A question for ceramicists and sculptors working with terracotta. When you fire your work in a big communal?

Question

Kiln, and peek through a tiny c***k from the outside to see the progress of the firing - could that peeking in, after years of doing so, begin to cause a cataract to the cornea???

I have been discovering that my right eye, after 9 years of having looked through the c***k at the intense fire inside the (kiln, has begun to tear easily, especially when I am focusing to do very close or intricate work. I will be 30 in Nov. Too young, I believe to develop a cataract for aging reasons, but perhaps I have done damage to my cornea from looking in with one eye directly into the fire from the c***k in the kiln.

Has this happened to anyone else? Since I need to continue my work with the best sight possible!!!

Thank you.

Also, could there be any other damage done to the cornea from the procedure I have described?

Any information toward this would be very valuable and appreciated!!!

I'm afraid of what can happen to my sight, since I am totally reliant on it, as far as my work is concerned.)

Answer 1

Ok, first of all you do NOT want what welders wear because

you can see enough thru it.  But by all means get something. Retinas can be burned by looking into a red hot kiln from the light. In your shopping, remember you're not looking for UV-B ray protection like most sun gllasses or like the coating on regualr glasses. You need specialty infrared blocking glass like Dydidium. Dydidium  lenses block infrared rays(which cause cataracts) but do not block ultraviolet rays (like from the sun and electric welding). Even if you don't wear

corrective lenses, your optometrist probably can order them for you. Remember they are GLASS, not less breakable plastic, so they are not as safe, but can be cut to safety thicknesses. Most people that work firing ceramics or blowing glass for any period of time would know what kind of protection you should get. Look some stuff up online and also ask your eye doctor. Didydium glass is used for many different htings, it is just that most opticians do not know much about it for some reason.