The sun is shining and everything is beautiful

Yes, it's glorious to feel the sun on my pallid skin at last and spend some time outdoors, taking a break from blunging, sieving and stiffening various lower temperature clays that I have collected. I've started making from them but am reluctant to post images until the ideas have coalesced and a firing is imminent.
All my bricks are now trolleyed up the field to my kiln site and I've been able to take the corrugated iron off my kiln base and get working on it.

The three sections of the kiln are now visible - firebox, chamber and chimney. The most difficult thing has been allowing for the discrepancy in sizes of all the bricks I have been using. The base was made up predominantly of previously used 25mm thick heavies (that I got cheap about 10 years ago). It turns out they are shorter than 23mm in length, not by much but enough to cause a slight overhang with my lovely new clean bricks. The chimney section is all being built from other second hand heavies that are pretty variable too.

This image shows the firebox section interior, with hobs and a grate in the floor. All the new clean crisp edged bricks are now being laid dry (without mortar).

...and this is the chamber. On the right you can see the large open throat (with central pillar) towards the firebox, and to the left a chequered flue system to the base of the chimney.
More tomorrow, including making the arch former. The arch an side wall are 26 grade insulating bricks. Once I get that and the firebox finished I will measure up for the metalwork.....oh yes, and the roof.

To the floor

Making the most of this good weather and am interspersing preparing new clay bodies with more work on the kiln. Here it is....

......up to floor level in the chamber. Dinky little thing isn't it? The firebox has a slightly lower floor and I haven't put the grate bricks in yet. The chimney will have a slightly higher floor so front to back it's on a slight rise. Next thing is to build the small arch that will lead from the firebox to the chamber. I'm thinking of making a small catenary arch for that - three bricks wide so there's little restriction between the two. The plan has been rather fluid up until now, so I need to decide exactly what comes next, how I'm going to do it and how many more bricks I am going to need. I'm going to put an arch over the chamber instead of making it a top loader. It does mean that I will be unable to change the chamber height but also that I don't have to much around with kiln shelf lids or welding a steel frame for a fibreboard roof.

Laying down base

Well well - look at this first image. Blue sky! In Britain! I'd quite forgotten how beautiful it is.

I've laid down a 50mm concrete paver base on a bed of sand and set out the floor plan of this kiln.

It's slightly raised from front to back to allow for a grate in the firebox and a small rise to the chamber and then the chimney. As you can see it's quite a small kiln. Large enough to make it worthwhile firing but small enough to allow me to do frequent differing firings.
The corrugated iron arrived today so the next think is to extend the kiln shed.

'Raking all over'

Oh dear - bad pun. It could've been worse but luckily I've been listening to The Who Live at Leeds, which is always good inspiration.  I've been thinking long and hard about what to do with some of the materials that I have that will not cope with a high temperature wood firing, such as the fenland clays from Cambridgeshire and have started the slow process of transferring ideas into 3D forms.

Surprisingly the relentless drizzle of the past 12 months has stopped for quite a prolonged period of time, so I've started preparing for my new kiln. This photo is after quite a lot of work (seriously!), clearing old elder and raking up the ivy that chokes everything round here.

This is how it looks now - pretty much levelled off and ready for post hole digging. I'm going to use steel this time to make the frame (far more sensible), then make a good solid pad to build the kiln on. It's going to be a shortish stumpy train kiln with a Bourry type firebox on the front and a single 69cm width by 69cm length chamber and I'm going to use it for more experimental firings. I intend to fire it alone, for up to 20 hours and will start off with some mid range temperature firings.

Thank you and a fond farewell.

Thanks to all of you who came along to CAL and made it such a fantastic show for me. It was heartening to hear from people who read my blog and enjoy it and came long to see my work in the flesh. It's bittersweet to sell the things that I make. Good to sell and see them going to an appreciative home but a rather sad farewell. Here are images of some of the pieces that I bade a fond farewell to this weekend. This piece from dartmoor, with various granite based glazes on a secondary kaolin and ball clay body.

A disc glazed with a variety of glazes derived from Langdale slate and Eskdale granite from Cumbria.......





 .....and a piece from Martley in the Malvern Hills glazed with a variety of rocks that comprise the Malverns complex.

All packed for Ceramic Art London 2013

Plinths painted, boxes stacked, bubblewrap cut and nervous anticipation. I have a lot of new work, which is fresh out of kilns and just waiting for this weekend. This is a wall mounted panel - Dartmoor Blues. Various granite based glazes on secondary kaolin and layered ball clays. If you are reading this and in the London area from tomorrow to Sunday, please come along. Ceramic Art London 2013

Farewell old Salty

It's STILL cold and it was snowing again today. I've totally forgotten what it feels like to feel warm and not have to go outside wearing every single item of clothing I own. In between getting everything ready for Ceramic Art London and while I am firing my last few things I've been dismantling my salt kiln. I haven't fired it for a long time and, considering the price of gas, it is far too expensive to fire. It's been coming apart much more easily than I thought it might. Only the lower arch bricks are too corroded to be reused. Most of the bricks are these strange 1 inch thick slivers I got cheap when I returned to the UK. My plan is to build another wood kiln - different design + smaller volume - for doing some more experimental firings. I'll need quite a few new bricks but there's a start here. I will use the salted bricks for the flue + back up and the other way round.