Something to Avoid

There were a lot of tiles to fire in the last salt kiln, which normally take up a lot of kiln shelves (heating up kiln shelves to 1300 degrees is something of a waste of energy,and on the whole to be avoided)- so we came up with this stack,saving vast amounts of room.Unfortunately,it didn't work- two of these stacks (there were four) collapsed domino-style,and the salt had trouble getting into those narrow gaps.The tiles didn't warp,though,so maybe a refinement of the system would perform better.I still got some 20 nicely-salted tiles from the firing.I think it's about time we did a soda firing - baking soda being a more friendly way to get sodium vapour than salt,the effects being similar but brighter.We used to do (rather successful) soda firings in a kiln Sydney built at Tel Hai,but the kiln proved difficult to fire and was dismantled.
The Israeli anagama season appears to be starting- next week young Ricardo is loading his twin-chambered wood and salt kiln in Even Sapir (nr. Jerusalem) for the last time- I hope to be there for part of the firing,and sneak a few pots into the kiln- and Rabbi Meir is girding his loins in Pardes Chana for a Purim firing,also at which I would like to be.See you there! Shabbat Shalom!