Electric Kilns and Firing – Online Course
£145.00
Understand your kiln. Fix firing problems. Get better and more consistent results.
Remember opening your kiln to find your favourite piece cracked? Or wondering why the studio’s glaze firings always turn out perfect while yours are unpredictable?
Every potter faces these moments of kiln confusion. Whether you’re just getting your first kiln, or want to improve your firing results, this 8-module course transforms uncertainty into understanding.
You’ll discover why your kiln does what it does, how to read what it’s telling you, and how to fix problems before they ruin another firing. Clear explanations of what, why and how things happen, and what to do about it, from a potter who’s been where you are. You’ll also learn how to use your kiln safely, how to install it and how to maintain it.
This is a clear, practical course that teaches you everything you need to fire an electric kiln safely, confidently, and with predictable results.
Join the hundreds of potters who’ve gone from praying to the kiln gods to becoming a kiln god(dess) by doing this course.
Description
What is the course about?
This course gives you all the information you need to select, maintain and fire an electric kiln in a safe and efficient way. It also goes over what happens to clays and glazes when they are fired.
How is it Delivered?
The course is structured into eight modules (nominally weekly but you can decide on your own pace). Each module consists of a video presentation, a PDF of the presentation for you to download, and links to additional material (both on and off my tech website) that you may wish to explore if you want more detailed information on any aspects of the course.
You’re also encouraged to ask me questions about the course content and your practices during the course. This may be by email, or by participating in the monthly “Ask me Anything” video conferences for all my current students and Patreon supporters.
You have access to the course material for 12 weeks from your booking date. After that, you can have access whenever you want by supporting me on Patreon for the cost of buying me a cup of coffee each month.
What will we cover?
The course covers everything you are likely to need to know about electric kilns and firing them. It is ideal for you if you’ve just bought a kiln and want to get to grips with it, or if you use a studio where work is fired for you and you want to understand what happens, or if you’ve had a kiln for a while but aren’t sure if you’re getting the most out of it.
The course covers choosing, installing and maintaining your kiln; kiln safety; how a kiln heats up, how we measure it with thermocouples and cones, and how we control it with the kiln controller; what happens to clays and glazes during the firing; how best to load your kiln and when to unload it; and firing faults, their prevention and cure.
The course doesn’t deal with older technology such as kiln sitters or kilns controlled manually through dials or switches.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should have achieved the following:
- Identify and understand all the components found in an electric kiln and its controller
- Know what to look for when buying a kiln, whether new or 2nd hand
- Understand the mechanisms by which a kiln heats up, and how different materials used in kiln construction and in kiln furniture (shelves etc.) behave
- Understand temperature and heatwork, and how they are measured
- Understand how clays and glazes, and their constituent materials, are transformed through the firing process, and what fumes may be given off from the kiln
- Loading and unloading your kiln, including the best spacing of shelves and positioning of pots
- Understand and use your kiln controller, and monitor your firing
- Determining the best firing schedules for your work
- Identify firing faults, their identification and cure
- Understand safety issues – heat, electricity, and fumes
- Learn about kiln maintenance, and how to diagnose faults
- Know about how to install the kiln
What do I get?
- Eight lectures , each lasting about 90 minutes
- Recordings of all lectures for later viewing during the course, with subtitles in all attendees’ languages
- Additional optional online course material, giving background info and greater depth
- Optional participation in monthly “Ask me Anything” live online discussion sessions
- Downloadable PDFs of all presentations
- Premium level access to the Tech part of my web site, containing much more information, references etc.
- Course attendance certificate
Note that the lecture recordings and premium level site access are included at no cost until 12 weeks after you sign up to the course. After that, continued access is available for the cost of buying me a coffee each month.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
Beginner to intermediate.
You should have some experience of making and firing pots in a pottery studio, whether you do the firing or it is done for you.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
The course is primarily run through video lectures.
Additional material that you may wish to explore is on the course website. This will help you go deeper into the subject matter, should you wish to do so.
There will be suggestions for you to consider specific aspects of your studio between sessions.
For those with an imperfect knowledge of English, all session recordings now have subtitles in the languages of all attendees. This uses computer translation, so isn’t guaranteed to be perfect, but should help you in following the sessions.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
There are no other costs or requirements.
Do I get a certificate or anything at the end?
Yes. A course attendance certificate (as a PDF) will be sent to all students.
Elizabeth Adamson –
Good basic overview. Liked the available resource information from website. Lee, Virginia, USA
Stephen Coombs –
A great introduction to how to use a kiln. Gave me a much better understanding of firing. Highly recommend. Steve from Durham, North Carolina
Elena Alexi –
Tim generously shared his in-depth knowledge of the topic. After the course, I feel more confident understanding how kilns operate and how to troubleshoot faults. Elena, London, UK
Julia Parry –
I’m relatively new to pottery and Tim’s detailed and informative course has given me the confidence to fire, glaze-fire and hopefully maintain my second hand front loading kiln.
Thanks Tim!
Heidi Leipnitz –
Tim’s course on Electric Kilns allowed me to feel much more comfortable operating and troubleshooting the first kiln for which I’m solely responsible. The course is a mix of technical and practical concepts that covers everything from how to assess your own personal requirements in selecting a kiln, to why it works the way it does and how to efficiently and reliably operate it to better achieve predictable results (no kiln god lore around here!). As a North American potter currently working in Europe, I appreciated that the material addressed the differences encountered with tools and working behaviours between the continents. Tim is very knowledgeable – he welcomed all questions, encouraged discussion, and patiently explained concepts until we were satisfied. I highly recommend this course for anyone looking to build confidence in operating an electric kiln efficiently. Heidi (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Aino Leskinen –
This course is very well put together and gives a good overall picture of firing an electric kiln. It boosted my confidence and provided a ton of information about the firing process from basic to advanced. Tim has been generous with his time and answering individual questions. I recommend this course to people like me who are newbies to firing kilns. Aino from Edinburgh, Scotland
Simon Hallion –
I found the course to be thorough and wide ranging and has given me an excellent grounding in electric kiln operations and maintenance, the behaviour of clays and glazes during the firing process. It also provided useful health & safety awareness. Due to time constraints I relied largely on the presentation recordings rather than the live sessions, so was unable to ask questions directly. Nevertheless, Tim has a knack of structuring the information to anticipate many of the questions that came up for me as I worked my way through each presentations. Completing this course has given me the confidence to go ahead and purchase my own kiln. Simon, Nottingham
Lesley Moerdyk –
I found Tim’s course on Electric Kilns and Firing, super informative and stimulating – I would highly recommend it to anyone considering buying their own kiln or wanting to learn about the firing process in general. The presentation and booklet we received is thoroughly comprehensive and I will be referring to often, I’m sure! Thank you Tim for the huge amount of time and effort you have put into building this course and in your lovely way of explaining things, I really enjoyed it. Lesley from Cape Town, South Africa.
Sue Barclay –
This course was very in depth and provided all aspects of kiln firing, sharing technical and practical information, as well as offering advice and solutions to issues people were having. Tim’s depth of knowledge is vast, and his passion and attention to detail for pottery was reassuring and incredibly helpful. Many thanks! Sue, Mayfield Pottery Workshop, Edinburgh
Fiona Hulbert –
After years of dabbling via courses I retired from work and during Covid time set up my own little studio at home. When I was offered an old kiln I said yes with alacrity ….but having never had anything to do with the firing of my pieces then felt rather overwhelmed by the process of getting to know how to use it with the glazes I had. It is a whole new area of potting to learn to navigate. I was relieved to find Tim’s course online. It was the first affordable and easilyaccessible one I had come across. I am unable to make regular committment to a particular time and day but any sessions I missed live I was able to watch the recording of and email Tim with any questions that had not already cropped up during that week’s session. When I contacted him Tim about his course he was welcoming and addressed all my questions promptly and couteously so I registered. He has a spread of expert knowledge which he shares clearly with good visuals explaining how things work. His help and advice has always been very practical. I have learnt a great deal about my kiln and how it works, about how to understand how the heat works around the pots and this now informs how I load and unload the kiln to get the best out of my glazes. I am no phycisist, chemist or engineer but Tim has furthered my understanding of how heat works on various materials within the glazes and how my kiln functions . He has also explained and put into perspective various potential safety issues, using common sense and sharing his research to dispel misinformation that might cause unecessary anxieties about the materials we are dealing with. It was interesting to be online with potters from a number of countries as it is always good to be able to share experiences and information with other potters. Tim encouraged us to ask questions and his responses were always considered and informative. The course has filled in lots of gaps for me and given me more confidence with firing my kiln. Thank you , Tim.
greaves.angela@gmail.com –
The course was really interesting and informative and I learnt a lot about kilns and the firing process. Tim’s course is great for people, like myself, who don’t currently own a kiln and just want to understand the basics, as well as more expert potters who have their own studio and kiln setup and have more in-depth questions. Angela, Gloucestershire
Ruth Fischnaller –
The course was absolutely worth its money. Tim’s expertise and experience is huge and covers all pottery related issues. The presentation is clear and structured. Tim is very attentive to the different participants and answers every (!) question, no matter how off topic or detailed it might be. You can tell that he really cares about people understanding and learning and getting as much as possible out of this course. Ruth from Chiusa, Italy
buechly@hotmail.com –
I completely enjoyed this course, learned so much about all aspects of firing the kiln and claywork in general. I would recommend this course to anyone wanting to learn about their kiln and what happens to your clay during the firing process. Tim has a wealth of valuable knowledge regarding all aspects of heatwork, claywork, and so much more, and is very generous about sharing that knowledge. It was also quite special to be experiencing the course with people from all over the world! Paulyn from Florida, United States.
angelinavance22@gmail.com –
Great course, tons of information. Be prepared to immerse yourself. I am new at firing and used all of the material to make sure I understood what was being presented. Angelina, Portugal
lindseyaustinrmt@gmail.com –
I found this course very informative. I am so glad I took this course before I ordered my own kiln. Tim is very kind and generous with his time. I highly recommend any potter to take this course. Lindsey, Nova Scotia