[Clayart] Clayart Digest, Vol 85, Issue 23

[Village Lady]

Re: knowledge of electricity 

As for safety when using or working on electrical components, becoming knowledgeable and being conscientious about such are foundational to safety.  I knew nothing about kilns or electricity when I started making pots 50 years ago (this year!) but, because the nearest knowledgeable people were 100s of miles away, I either had to learn or stop firing.  As it has turned out, that situation was a huge blessing because it has saved me the consequences others have suffered from hiring licensed electricians who don’t know about kilns or relying on bad advice from well-intentioned people.  The stories of fires in studios often include kiln wiring as the source.  Stories like the one about the cord on the kiln being hot and the person who started the kiln being out of the building make me shudder.  Feeling the cord and the breaker in a panel box are simple, quick-and-dirty ways to be alerted to a problem, as is a cursory inspection of electrical work for signs of sloppiness but how many people do that or even know to?  This is all just to say that anyone who uses a kiln would benefit from learning basic electrical principles in order to know whether the installation, components, and use are safe - whether or not they will be doing the work.