Sunday 24 October 2010

End of an era................

Today I finished my last batch of 1/12 casting..... ever.

Of course it still all needs to be soft-fired, soft cleaned, bisque fired, china painted, fired, china painted, fired etc, but I won't ever again be doing a batch of 1/12th porcelain.

It's almost exactly 21 years since I bought my first kiln, a few moulds and took my first faltering steps on a vertiginous learning curve of trial and error.  Even now, after over 20 years, I still experience a frisson of nervous excitement when opening the kiln after a bisque firing, especially there are any castings from new moulds.


Of course, it will now take me much, much longer to complete a kiln-load of casting, as the tiny stuff I'll be doing takes up much less space than 1/12th so I'll have to factor that into my casting schedules.  However on the plus side, one full kiln load will yield many, many tiny toy dolls and toys so I won't have to fire so often.


Alternatively I could sell my kiln and get a much smaller one.


In any event, the remainder of my 1/12th moulds are now surplus to requirements and will shortly be offered for sale to interested parties, who should make themselves known to me through the usual channels.


I could get used to this 'downsizing' malarkey............

 

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