Loading is an all-day affair, often going well into the evening. A bonfire was built to both keep the loaders warm and to dry the kiln wash on the shelves. When the kiln is filled with pottery the door opening is bricked up and a small fire started. The firing begins overnight with the small fire, gradually building to a raging blaze the next day. Firing proceeds night and day.
Close cooperation is needed between all the potters who are helping with the firing.
Teams of four people work each six-hour shift, with two people tending to the stoking, and two more keeping plenty of wood stacked close to the kiln for the stokers. Pyrometric cones are checked through openings in the side of the kiln. A digital pyrometer also aids the stokers in maintaining a constant temperature in the kiln. The heat is intense in stoking, so dark glasses help to keep one's eyes from drying out, even at night. On New Year's Day the stoking intensified to get a final peak temperature of about cone 12 at the very end of the firing.