Quick snaps

Here are a couple of quick outdoor photos of pots from the firing.

This first is a little beauty from the front of the firebox, on the floor. It's glaze is based on Dartmoor granite but it has been heavily influenced by ash during the firing. It has a wonderful range of colours including a satin aqua.

The second is a piece from the shelf above, fired on its side with exposed clay and heavy glaze runs.

It's a good one!

Heart racing + adrenalin coursing through my system I unbricked the firebox and side door.... and slowly and carefully unpacked.

This is a view through the firebox to the front stack. Each piece in the kiln is listed on a map and has to be coded as it is removed so that I know where it is from (what materials it is made from). I'm still going through the pots and there is a lot of grinding to do before I can take good photos but - it was an excellent firing with some real racers in there!

Cones down, beers drunk

The firing finished yesterday, was suitably toasted with Fullers ESB and is now still glowing red hot inside my lovely kiln. Thanks to Andy for his help and stirling night shift work.

I do love the firing process but this one was particularly pleasurable. It can be a bit of a struggle to get the kiln going on the second morning, after a long quiet gentle stoking night, to get the firebox crackling again. But this time was a dream. When I woke Andy had kept the temperature steady and built up a huge bed of embers that were cascading all over the front of the pack. I opened up the grate, closed down the primary air and burnt down the ember bed - a nice easy job that gave plenty of time to make tea. As they burnt down the temperature rose and the cones started gently melting on the front shelf.

The rest of the firing was a gentle climb to top temperature with only relatively subtle changes in the kiln settings. Cone 12's down throughout, which equates to a cone 10 or 1280C. Four days of cooling and imagining and anticipation.

All set

The kiln is packed and the wood is split and stacked. Kettle, radio, ipod and food all in place. Celebratory post-firing beer waiting in the wings.

The fire will be lit first thing + Andy is over later to help out. Fingers crossed for no rain!

Packed and ready to go

Yep - after a flurry of glazing and wadding and prop making I was finally ready to pack the nice clean kiln this week. I decided to pack a little looser than last time - fewer pieces but more room for flame paths around the stack.

This is the (slightly wonky - me not the stack!) view from the firebox. A couple of larger pieces on the floor and the usual single shelf layer. This next photo shows the back of the rear chamber stack. There are 2 stacks of this size in the chamber. The next has only 2 shelves and some tall pieces up at the top. I'm interested to see how this effects the temperatures and flame paths during the firing.

It's all bricked up now and waiting until next week for the firing. I'm away for a lecture/slide show/demonstration and exhibition and hopefully by next week the rain will have stopped and the wind will be from a better direction.

The excitement mounts

I'm now well into probably my favourite time within a working practice that is, fortunately for me, packed full of very enjoyable processes. The biscuit firings are done, the rocks are finally crushed and ball milled to dust, the wood is (finally) dry in not so neat stacks and I am busy planning the pack for the next firing. The glaze book is open and I'm blending and mixing.

The image is of my trusty steel mortar and pestle. I use this to get the rocks down to grit size so that they can be ball milled. The last rock was a rhyolite from Langdale in the Lake District, which is a fine particled intermediate volcanic rock created from compacted volcanic ash. Despite calcining it is very hard + my shoulders are still feeling it. Even the ball mill struggled. The planning of the pack is very important. Some rocks need plenty of heat and action from the wood to achieve their best while others need protection and a slightly lower temperature. I can also adjust the recipes according to where the piece is placed in the kiln.

The kiln is all cleaned out and ready - ash saved and the floor carefully chiseled to remove setters and glaze runs. This image shows the view from the back chamber into the catenary arch firebox, showing the front grate, packing space and sidestoke grate. Two more days of glazing and then the packing starts. It's a time of real excitement, loaded with possibilities and anticipation.

Holidays over and summer is here.

It's been a long time since my last post and while I did squeeze in a holiday and a festival I've been hard at work preparing for the next firing.

Now the sun has finally come out I have been splitting wood + leaving it out in the sun to dry out. Some of the new wood I got 3 months ago has already started going mouldy due to the incessant rain, so though this is well over a year old, I'm not sure how high its moisture content is. I have some hornbeam left over from the last firing but most of this is oak and red oak. Should be interesting.

First biscuit firing is done and was successful. These are made with a couple of Devon secondary kaolins, which are extremely prone to fire cracking. As you can see they are still in one piece. The kiln is drying out another load and I am crushing and ball milling rocks ready for glazing.