I am in a Ceramics art class at school i graduate in two weeks after that I will not be able to have access to a kiln. does any one know were i can buy one. plus does any one know how high this will make my elecrical bill.
Kiln's are extrememly expensive and unless your planning on making ceramics your full time/part time profession it's really not worth buying. There should be some local ceramic pottery or greenware stores that may have a kiln you can use. They may charge you a small firing fee depending on the size of the peice but it is a lot cheaper than purchasing your own kiln. I would suggest trying to find something like that before buying a kiln or finding a How To fact sheet on building your own, inexpensive kiln at home. It can be done!
if you want to have your own kiln, price will depend a lot in how large you want it and to which cone it fires. Just look in some catalogues of ceramic supply houses, as a graduate student in ceramics you should know those. It will be cheaper to buy a used kiln, try craigs list or local classified ads. Ask your teacher if s/he know some place where local potters tend to advertise that they want to sell used equipment. How high it will make your electric bill will obviously depend how often you use it, how long and high you fire. But I agree, unless you really need it a lot and transportation breakage is an issue it's much better to find some place which will fire it for you. If you are not moving out of town ask your teacher if you can continue using the school kiln. At some places they only require you to pay a low studio fee for such access, especially if they know you. Or you could offer to help with teaching in exchange and be a teaching assistant for a class.
I think you are best off to attempt building your own (unless you are wealthy). I think a pitt kiln (hole in the ground) or burn barrel kiln might be ideas to try you can find tutorials for building them on the web. Good Luck!
