, I am particularly enjoying the phrase "My head just exploded" and it is true! And I can still type!

I can't check to see if it really did explode yet, because the kiln is still firing the the required temperature, and there are other pieces in there.

I was trying out a new method of building a sculpture of a head. This method isn't very good for avoiding the tiny bubbles which occur when you're building something sculptural with clay.

I fired up my big deliciously large kiln (which my loved one wired for me for my birthday) today for the first time, and the firing is going well...except for this POP!

I don't mind very much because that head was an experiment, and I wanted to see if it would stand up to a bisque firing. A bisque firing is when you heat up the clay to very hot temperatures to harden it. Generally after a bisque firing you do other things to the hardened clay, like put colored slip or glaze or iron oxide on it, and then you fire it again.

The funnest thing for me is to Raku after I have bisque-fired something, as the results are unpredictable in a different way from when something is glazed and fired again in a kiln.

To Raku, you generally put a Raku glaze on your bisqued piece, then you heat it up in a kiln so it is literally glowing red-hot. You take this amazing glowing hot clay out of the kiln by picking it up with long tongs (and you want to be wearing heavy welding gloves), and you put the clay in a small trash can which is filled with sawdust, newspaper, leaves, ... pretty much anything you find you want to try out. This sets everything on fire. FIRE! You let it burn for a minute, and then put the lid on and the smoke and heat and combustibles do the work.

Sometimes a piece can't handle the shock of Raku--watching and hearing ceramic crackle in the relatively cooler air when you take it out of the trash can be amazing, especially when it isn't breaking, just cracking on the surface of the glaze, or the surface of the ceramic.

And, if you don't bisque-fire your clay before you Raku it, it will EXPLODE!

sigh.