Making Pots - |
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An illustration of Romano-British beakers from
Kent. Used as inspiration by Bill for a batch of beakers. |
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These are those beakers. Traditionally, as a
birthday treat/challenge, Bill cuts a 25kg bag of clay into the number
of his age and throws a batch of similar pots.
So go on -
count them! |
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Close up.
The cut pieces of credit card were
used to form the profiles of the undercut base and the side with
flaring rim.
When dried their bases were tidied up and vertical
lines scratched down the walls. |
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A fresh pile of batten from the March's
roof. |
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The batten cut to length and stacked. |
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A batch of pallets just arrived. |
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Richard constructing a lamp base thrown in 3
parts. |
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A batch of goblets, thrown as a commission for
Jenny Q.
Note to self - clean lens of mobile phone! |
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A batch of Bill's necked vases/carafes.
The tramlines will be tidied up when a bit drier and filled in with
impressed marks. |
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Cathy, inspired by Bill's demonstration, attempts
a smaller version. |
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Bill trying something a bit different.
Aiming to be "fish-bricks" used to cook or maybe smoke fish.
Thrown
bottles, with tops closed over and a tail pinched out, then the base
narrowed down, the sides pushed in to make better shape. Then cut off
by narrowing base even more and placing on their sides to stiffen up.
There is no hole, so the trapped air pocket helps keep the shape
inflated while it dries. Then it will be carved and pinched into
shape. A needle will cut a fillet off the top side. |
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Meanwhile Nikki has been busy preparing to
deliver a stack of hazel that has been seasoning for a year.
It
was too big for the coppicers to use, so it will be burnt towards the
end of the firing. |
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Richard's batch of thrown bowls, in about 5
minutes each and all fairly similar. |
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Nix's large platters. |
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Nix large bowls. |
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Two of Bill's fishes, now filleted and
decorated. |
https://youtube.com/shorts/tKcGfs75De4
https://youtube.com/shorts/fPkC9uhzSO0
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The links are for time lapse videos of Richard
Gould throwing these 3 large bowls.
Bill's large urn is on the
right, after the foot and walls had been turned thinner to reveal the
gritty texture of the crank clay and the band of "Grooved Ware"
decoration added by careful incision. |
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Tussi and her "kiln god" head.
Richard in
the background throwing large bowls. |
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Newly batt washed kiln props.
The mix of
alumina hydrate and china clay slurry helps to cut down the attack by
ash in the kiln, so prolonging the life of the props which hold up the
shelves. |
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Nick fixing new-to-us sheets of
corrugated iron over the top of the rusted out roof. Bill now has
cordless drill envy!
Thanks to Nikki's neighbour for the donation
of the "scrap" sheets. |
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Nick closing up after scraping down and
brushing up the chamber walls and ceiling, to remove loose bits of
brick, following the build up of ash glazed surface, which tends to
loosen when very hot and fall off onto the pots, especially Richard's
(so a pint is owed there!).
Bill had also brushed out and sucked out
the ash deposits in the fireboxes. |
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A batch of Nikki's jugs about to be biscuit
fired. |
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Loading Pots |
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And so the loading begins.
This is the
cooler lower back section on the left.
Two of Bill's fish sit in
the middle.
The hotter right side, where the flames come in, has
class pots with some of Bill's. |
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Nix's mugs. |
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Nix platters and bowls. |
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Nikki broke the back of loading the rear
section of the kiln, with an assortment of Bill's pots and those from
Upwey Class students, oh yes and some of her own! |
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Bill then filled up the right hand stack
and almost finished off the top. |
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Richard finished off the top back. |
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Richard happy with his loading. |
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Richard carefully loading Tussi's head
sculptures. |
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Richard breathing a sigh of relief that they
fitted in and he did not drop them! |
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And so the front section is loaded with a mixed
collection of pots.
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New-comer Imogen loading her pots. |
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The slightly weird shelf.
Caroline's,
Helen's and Debbie's offerings.
Imogen's lidded jar.
Meanwhile
some of Jess's porcelain hands have sprouted up here and there. |
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Birgit back loading, juggling Richard's large
lamp base and Milly's tall textured vase. |
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A delivery of slab-wood from Eggardon Sawmill,
mainly Douglas Fir.
Great service, he even chain-sawed the bundles
so they fit in the fireboxes. |
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The front almost full, just waiting for the
last potters to turn up. |
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Lulu and team, after finishing the loading,
with a bit of adjustment to get her pieces in, with Cathy's. |
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Bill checking the final loading and tweaking.
Apart from the large head sculptures, this was a fairly tight
packing density, which slows down the currents of hot air and flames
travelling through the chamber, between the pots.
There were gaps
right at the front and down the sides, to help circulation. |
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The final pack.
The door was then bricked up
and all is ready for the firing. |
Firing Kiln - |
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Lighting the fireboxes.
Kindling a bit damp
so a gas torch speeds it up a bit. |
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Bill lit the fires at 5pm Friday and slowly
built up the temperature over night, to gently dry out the kiln and
the pots, some of which had not be biscuit fired before.
He was
using large slab wood planks cut into 18" lengths and bits of fence
post and other larger scrap.
By 5am it was 430C, with a nice bed of
fire as shown here. |
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More early morning flames.
This was the last
very large cross section plank, they take a while to burn, which is
great for the overnight preheat, but too slow burning to rise the
temperature quickly. |
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Nikki, Birgit and Imogen took over and did the
morning shift and into the afternoon. They also shifted the rest of
the slab-wood into the storage position and dealt with a
delivery of hazel branches. |
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Bill relaxing in the afternoon sun, recovering
from the all night stoking. |
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Someone else relaxing in the sun.
Beyond are
the stacks of slab wood, batten and hazel. |
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Belinda stoking.
Could this be a posed shot
for her marketing on social media? |
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Raking embers.
This stirring helps the
embers to burn quicker and fiercer, it also lowers the level to allow
more air to get through to the wood burning on the bars above. |
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During the afternoon the temperature
rise slowed down between 1000C and 1100C.
Richard arrived at 6pm
with the fish & chip feast, and everyone had a merry time.
Sarah
and Kate took over the chimney side firebox, here is Sarah looking a
bit a sci-fi!
"The lads" took on the other firebox.
The graph
below shows the slow steady rise. |
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Richard, Nick and Martin tending the fire.
It was a well behaved stoking regime, little and often, using hazel
and pallet wood.
We tried to avoid over stoking and kept stirring
the embers and ashes.
The flames come out of the kiln when new wood
is thrown in, the gases liberated and products of combustion produce a
rapid expansion in volume and pressure which forces the air out of the
kiln. The rest of the time the chimney is pulling the air away. |
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Bill and Ciaran took over the "girls' firebox
and by midnight the cone 8 had started to bend, and the team carried
on soaking the kiln to enable the glazes to mature and the ashes take
effect.
By 1.30am the cone nine was well over, so the firing was
stopped, the doors closed and the chimney blocked with the portcullis
dropped into the tunnel. |
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The last glimpse of the front of the kiln, with
gaps in the brickwork showing. |
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Unloading Pots |
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The first peek, when some bricks have been
removed to allow the kiln to cool down. |
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The second peek, with a few more taken out.
Look great. Cones well bent over. Glazes mature. Good reduction and
ash speckle. |
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Tussi's kiln gods!
Luckily the small piece
of arch ceiling brick that fell off and landed on the ear came away
without a scar following a sharp tap. |
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All the door bricks removed to reveal the front
of the chamber. |
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The top layers of the front section removed
allowing a peek at the back section. |
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After all the front section removed here is the
back section.
Splendid amount of brown!
A good set of cones
showing even heating. |
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A set of closer images of the back section
right and left collaged. |
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Some of Sarah's mottled mugs.
Lovely fleck
by using toasted clay, which has added iron (like cornflakes!?) |
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One of the very few cracked pots out of this
firing.
A couple of Bill's "birthday cups" must have been subjected
to winter frost in his studio, that makes the damp clay fracture when
it freezes. The hairline cracks open up in glaze firing. But it could
have been much worse! |
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Bill's goblets.
Copper green glaze with
hints of red where reduced. |
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Bill's narrow necked vessels.
Some say the
green is nicer than the brown!
The flatter shoulders pick up the
ash better. |
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A couples of the fish resting on beakers.
The lids all came off cleanly with a gentle tap. |
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Bill's mortaria and Glastonbury bowls. |
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More of Bill's beakers. |
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Bill's cups. |
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Richard's bowls, Shiny White with speckles from
ash. |
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Dale's bowls |
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Tussi's head. |
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Tussi's larger head. |
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Pam's pots. |
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Caroline's sculptures.
Some using black
clay.
Some textured with granulated cork. |
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Nikki's platters. |
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Pottery class pots. |
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More class pots and Belinda's large jug. |
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Birgit's bowls, lidded jars and two little
folk. |
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Birgit's cups and jars.
Incised decoration,
wax resisted, Shiny White glaze, ashed speckle and which has an
orangey edge. |
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Birgit's artistically arranged pieces. |
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and again |
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and Birgit's cups and lidded jars. |
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Nikki giving thanks to the kiln gods. |
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One of the proud new owners of the goblets. |
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Bill at last tested the Light Oatmeal glaze
using different Ball Clay types (and a mixture of all of them).
Top
row slightly lower temperature. |
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There follows a collection of images from Nikki, which Bill has run
out of enthusiasm to label separately. |
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Report and Conclusions |
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The kiln firing log -
A very good firing, well matured glazes, nicely
reduced, light ash speckle.
Brilliant, well behaved team of potters making and
firing the kiln. They took it nice a slow and even stoking in the
fuel, not letting the embers build up too much. A stead climb in
temperature most of the time, slowed down but not stopped for long
at times.
Many thanks to Eggardon Sawmill for the delivery of
slab-wood, Nikki's dad for the hazel branches, Pat & Ron for their
roof battens, Chris for fence panels, Simon and others for various
scrap construction timber and pallets.
Comments are very welcome - email Bill Crumbleholme
The Ridgeway Potters Collective
are the core team, they sell what comes out of this kiln at their
events. Check out the website and Facebook page :-
www.ridgewaypotterscollective.co.uk
www.facebook.com/RidgewayPottersCollective
Nix's wares can be seen and purchased at her website
and etsy
shop :-
https://www.nixhawkinsceramics.com
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/NixHawkinsCeramics
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