Making Pots -

A few "maggot bowls" thrown as kiln fillers.

Janine throwing larger than her usual amount of clay!

New stack of wood, collected from Adam's stash.

More new fuel, awaiting restacking.

Another view of new wood.

Timbers from the Church at Little Bredy, thanks to Simon, who is currently repairing the stone covered roof and leadwork.

The timbers were installed in 1940, during the War and so some were not of best quality, due to resource scarcity. They have large copper nails in them, which will be removed before burning.

Loading Pots

After the first day of loading, no large urns this time, so a slower than usual fill.

The large hand built bowl was made by Merle, one of Bill's longest standing class members.

Bill has made quite a few "mortaria" style bowls and beakers for this firing.

John & Janine happy after loading their pots.

The back section almost loaded.

Mainly Bill's bowls and beakers.

A slightly rearranged back, after larger pots by David and Richard are in position at the top.

Caroline's ovoid coil pots have been stacked in the front bottom righthand side. Some are made of black clay.

Front section about half loaded.

Bill's class members, including Nikki's offerings.

Front a bit fuller!

Birgit loading her bowls and jugs.

Steve loading a few bowls, less than usual, due to being out of action with the lurgy.

Front almost loaded.

Sarah's bowls and cups. Due to a biscuit kiln firing failure, these have been raw glazed, so fingers crossed!

Richard ceremoniously placing the last pot in the kiln.

Until Carol turned up with a couple of small neolithic earth mother sculptures, that were fitted in after a bit of juggling around near the bottom of the stack.

The final front stacking done.

Have we rather over crowded the number of pots crammed in? Many smaller pots means a denser pack, but hopefully there is enough space left around them for the hot air to flow sufficiently through them.

Now the door is bricked up.

The front all nicely bricked up, ready for lighting.

Firing Kiln -

Friday evening, just alight - started off with a propane burner to get the wood burning.

A shady shandy!

A very pleasant start to the firing, gentle breeze, warm and sunny.

A quick shandy to relax with.

Early morning firebox - 0519hrs.

The new timber burnt well, started with the larger chunks overnight, they took about 3/4 hour to burn away, so stoking every hour. Almost too quick a rise in temperature.

A peek into the spy hole at 0648hrs - 665C reading, so just beginning to glow pale red, with a swirl of gentle flames.

Nikki showing she has not forgotten completely how to stoke the kiln!

Birgit almost struggling to fit a wide plank into the firebox!

The aim was to get the planks to stand on their edges, so that they burn more efficiently. If laid flat they tend to stiffle the burning and slow things down.

The spy hole at 1448hrs.

About 960C

A bit of reduction, with the flames coming out.

The rear fire door was issuing flames more than usual, maybe the breeze was blowing it that way.

The metal sheet is an attempt to block the wind swirling down the side of the kiln from sucking air from the firebox.

John & Janine loading.

Extract from the X-rated video!

1000C at 1525hrs.

A quicker than usual firing.

However the digital thermometer may have been suffering from battery fatigue, it seemed to take a long time to rise! But the cones were thinking of going over when it was only reading 1180C, which was reached by 2000hrs.

There was no particular sticking point, just an upper limit. However we tried throwing paper fish and chip boxes full of dry bay leaves into the fireboxes, they burnt away very soon, but no huge change was noticed in the flow, .

The chips were very nice!

We had some bay leaves left from the first attempt, this is Bill throwing in a bundleof the rest in, which then flared up.

That was meant to reset the pathways of the flames in the kiln chamber, to speed things up a bit.

Flames came out of the chimney top, after a full stoking up of the boxes, which seemed to cheer up the crew!

More images might arrive later!

Unloading Pots -

First peek on Monday morning. Looking good.

Except for a piece of the roof landing on Martin's globe on the right hand side, but he managed to remove it carefully.

The door bricks removed the reveal the glory of the firing!

All the cones had gone over, some very flat.

Glazes looking well matured, except for a couple in the cool bottom corner.

No obvious disasters!

Close up of top section.

Close up of bottom section.

Back section revealed after front pots removed.

And now in no particular order - images of some of the pots.

Steve P's 3 bowls.

Jess's vases, a mix of glazes ran very interestingly.

Simon's platters and bowls

Sarah's cups and soup bowls

Ruth's slightly weird creations!

Nick's 3 mugs

Sarah's cups

Nikki and friends admire her wares.

Gill's bowls

Belinda's test pots, trying wood ash and iron oxide slips

Caroline's sculptures

Steve's ammonite dish

Caroline's black clay coil pots

Caroline's pinched pots, with found clay, ash and feldspar slip glaze.

Hilary's dishes

Pam's raw glazed bowls

Ruth's pots

Petra's bowls

Margaret's bowls

Carol's earth mothers

Debbies' squid.

Emma's summer collection

Debbies' craggy bowls

Helen's Kimmeridge construction

Ruth's leaf

Emma's dishes and bowls.

Caroline's pale pots

Birgit's jugs, one complete with a bit of fallen roof stuck to it! Sorry.

Birgit's bowls, wax resist decoration/.

Ruth's bowls

John and Janine's pots

Bill making the tea. He knows his place and jobs! Keeping his volunteer's lubricated and fed.

Report and Conclusions

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The graph of the firing log, this firing is the darkest dots. The readings may be wrong later in the firing as the battery died in the digital thermometer! A very quick quick starting rise, which tailed off a bit. One of the fastest firings ever done in this kiln.

Good results, nice level of reduction and ash speckle on most pots. Not too many breakages.

The Glastonbury weekend vibe was felt, with a few very silly moments and some laid back chilled out times. It was great to have time to cement friendships and make new ones, and have a laugh with each other.

The catering was splendid, with ample foodstuffs and rehydrating liquids.

The firing team is becoming very well trained and did not often forget to stoke the kiln regularly.

Comments are very welcome - email Bill Crumbleholme

This might be a link to the video made of the afternoon's entertainment, but it might not work without the correct permissions etc.

https://www.facebook.com/john.nunney/posts/10157902878519523

Failing that, watch out for some videos which might appear here in the future!

Thanks to :-

www.onlineshells.co.uk/natural-cockle-shells-p-3855.html

The Landlord for support and encouragement.

Pottery Class members and other potters for help filling the kiln and then firing and unloading it. They know who they are!