Making Pots - |
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Ricard throwing 3 large bowls, 3kg, 4kg and
5.5kg. |
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Richard - proud of his largest bowl. |
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Beakerfolk/wood-kiln/WodenFiring37/richarddropped.mp4 |
Link to video of Richard's bowl with a cracked
base meeting its doom! |
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Bill's production line of mortaria, thrown,
turned and some raw glazed with light oatmeal. |
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Loading Pots |
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First in - Bill's fish and Laurence's tall
twisted granite encrusted vase on its side. |
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After the first two days of loading, by Bill
and Imogen.
Also featuring some of Otto's long awaited pieces. |
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Back section of the chamber almost filled. For
a change almost all of Bill's pots found a home, the tactic of being
the first to load! |
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A closer look at the back top packing.
Bill's bowls risking being visited by bits of the ceiling falling in
on them - perhaps related a bit to a Celtic Iron Age fear of the sky
falling on your head?! |
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Mark pondering over his newly loaded bronze
furnace / kiln god. |
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The front after Nick and Sam loaded.
Nikki
preparing to load. |
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Dale glazing and Nikki loading. |
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Two thirds filled, after Dale and Nikki's wares
are loaded. |
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Helen loading.
Going for the prize for most
unstable narrow based small sculpture! |
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3 of Dale's dishes with the Portland Museum
logo and Pat's large "pebble" vase (on its side). |
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"Elvis is in the Kiln!"
Birgit loading her
sculpture with tail feathers nicknamed Elvis. |
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The patio area has been cleared of the old dead
tree stump. |
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Lottie all loaded! Ready to brick up. |
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Laurence popped in a few time to inspect.
All bricked up and about to light up. |
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Firing Kiln - |
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5.30am and all is well.
The fireboxes were
lit at 4pm and then left to burn out until 10pm, then they were relit
and the preheat proper began.
Logs stoked every hour through the
night, by nightwatchman, Bill, sleeping in the lounger in front of the
kiln. |
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The rotten tree stump, used as fuel through the
night, together with slab wood.
This did not produce much heat. |
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Nick, Lottie and Richard - The Late Night Crew!
The firing had continued through the day, behind schedule because of
the late start and by the tea-time feast it was apparent the kiln was
being very slow to heat up.
1000C was not reached until 6pm. 1100
was managed by 1.30am and then the temperature varied by +-30C. |
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The cones were still upright at 3am, when Nick
and Richard left. Lottie and Bill kept the fires going until morning,
but failing to rise the digits. |
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Diane arrived at 7.30am, when her family had
not returned and was given a crash course in stoking, which she took
too very well - as an ex-guide leader! |
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Diane also carried in more fuel.
Nick
returned and Lulu turned up in the late morning.
By midday all hope
was abandoned and the kiln was shut down and clamped up. |
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Unloading Pots |
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The crew returned the next morning and started
the unloading.
The first peek looked more promising than what was
expected.
A cone had bent over and glazes looked mature. |
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Richard's "moon jar" in the top left.
Very
slightly matt surface where ash had not quite melted for long enough.
The cone 8 was well over. |
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The top front right side.
More OK pots. |
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Richard unbricking.
Still a bit warm, but
patience was wearing thin! |
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Richard with the door unbricked.
Some areas
of immature glaze, but quite a bit OK. |
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The new cabinet was a bit smaller than the
previous one, but all the shelves and props just fitted. |
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Mark's furnace base, looking smug!? |
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The "Smark Furnace" assembled, ready to melt
bronze for casting. |
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Birgit's "Elvis" bird and assembled kiln gods. |
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Nix Jugs.
Nicely toasted. |
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Some of Bill's class's pots.
The white was
not as flecked by ash as normal. |
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Sarah's pots and some of her class's. |
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Dale's pots.
These were mostly in the hot
left side and got a good blast of heat and ash. |
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Dale's dishes for the Portland Museum. |
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Lottie's pots.
The Olive Green copper glaze
has reduced towards red in places. |
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Some of Bill's bowls.
The Light Oatmeal was
mostly not matured, with rough patches. These will have to be refired. |
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But Bill's standard brown glaze worked very
well. |
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Bill's fishes were nicely toasted and lids came
off without sticking.
However most of the internal glaze was milky
and crawled. |
| watch this space for more images if they arrive! |
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Report and Conclusions |
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The kiln firing log -
The temperatures used are those recorded by the top
thermocouple, the calibration is suspect, so cones are a more
reliable measure of actual heat work done. However the changes in
temperature are accurately plotted. For the first time in living
memory the bottom thermocouple sometimes sensed a higher temperature
than the top one.
Not the best recent firing! The spyhole cones
did not bend at all, but some did bend in the hotter places where
the flames arrived from the fireboxes, there the glazes also matured
OK.
But quite a few pots had been underfired and will
need refiring. Especially the light oatmeal glaze. A long firing
helped to mature the glazes, but the ash deposits were not sticking
to the pots so thickly.
The reasons for not reaching high enough temperature
are still being considered. There were large build ups of embers in
the firebox away from the chimney, this stiffled the wood burning
above, stealing the incoming oxygen. The packing was not as dense as
some previous loadings. A gentle breeze blew some of the time, but
generally it was very still.
There may have been too many kiln gods, perhaps
arguing amongst themselves?! Lottie's attempt to appease them by
throwing a glove into the firebox appeared to work for her own pots!
Many thanks to all the potters involved, especially
those who went the extra mile or so!
Comments are very welcome - email Bill Crumbleholme
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