Clay time...firing the kiln

I've been managing the kiln all week.  Four loads later and almost everything is fired.  I have half of everything with a coat of wax resist on the bottom.  The kids are eager to glaze so I've really been putting in the extra time to complete them all.  Hopefully we will glaze the end of the month.  These are the bobble heads from 4th grade.  First time I've tried this project so I am hoping I can get them to bobble.  The kids did some really cute things with the assignment.  I'll post when they are completed.

Organization

My principal recently emailed everyone looking for a place to move a metal shelf.  I jumped at the opportunity to have it placed in the kiln room.  It has been such an asset this year for managing the approximately 400 pieces of green ware that have passed through the kiln room.  I have always found organizing clay pieces and keeping them safe to be a real challenge.  It is the worst possible mishap when I accidentally break a student's work.  I avoid that by carefully managing each piece.  This shelf has made a rough situation so bearable!  Crazy really that I am writing about this wonderful addition of a metal shelf!!  Today I took a few pictures of my clay organization.

3rd grade work

Each plastic bin is labeled by grade and day of the week.  As I unload the kiln, I sort the works into the bins.  I will apply wax resist by class and the glazing will begin!  With the bins labeled it is easy to prioritize which classes I need to work with and in what order.  The 3rd grades will not glaze but will instead paint their pieces.  There is a lot of work there; thanks goodness, no wax resist!  The rack those are store on was assembled from a metal cube system.  It was suppose to go together with plastic caps connecting the intersections.  Instead it is assembled with plastic ties from the hardware store and with extra shelves in each cube that are more suited to the sizes of my bins.