Skye Wood Fire

Ray Finch

2012-01-24T10:51:00.000Z

I never met the man but I have met his pots, been to the pottery and heard his name throughout my pottery life. The day that I heard he had died I was visiting the store rooms of the Scottish Museum and it was good to see these three noble pots of his, quietly biding their time in the cupboard along with Lucie Rie and Ewan Henderson

"What we do with the clay, what we create with our hands, what we offer up from our spirits may not end racism or stop injustice, but it may just help keep our culture human." Malcolm Davis, 2010

Dan Finnegan worked with Ray at Winchcombe Pottery and below is a link to his blog post remembering his time there.

Dan Finnegan - Studio Pottery

Treasures at the Scotish Museum,

2012-01-23T22:41:00.001Z

The Scottish Potters Association arranged a visit to the National Museums Collection Centre ceramics department of the Museum of Scotland. Stored at two sites in Edinburgh, I was in the group visiting the English, continental and contemporary department in Granton. We were lead upstairs and downstairs, along corridors and through great hangar like rooms full of vast machinery awaiting conservation. Finally reaching one of the rooms which houses the ware. Cupboards lining the walls and in a central block of back to back cupboards which were unlocked as requested and left open for us to handle pieces the like of which I have only ever seen before in books and behind glass.			I felt just like the little pot below.
English Medieval lead glazed cup, 4 inches high - I'm in love.

Some of this medieval work is so fine and lightweight. It looks crude and coarsely potted but it's not. It is beautiful in the hand and absolutely fit for purpose. I'm astonished by it.

Watering can, about 18 inches high

Detail of the handle

English 13th -14th century, buff earthenware, lead glaze

This, above, was the most finely thrown of the pieces which grabbed my attention, with a slightly swollen base.

ditto, with impressed panels of deer, 20 inches high

We tried to work out how this one was constructed. The upper half has fine throwing rings visible, the lower half is distorted, possibly from the impression of the carved panels. There was a difference in texture inside the pot.
It was such a treat to handle these pots. The collections are public and the curators were very insistent that we come back again, that's what they are there for.

Getting off the island

2012-01-19T13:21:00.001Z

Living so far away from most civic amenities, I have to make the most of trips to the city. Today I am on my way to Edinburgh (in a snow storm) to collect the pots which were shipped back from Philadelphia (half the volume of the outward journey). I thought I could take advantage of the spa at the museum which a friend texted me about. Only it turns out not to be a spa but SPA, Scottish Potters Association, and a visit to the vaults of the Museum of Scotland, well the 1970's building which stores much of the collections.
So not a massage but I hope we'll be allowed to handle some of the pieces. I learn so much more from the feel and weight of a pot than from just looking at it. Photos too with luck.

Pug Mill Blues

2012-01-13T20:14:00.000Z

Pug mill blues

I have been tripping over 2 buckets of black firing stoneware clay for the past 4 months. As I am trying to convince myself that I am back in the workshop properly and full time after the festivities of winter I thought I would start by dealing with the black stuff. I like the fired colour and texture of this clay, dense blue/black, not as soft as the raku blacks but has the advantage of being stoneware and therefore will take water. Except that after my treatment of it, namely stretching bashing and wood firing, it tends to crack, dunt and leaks like a sieve.
I’m hoping that I can cure this rather fundamental flaw by mixing it with a more fine grained and plastic stoneware. I don’t mind losing a little of the black if I can produce a useable pot. I happen to have a large bucket of white St Thomas scraps, dried and soaked to a nice mush waiting to be reconstituted into throwable clay, and also a bag of unidentified firm stoneware which could be mixed with the black in carefully measured and documented handfuls until it looks about right. A couple of hours work by which time I will be ready to be Creative.

The black clay, anagama fired

I always leave a note of the last batch in the feed hole. I removed the plastic covers from the pug mill and turned it on to check the motor. Working but not happy.
I started to scrape out the nasty crusty iron stained scraps from the safety grid in the feed hole and discovered a nasty crusty iron stained safety grid. Better clean it up before putting more white St Thomas through to push out the remains of the last pugging, won’t take long. I think I have never taken out the grid since I bought the pug mill 2nd hand 3 years ago.


This grid is clean

The intestines of a pug mill

The bolts were seized so Non Potting Partner was called in to wrestle them off and pull out the grid. Whilst I cleaned that he dug out the hard clay underneath and found yet more hard clay.

16 bolts later the top came off, yet more hard clay and crusty corroded metal. Fortunately the screw which pushes the clay along, mixing and conditioning it was bright shiny brass (or bronze?) under all the nastiness just like the propeller of a ship. NPP, the old sea dog, carried on until all was ship shape and Bristol fashion (what?) as you can see from the dazzle in the photo.

With such a clean mill I had to pug the entire lot of white St Thomas before shoveling in the dirty stuff. So a little job to get me in the mood to unleash a storm of creativity ended up in dry dock for nearly two days to complete, and I am still scrubbing splashes of the black clay from decks.
(It won't stay this clean for long.)

Wood firing and the Weather

2012-01-05T18:11:00.000Z

It's official - 2011 was the wettest year on record in Scotland and I'll bet that this winter is one of the windiest. After one nasty gale when we lost the power for a couple of days (and water for 4 days, too nasty to go talk about in public) we also lost the lid for the kiln chimney. This 'lid' is a piece of lead sheeting 18 inches/40 cm square, folded to fit neatly over the heavy steel cooker hood which sits above the chimney on the shed roof. I eventually found in a gorse bush below the high side of the shed about 15 feet away. It had been blown off the hood and up the slope of the roof. I must get something to measure the wind speed when I'm firing, would be interesting to calculate the effect. Old sea dog husband can measure it by the whistling through his ears but that's not quite scientific enough for a potter.

Back to Anagama in Cumbria

2011-12-11T18:36:00.001Z

Back to Cumbria before I forget too many details.

After 60 hours I had the feeling to stop. Already 20 hours more than the previous firing with cone 10 down at the front after 30 Hours. So we are certain we have achieved much higher and more consistent heat than before. I would have liked to have seen the results from this point of the firing but we are on a roll. There's still half a ton of wood left (good and dry to start the next firing I argued) but pyromania takes hold and we keep going.

The wind picks up. Not so good for pizza on the flue, the top won't cook despite the covering kiln shelf. Two seconds at the open fire mouth sorts that, five seconds and it's carbonised. The wind is in the trees blowing crazily. Little oblongs of light between the bricks at the top of the chimney become bigger, squarer, lower down too. The chimney is listing away from the kiln. Loud harsh cracks from a tree as it starts, in slow motion to snap. It's not offering itself to the firing but seems to want to get away from it. It's the only thing to pull our attention away from the kiln.

The wood is running low, the rain sets in, the chimney looks dangerous. The kiln is as happy as Larry, I have the impression it would continue for another 6 tons and reach higher temperature. We call time, I'm really a bit scared that the chimney might go, like a giant red hot Jenga. As we load up the fire box to finish off, the tree finally snaps and twists as it falls across the drive.
72 hours.

Why I'm a potter not a sculptor

2011-12-04T14:51:00.000Z

Arriving in America for the time is rather surreal, very familiar and completely new. And having to get imediately to work the morning after just felt wrong. No sightseeing? No shopping? No gawping. We stayed at Alexander Inn on South 12th and Spruce street (highly recommended) only 10 minutes walk away from the convention centre via Reading Terminal Market and you couldn't want for a better more concentrated experience of a new country than its oldest indoor food market. Fruit and veg (piles of asparagus) meat & fish, herbs and spices, cheese, real maple syrup, Italian coffee, Amish fruit juice, Chinese cornbread, French patisserie, shrimp gumbo, chocolate brownies, cookies, cup cakes - sorry I should be talking pots - set up, sold a few, packed up, came home.
Now what was I saying about the food?
(I love food, food goes on plates, potters make plates, food tends to fall off sculptures)

First impressions of USA

2011-12-03T17:07:00.001Z

Tall hotel, and trees growing straight

First impression at the airport, woman buying $1.99 bottle of water with a credit card. Definitely not in Scotland, buying water?

Big bridge, we have a bridge but not like this

BIG truck, we have trucks too but this one is much bigger

Cal Mac ferry? opposite Ikea car park, we don't have Ikea on Skye

Getting to Philadelphia

2011-12-03T16:58:00.001Z

A week of packing and cataloging, the worst part of making one-off pieces, pricing in dollars and hoping the exchange rate doesn't veer wildly in the wrong direction. Three home made crates (thank you Rick) polystyrene 'prawn crackers' everywhere, more paperwork for insurance, wishing I had missed this opportunity after all. Manhandling it all into the back of the car which is really half a centimetre too small, in a gale. Drive off to Edinburgh to deliver for shipping - via a garage in Fort William after one of the brakes seizes, everything out and into a hire van, on my way again and half way into the city the sat nav dies (I'd forgotten all of this in the fun of actually getting to Philly).
Anyway enough of the journey getting there. The work arrived safely, Craft Scotland were brilliant at organising the shipping for us.
The week before departure I spent in Cumbria on a 72 hour anagama firing (another blog soon). No time to get home but I managed to wash off most of the wood smoke before arriving at the airport. Met up with lovely ceramist Lorna Fraser and then we really were on our way. It was a long time coming.

2011-11-28T22:47:00.001Z

Philadelphia Museum of Art craft show.
Where to begin? and how long have we got?
Not a kiln blog this one but the culmination of 6 months of making and firing. I found out in March that I had been selected as one of 25 makers to represent Scotland as the guest country at PMA Craft show in November. Serious stuff when put like that but no matter how insignificant I feel at times this was an opportunity I wasn't going to turn down.
So I worked my socks off in a very unsystematic, head in the sand kind of way. Trying new things with new clay and new techniques, 'throwing' old stuff into the mix and hoping to goodness that there would be something decent at the end of it. I fired the wood kiln 6 or 7 times in 6 months (too much for one middle aged woman) in all weathers (mostly wet this year), rakuing whenever panic loomed. With only half my mind focused on it, the raku work grew, thrived and blossomed. The hands know what they are doing.

The wood firing was a struggle. I loved doing it but wasn't yet loving the results. One or two pieces from each firing would shine and keep me motivated until the next firing. And I had to keep making, not give up, keep optimistic with all those warnings from wood firers ringing in my ears - ' you learn to love brown' 'don't expect the public to to love it' 'you'll smash more on the spoil heap than you'll keep', blah blah blah but how true.
And then from the ashes of the final firing, 2 days before taking the work to Edinburgh for shipping, a piece which rings all my bells and ticks all my boxes and sent a shiver up my spine......

(haven't even got on the plane yet, we'll get there eventually)

Halloween night shift

2011-11-01T10:49:00.000Z

10pm to 2 am shift on Halloween - owls hooting, something skreetching and a little devil showing its horns.
A few bricks got knocked off the outer layer of arch bricks but they're wedged back on and now we really do have to plan a rebuild.
After 3 hours soaking at 900 we changed shift and aimed for 1100 by 2 am. Then soaked in reduction for half an hour to encourage some orange in the shino glaze. Top vents covered, damper in and a singed hairline at the next stoke as the kiln blew back out of the firebox. Next stoke open the damper first.
Gavin stayed for our shift and was still going when the rest of his team arrived at 2. The man is an instiable firer. Will he still be there when I go down for breakfast now at 10.30?

Skye Wood Fire: Anagama in Cumbria

2011-10-31T12:40:00.001Z

Anagama in Cumbria

2011-10-31T12:35:00.000Z

November in Cumbria is not the best time for a firing but it's still better than Skye has been this year.
Ten of us arrived at Higham Hall yesterday, 6 tons of wood waiting for us under tarpaulins and a sad looking kiln. Last years winter frost has caused a bit of heave and the arch is looking distinctly flat. Should hold up and Gavins big pots are strong enough to withstand a collapse so they're at the front!
This is a much tighter pack than last year. Lots more pots, new shelves and props. About 4 hours to pack (photos later) and brick up the door. Gas on low overnight to dry it out after 14 months of Cumbrian weather. 120 C at 6am this morning. Small wood fire in the ash pit and up to 240 C by 10 am. That's me off shift until 22.00 but we're aing for 800C by 18.00.

Firing 21

2011-09-19T22:18:00.000+01:00

Firing 21
5am first sign of dawn. Cloudy but dry with south westerly breezes. Discovered I am very low on gas for the initial warm up. Stupid oversight, hope the local shop has a bottle in store as I have a lot of raku firing to do too - not today though. (When I started rakuing 15 years ago a 19kg bottle of propane cost £11 today it cost £38). Awake again at 7 and the gas has lasted, kiln at about 100 C. Turn gas up and back in to make tea only to find Non Potting Partner has already made it (all previous complaints withdrawn).
Start to feed wood in around 8 o'clock and continue with both until 9.30. Turn the gas off expecting quiet to descend only to hear the rumble of the forest being felled (mustn't complain it's community owned now and I'm thinking of all that scrap wood to be gleaned) and then NPP starts up the mower to cut the lawn.
A few spots of rain, a crunchy James Grieve apple fresh from the tree and into the rhythm of stoking, concentrating now to avoid losing temperature. The last few firings have followed a very close pattern, apart from the previous one fired in a south westerly gale and an hour faster.

More tests in this kiln. Trying to find a white shino type glaze which gives results with this firing cycle. I have a rather drab white which matures but is dull, and a lovelier snowy white one maturing at cone 10 which I struggle to achieve. There are also tests with the new Scarva black body which has been firing very black but very dry and needs a little sheen or sparkle to liven it up a bit. Plus, of course more pieces for Philadelphia.

1000 C at 12.40
1100 C at 2pm
1200 C at 6.30pm

Firings 16 & 17

2011-08-09T20:47:00.000+01:00

I'm writing this in the middle of the 3rd firing since the rebuild.
The first, no. 17 zoomed up to 900 in 7 hours (weather not a factor, overcast and light breeze) then stalled around 1100 for about 4 hours. After 13 hours I managed to coax it up to 1200. Where it stuck for another 2 hours reaching 1240 tops but acheiving cone 9 down.
The results included some lovely carbon trapping in a soda ash glaze I was testing.
For firing 18 I attempted to follow the previous cycle to get the carbon trapping effects again. The weather was breezy from the south west so not too different.
I reduced for an hour at 900 but not a heavy reduction, as the breeze was blowing directly into the firebox. The kiln stalled again between 1120 and 1170 for about 5 hours. Reaching 1218 tops but with cone 9 only just starting to go after16 hours, by which time I was completely gone, so clammed up and headed for a hot bath.
I then had to wait 2 whole weeks on an annoying holiday before I could unpack this kiln. That's the trouble with non potting partners they don't really understand what's the priority. Actually I did prize open the lid for a quick peek just to reassure myself it wasn't a disaster, that would have really spoiled the holiday.

I should mention here the benefits of non-potting partners - coffee, breakfast, lunch, dinner, cups of tea, that magnificent cold, cold beer at 6 o'clock with the kiln at 1200 Centigrade after 13 hours of continuous firing, all brought to me with barely a hint required.

Rebuilding the kiln

2011-07-17T12:41:00.000+01:00

The broken shelf which curtailed firing 16 gave me a chance to assess the. Condition of the kiln after 15 full firings. I removed the broken pieces of the shelf but couldn't get a whole new one back in it's place. The brickwork has shifted quite a lot with all the expansion and contraction of the firings.

I had to unbuild most of the kiln anyway so I took the chance and went right down to the base. I had been concerned that the bed of sand on which the whole kiln sits may have eroded away. But no, that is as good as new. What I should have been worried about was the chimney.
You can see the gap of about 2cm down the left hand corner of the chamber.
The internal chimney wall was listing away from the chamber and in danger of collapsing into the flue. As this wall is free standing it seems inevitable that this will happen and I'm lucky that the floor shelf went first.

These are fire bars at the rear of the fire box, pretty well fused by ash, embers and the effects of the soda going in that way. All the soft brick back wall of the chamber was also very crusty. Time to reassess the soda? The soft HTI bricks don't like it. I rebuilt that part using all the spare hard fire brick I had, taking some from the front of the fire mouth.

The chimney wall is strengthened by laying the bricks flat and increasing the size of the pillars on which they stand even though this reduces the flue area, and by tying the top course of brick into the side walls of the kiln. The chimney is also taller than the original design by 2 courses which takes the smoke away more effectively. Two firings later and it doesn't seem to be affecting the firing except perhaps for the better. It seems to climb more smoothly but perhaps that's because I've learnt not to get distracted.
The cooling has slowed down now that the new iron framework holds the fibre more snuggly to the walls. The iron is a little flimsy and will need modifying but it works well enough, especially the door.
All in all the rebuilt kiln is an improved one but I'm not sure I want to rebuild it every 15 or so firings. And of course it's just not big enough.........
I was at Aberystwyth a couple of weeks ago for the International Ceramics Festival. Had a brief chat with Joe- Mr Kiln -Finch.........

And here's the culprit

2011-06-05T21:13:00.000+01:00

The offending shelf

Thinking back to when I was packing this firing, there was a loud crack when I was filling the top shelf. As nothing moved then it just didn't occur to me that something had bust. There was no sign of a crack when I painted on the batt wash.

Half baked, smokey pots

I'm getting closer to wanting to build a more substantial kiln. With a proper arched roof and door into the chamber. In fact I've heard of some 2nd hand bricks needing a home....

The pots looked rather beautiful with their dusting of soot and ash and useful to see how the early ash settles on the surfaces.

So now the kiln is packed again and waiting for the weather to come good, the exhibition to end, the trip away to be over, the dog walker to be at home again etc etc

Perfect day for firing no. 16.......

2011-06-03T10:14:00.000+01:00


6 am - sooo good to be alive


9 am -

6am start the firing with gas
9am turn off the gas and abandon firing at only 300 degrees

Putting the first pieces of wood in about 8am I noticed one of the kiln shelves which form the chamber floor has cracked and slipped. You can just see it in this photo. It has to come out. Unfortunately this is the shelf which supports the main prop holding up the shelves of pots. I can't risk continuing.

OH *!***!.*

All I can do now is cut the grass on this perfect summer day.

firing tomorrow

2011-06-02T19:01:00.000+01:00

Halelujah!

Summer has returned to Skye.

Firing tomorrow, Friday, pots out on Sunday, exhibition opens on Monday!

And I haven't mentioned the complete rebuild of the kiln.

Firing 14 - refiring most of firing 13

2011-03-09T22:22:00.000Z

Another 5am start, pitch dark but starry. Gas burner on.
7am 100oC   gas up, weather is still, overcast and damp
9am   310oC   gas still on, damp wood, damp kiln, did not do a warm through yesterday, kiln steaming - low fat pots?
10am 480oC gas off, hard work to keep this fire going. Am I tired? not really enjoying this
11am 616oC south west breeze. Now the fire is more beguiling, it becomes a reason in itself to continue. The kiln has ceased steaming
noon   730oC
1pm    878oC   using large slab wood, strong s.w. breeze
1.30   1004oC reducing for a good half hour
2pm   1024oC
3pm   1088oC   first soda in. Cold s.w. wind blowing into fire mouth,
3.30pm              closed the big doors for shelter
4pm 1088oC    then at 4.05 up to 1126oC
5pm    1145oC
5.30    1165oC Andrew stopped by, just to check that the flames were intentional
6pm    1166oC
6.30    1200oC cone 7 bending
7pm    1203oC cone 8 bending, 7 down
7.30    1211oC
7.45    1187oC cone 9 beginning, cone 8 down
8pm    1215oC
8.15    1220oC cone 9 down, last big stoke, start clamming up the kiln, a few slivers of wood added during this.
9.15    1078oC

I didn't make a note of when I put the fire mouth door on, probably around 1000oC to assist the reduction. It made a big difference to the comfort of my knees which would be scalded without the door. It was along hard firing this one, the longest so far at 15 hours, damp wood, cold south westerly wind all having an effect. The rain held off. I thought that the wind in this direction would speed it up as it blows directly at the fire mouth, my perception is the opposite. Will have to try it again with drier wood.

happy kiln = happy potter,

This was a much better firing, even though I could hardly walk the next day - 15 hours on concrete in the wrong shoes.
will post some results next.
I think this blog is getting repetitive, not enough crises with this kiln. By the look of the interior it will need a rebuild before the chimney wall slumps.
Meanwhile I have been planning an anagama firing at Higham Hall in Cumbria for November.

Firing 13 - lucky for some

2011-03-05T22:07:00.000Z

But not for me!

Work to go in

7am, 90oC after 2 hours, turn up the gas, cup of tea, breathe deep

Gorgeous day, Nice, easy and steady climb to 1200 then 15minutes of lost concentration and I never got it back above 1180. I knew the cones were telling me to keep going but after 13 hours the lure of fish and chips at the pub was too great (and there was a bit of applied pressure from R pushing me in that direction).

Lesson learned - instead of only another 2 hours to get to temperature I now have a whole 13 hour firing to do and on my own as R will be away. I think I'll go to 15 hours just to be sure. Have to say I'm hacked off. Not getting enough results to feed the passion. And to continue the misery, the kiln is showing distinct signs of ware, but that's another blog

Orton 7 8 9 & 10, obviously underfired, 9 should be well down

However, I look at the photo of the sunrise and find there the consolation.

Meanwhile - vote for me,

2011-02-16T17:58:00.000Z

if you've not much else to do!

click on this link below
craft & design selected AWARDS

And I'll be a very happy potter,
cheers!

Firing 13 in the planning

2011-02-16T17:27:00.000Z

The frustration of not firing for a couple of months is getting to me. I find that I start to lose sight of what I am aiming for in my work. This time I am planning to fill the kiln with about 50% sell-able wares and fewer but more focused test pieces.

We took delivery of the new iron framework (Caledonian Sheet Metal works in Inverness). The kiln now has a detachable firemouth door and vertical supports at the corners. This should minimise some of the movement from firing and unbuilding for packing. I suspect that a complete rebuild will be in order next year, at which point I might as well increase the size, it just isn't big enough.

The door is a sandwich of fibre/kiln shelf/fibre, tin foil and weldmesh on the outer face. Two pieces of vermiculite board on the side which I dismantle for packing. We'll see how well that survives over time.
Isn't it smart? But......


Daylight between chimney hood and roof as the filler has burned out, letting the rain in of course.

www = wet wet wet

2011-01-20T18:05:00.000Z

Wet weather
Wet wood
Wet work

Condensation on the outside of the workshop windows - yes the outside.
A forlorn damp kiln down in the garden.

On the bright side - a new iron framework for the kiln being welded together.
This will include a door for the fire mouth to protect the stoker's knees.

And another anagama firing in the planning to look forward to.

Not a bad start to the year.

Pots from the Martin Hadrava/Masakazu Kusakabe kiln in Klikov

2010-11-28T19:45:00.000Z

Klikov clay after firing

Kiln floor looking towards firebox

Apologies for not being able to attribute the work to the makers. I arrived at the unpacking too late to see the first pots coming out but there were still a few on the kiln floor to give an idea of the ash deposits there.

Chamber below chimney full of traditional Klikov ware

Wood firing in Bohemia

2010-11-18T18:43:00.000Z

chimney end of kiln

tall chimney

I haven’t fired my kiln for a while because I spent 2 months of the summer in the lovely Czech Republic, southern Bohemia to be more precise. However it wasn’t an entirely wood fire free time. Just as we were leaving home the postie delivered the latest issue of the Log Book (www.thelogbook.net) with an article about wood fire kilns in the Czech Republic. Talk about good timing.

Side view of chimney showing damper and 2nd ware chamber
With a little research I learned that one of the potters mentioned, Martin Hadrava, was only an hours’ drive away from where we were staying in ČR. So with some help from a Czech friend I got in contact with him and he was very welcoming and invited me to visit the next kiln firing. This was to be the inaugural firing of a new ‘smokeless’ kiln designed by Masakazu Kusakabe (see the book Japanese Wood Fired Ceramics by Masakazu Kusakabe and Marc Lancet) who would be there to oversee the firing. All very exciting as I saw him demonstrating a small version of this kiln at Aberystwyth in 2009. This is the largest version of the kiln which Kusakabe has designed. I don’t have the dimensions but you’ll see the scale of it from the photos.

Door to ware chamber, side stoke hole and fire box
Martin is based in a village called Klikov, near Suchdol nad Lužnici in the east of Southern Bohemia. The village is a traditional pottery village and I saw at least 5 kiln chimneys as we drove around looking for the new kiln. (Martin still uses one of the old wood fired ‘Kessel’ kilns, after a German design from about 1850, which he renovated, see more at www.klikov.net and www.hadrava.net ). We followed smart new signs across fields to a pottery which turned out to be closed, but we got directions and eventually found some open ground just outside the village with a couple of sheds and a big chimney. No point looking for smoke, all that indicated the presence of a kiln firing in process was a heat haze at the chimney top. Amazing considering that when we arrived the kiln was already at 1260℃.

fire box mouth

There was quite a crowd, some directly involved in the firing process, some like me just wanting to observe. My two non potting friends who came with me were quickly drawn into the underlying excitement and anticipation of the process. I don’t think they had understood before how elemental it can be, a glimpse into the fire box was enough! I was there to see the draw rings pulled but didn’t get close enough to hear the discussions . The decision was made to continue firing. And at this point I had to leave, reluctantly, but decided to return for the unpacking a few days later.

2010-07-30T18:59:00.003+01:00

For anyone interested here's the firing log for the anagama firing last week

Anagama Firing with Shozo Michikawa at Higham Hall

19th - 22nd July 2010

9.30am Monday. Light fire in ash pit, smokey,

1 10.30am flames being drawn up into kiln, place some wood into

fire box but continue stoking in ash pit.

2 11.30 some smoke from chimney, strong flames in fire mouth, cease

stoking in ash pit. Mix of pine and hardwood

3 12.30pm 490°C Pyrometer now working! Rake out ashes, reduce mouth

of ash pit to increase draft.

4 13.30pm 600℃ Raining

8 17.30 880℃ Still raining

9 18.30 970℃ Breeze blowing directly into the fire box

10 19.3 960°C Everyone present for the first reduction - lots of wood into the

kiln and then close the door over the fire mouth to decrease

oxygen in the kiln. Lots of smoke and dark red horns of flame

from the spy holes over the ware chamber.

11 20.30 990℃ Bit of a party going

13 22.30 1000°C Darkness falls, stoking mostly pine, some hardwood

23.55 1020℃

15 00.30 1005℃ Drop in temp after big stoke

16 1.30am 1040℃ Tuesday, first chimney flame visible.

17 2.30am 1050℃ Much quieter now

18 3.30 1065℃

19 4.30 1080℃

20 5.30 1090℃

22 7.30 1100℃

24 9.30 1120℃

30 15.30 1130℃

33 18.30 1120℃ Sushi interlude

34 19.30 1140℃

38 23.30 1140℃ Pizza. Stoking little and often

39 00.30 1160℃ Wednesday

41 02.30 1160℃ Deep roaring in body of kiln, good chimney flame

42 03.30 1160℃ Running low on wood, heavy stoking to maximize reduction

04.00 Last massive stoke

04.15 Final stoke, one piece of wood each, close dampers fully, clam

up ash pit.

43 04.30 End of firing, daylight.

2010-07-30T18:01:00.006+01:00

Higham Hall in Cumbria ran a 7 day course ‘Japanese ceramics and kiln firing’ tutored by Shozo Michikawa. The course was offering an opportunity for potters with experience in studio practice to develop skills focusing on Japanese techniques and design. A full firing of the wood burning anagama kiln took place over 3 days and 2 nights and the week included individual instruction and demonstrations on hand building and throwing.

I have wanted to do this kind of firing for years to discover the reality of this rather fundamentalist branch of ceramics.

The kiln was built in 2003 and has only been fired 3 times. It has about one cubic metre of space for pots at the back of the chamber , the front being the fire box with no partition between the pots and the fire.

(This allows for a build up of ash which fuses with the clay to form a natural glaze -

that’s the idea anyway. Packing the kiln and the placing of work is a skill in itself as

different areas of the chamber receive different quantities of ash, heat, oxygen, flame, which all have an effect on the results.).

There were 10 of us split into two crews to cover the night shifts. During the days we took it in turns depending on stamina. (Gavin had to be frog marched to bed or he would have been there for the entire firing)

The firing plan was simply to fire the kiln very slowly to 200℃ then at 100℃ per hour until 900℃, then start and keep a reducing atmosphere for the rest of the firing until the wood ran out. Estimated to be 48 hours continuous firing. ( Not the famous 5 or 6 day

marathons but quite enough for beginners). We used 60% well seasoned pine sawmill

off cuts and We started the firing with a ceremonial offering of salt, fruit, seaweed

and salutations to Akiba San, the fire god of Seto region in Japan, to ask for a good and harmonious firing.

A small fire was lit in the ash pit mouth which went out, was lit again and with a bit of cosseting and a wax candle finally took hold. The pyrometer read 100℃ steadily for about 3 hours when it suddenly jumped to 450℃ at midday, so much for the slowly-to-200 plan.40% mixed hardwood.

Stoking the fire with equal amount of pine and hardwood gave a steady and regular rise in temperature until about 900℃ was reached after 10 hours. At this stage a reducing atmosphere was encouraged by heavy stoking and closing the fire door after each stoke to starve the fire of oxygen. Thick smoke emerged from the chimney and spy holes above the ware chamber.

A change of firing crew at 8pm took the temperature up to 1020℃ by 1am and the overnight crew achieved a steady rise to 1100℃ by 8am. The morning was quite hard going with the prospect of another 24 hours ahead but the weather brightened up. It’s a tiring process which doesn’t allow for distraction, one has to remain focused on the fire or the temperature fluctuates too wildly, but having to concentrate on only one thing is very peaceful in a multi tasking world.

The evening stokers took the temperature up to 1140℃ and then remained to help when the night crew arrived. By this stage we were stoking one or two small pieces of pine every 3-4 minutes. Trying to gain a few degrees of temperature with each stoke we eventually reached 1160℃ and managed to hold it there for about 5 hours.

about 3.30am on Wednesday the rain returned and Shozo decided there wasn’t enough wood left

for much longer. He got us stoking continuously, flames billowing from the fire mouth, the inter

ior of the kiln white hot, thick smoke and a red cone of flame rising from the chimney. Then after putting one last piece of wood each into the fire he smashed his piece on the ground, flung it into the kiln and closed the door. The firing finished at 4.30 and tired, grubby, satisfied potters wandered off to bed as daylight broke.

By thursday morning the pyrometer was reading 150℃ and the kiln deemed cool enough to unbrick the door. There was a good layer of ash covering the pots at the front of the chamber. Because of the pyrometer readings there was some doubt about how good the firing would be. We hadn’t been able to get the reading higher than 1160℃ and the chimney flame only appeared strongly around midnight Wednesday. The results coming out showed the pyrometer unreliable.

A cone 10 glaze (ave. 1250℃ ) placed towards the rear of the chamber was beautifully matured. There was some good fused natural ash glaze from the top left (stoking favoured that area) and a more matt, general deposit of melted ash on exposed surfaces.

Highlights of the week

Confidence gained from experience - loading ware, stoking during the different stages of firing, observation of the entire process
Knowledge gained from firing the kiln with a master potter (pretty good at sushi too)
Time to reflect and consider how this approach to firing could be used in my own work.
Homemade pizza at midnight cooked on the chimney flue!

It was a fabulous week which exceeded my expectations of the kiln and the firing process.

Pots from firing 10

2010-05-19T17:58:00.007+01:00

Detail of standing stone

small pebbles and standing stone, dia 10cm

cutlery drainer and dish, ht 11cm

textured dish, dia 31cm

selection of mugs, ht 10cm

Firing 10

2010-05-17T20:25:00.009+01:00

3 May 2010

Up at 5 am to put the gas on. I chose the right day to fire today. It's already daylight and the birds are just beginning to sing. No clouds on the horizon. Back to bed for a couple more hours.

2 7am 97°C Turn gas up. Still sunny but gusting from the north

7.30 157°C Large log in with the gas on it

3 8am 185°C Wood slow to catch fire

8.30 212°C Removed a half course of chimney bricks to allow wind to increase draft. Gas off

4 9am 440°C Oops! now romping away. Removed damper brick

9.30 532°C Slowing down, damper closed

5 10am 540°C

6 11am 690°C

7 12 noon 818°C First heavy smoke

8 1pm 1024°C First sign of reduction flame in chimney

9 2pm 1115°C

2.30 1150°C First soda into firebox

10 3pm 1169°C Second soda in

3.30 1190°C Third soda in. Cone 5 down

11 4pm 1208°C Cone 8 bending

4.30 1190°C Lots of fluctuation, 1224°C tops

12 5pm 1213°C Cone 8 down

5.30 1221°C Maggie arrives to view firing

13 6pm 1199°C Firing down whilst beginning to clam up the kiln.

6.15 1175°C Beer at 5°C

this firing included a cone 9 test glaze on the top shelf from Elizabeth Westman so I was trying to soak the kiln at top temperature to see if I could get the test to melt well. All cone 8’s throughout the kiln went down and there was a good melt of soda with some carbon trapping.

Image shows chimney brick beginning to sag out of line. Probably due to the bed of sand we used to even out the bumpy concrete. Rebuild will be required soon I think. You can just glimpse the test glaze at the back - black shiny, green where thin, good melt. Will get cone 9s for next firing.

Can't wait.

2010-04-19T20:58:00.004+01:00

As I haven’t got a firing planned for the near future I wanted to write a brief description of the first wood firing. Not just the first in this kiln but my first ever. I hadn’t even helped or watched someone else’s firing. My college experience all took place on the third floor of a central London art school building, no wonder they didn’t encourage woodfiring. The closest I have been to a full firing was Joe Finch demonstrating a gas/wood firing for the Scottish Potters in 2007.
After building this small kiln and reading various books and articles I still wasn’t confident but there came a point in late spring when I was on my own at home and I thought ‘I’ve just got to do it and to heck with the results’.
I packed the kiln with oddments and experiments and shoved my raku gas burner into the fire mouth to dry the kiln out slowly for 2 or 3 hours (the west coast of Scotland has high humidity). I planned to fire to cone 6 to start with, not knowing how long it would take, but I put cones 7 & 8 in too, to be safe. And I thought I would bung in some soda too for effect.

5am the next day with the sun already rising behind the mountains across the Sound, I stumbled out of bed to relight the gas on low. Having no idea how long it would all take and because I was firing solo I had decided to go up to 250°C with gas (which meant another hour back in bed).
7am I was back at the kiln with cup of tea, turning up the gas.
8am I started feeding in small pieces of wood along with the burner.
8.30 larger pieces started going in
9.00 gas was turned off and silence descended apart for the birds singing and the crackle of wood burning. I fed another piece of wood into the fire and the peace felt as wide as the view. Now I know why I do this, I have a sense of completing the cycle which I don’t get from electric firing and almost get from raku firing but not quite.

The firing continued as with the subsequent ones. I put in soda soaked wood into the fire at about 1150 (about 500g soda) It was remarkably easy to get the kiln to cone 6 down so I continued until the pyrometer read 1250°C and cone 8 was bending at the tip on the top shelf. I allowed the fire to burn down a bit then bricked up the fire mouth and the chimney and retired.
The next day the temperature was at 250°C and by the evening cool enough to unpack. (After 10 firings I am trying to slow down the cooling by firing down to 1100°C and with extra panels of insulation). The results were pretty unremarkable but so exciting to feel the weight and density of the stoneware and follow the path of the flames in the markings across the pots

This was the perfect day. The sun shone warmly in a cloudless blue sky (no midgies (wee biting monsters)yet). A gentle breeze wafted away the smoke and nothing to distract from the feeding the fire and enjoying being alive.

2010-03-14T13:22:00.001Z

I found an article about a similar kiln in back issue no. 18 of The Log Book (The International Woodfired Ceramics Publication) www.thelogbook.net built by Petr Novak in the Czech Republic. He refers to it a fast firing kiln with ‘circulating flame’, possibly of German design from 1970s. When I bought my kiln Mr. Krajek implied that it was a well know design in Central Europe. I’m surprised not to have come across it before in UK but perhaps there are fewer opportunities to wood fire here. There is a seemingly endless supply of wood in CR which has huge areas of managed forest and woodland and wood is a common fuel for heating homes. In fact I know of at least 4 ceramists specialising in building ceramic stoves in the small area of Česky Krumlov (south Bohemia) but that is a whole other subject. And talking of Česky Krumlov (a wonderful UNESCO world heritage site with CR’s 2nd largest castle) in the museum there is a beautiful scale model of the town made in ceramic by Jana & Petr Pešek.

Pots from firing no.9

2010-02-06T19:51:00.015Z

Interior of the kiln from the side

You can see the build up of glaze from the soda on the bricks. The first firing gave them the most beautiful orange blush. I realised that I should protect them with a wash of alumina. I've no idea how long they will last or how viable it is to do this kind of firing in a kiln which has to be unbuilt to unpack.

I used about 500g of soda for this firing which went into the kiln at about 1170 C over half an hour giving the work a light soda glazing on their exterior surfaces.

These are the best pieces from this firing. Each of the pots has a transparent liner glaze on the interior.

Lidded terrine

ht 13cm

width 21cm

Casserole, makes a good coq au vin.

Slightly ovoid,

ht 10cm

width 23cm

Deep oval vessel

soda glazed

ht 15cm

width 20cm

Deep oval vessel

ht 15cm

width 17cm

Jug with no handle

ht 13cm

width 18cm

2010-01-31T23:18:00.004Z

Firing number 9 20 January 2010

I know it isn’t in chronological order but this is the most recent firing and the first of 2010.

Got up in the dark just before 6am and pulled several layers on top of my pyjamas. Cold and windy, gusting from the south east on the most exposed side of the kiln. But dry. I warmed the kiln through for 4 hours yesterday evening to dry everything out.

6am lit the gas burner, less than 0.1 psi, once the flame had stabilised back to bed.
7.30 Up again; dress properly and down to the kiln with cup of tea.
8.0 75°C 2hrs Gas up
8.30 140°C Small pieces of wood in.
9.00 180°C 3hrs larger pieces of wood catching, breakfast arrives, very good porridge.

10.00 398°C 4hrs Dry, S.E. 5to 6
11.00 597°C 5hrs
12.00 805°C 6hrs Coffee arrives
12.30 first heavy smoke from chimney at 860°C
First flames from chimney at 975°C
1.00 1000°C 7hrs
2.00 1100°C 8hrs Rain for next hour or so
3.00 1160°C 9hrs Heavy smoke
3.20 1170°C First soda in
3.30 1175°C Temperature fluctuating
3.35 1170°C Second soda in. Cone 5 mid kiln down, cone 5 at side spy hole bending
3.55 1200°C Last soda in.
4.00 1215°C 10hrs
4.20 1213°C Cone 7 mid kiln down, cone 8 beginning to bend
4.30 1220°C End of firing, start to fire down for hour or two
5.00 1100°C 11hrs brick up fire box, leave mouse hole open
6.00 905°C 12hrs reduce chimney hole to one brick, seal mouse hole.

I feed wood into the fire box and then reduce the draft by putting a brick in the fire mouth.
The kiln seems to stall somewhat at about 1080°C at which point I stop using the brick in the fire mouth.
After this I have to rake the embers to keep them down to get sufficient draft through the mouse hole.
I used about 500g bicarbonate of soda, mixed to a thick past with water. I put this onto thin pieces of wood, dry them out on top of the kiln and introduce them into the fire box one at a time. When the bright orange sodium flame diminishes I add the next one.
It wasn’t the most peaceful of firings (that was the very first) as Bertie the dog went to visit his girlfriend and R had to search for him (therefore the tea wasn’t supplied so regularly), then was some chain sawing and car hovering, but at least I could shut the radio up.

building the wood fired kiln

2009-11-30T12:56:00.009Z

A few pictures of the kiln build. May 2009

The base of the kiln. A bed of sand under a layer of common house bricks.

Complete layer of high temperature insulation brick (HTI 26)

First course of HTI’s. Firebox mouth at front. (firebars lying to the right)

Fire bars in place, front and rear bricks cut to form ledges, small pieces of HTI as spacers.

Next 3 courses showing firebox mouth. Extruded hollow kiln shelves forming roof of firebox and floor of ware chamber.

Rear of kiln showing kiln floor, inner wall of chimney supported by cut bricks to form flue.

Position for bag wall (formed from cut kiln shelf balanced on edge).

View from above of chimney being constructed, one brick in depth.

Completed kiln chamber. Pyrometer hole can just be seen in the middle of the penultimate course on the long side.

Kiln shelves forming roof with 2 layers of fibre. End wall has been rebuilt to include loose half brick as spy hole.

I’d just like to point out that all the sunny pictures are from Skye in June!

The next step is to fire it, or read a few more books about it first.

Introduction to the kiln

2009-11-23T18:25:00.006Z

I’ve had a growing interest in wood fired ceramics for a few years now but always assumed I would never be doing it myself. I live on an island off the west coast of Scotland – unpredictable weather, at its worst wet, windy, dark and cold. Not the best conditions for those 3 or 5 day anagama firings I had read about. It was Mr Top Pot Supplies at Potfest Scotland who dismissed my assumptions. His eyes lit up at the mention of the conditions ‘fast firing then’ he said.

Briefly, from the beginning –

I first encountered this type of kiln, whilst on holiday in the Czech Republic. My friend took me to visit some potters she knows near Cesky Krumlov who thought I might be interested in their new wood firing kiln, which they were building. Thinking this would be taking several days we didn’t hurry to get there and when we did we found the kindling already in the fire box. The kiln itself is small, footprint is 10 HTI bricks x 3 (exact measurements to follow), can be built in a day with no mortar, fires in day, cools down in a day and is generally an easy, uncomplicated entry into the wonderful world of wood firing.

We learnt that the kiln had been bought from a potter near Prague who puts together kits of the constituent parts. A package that doesn’t require too much thought. I had been rather daunted by all the books about kilns so this seemed perfect. Of course now it’s built it seems so simple and straight forward and I’m sure anyone with an interest could plan and build one with very little trouble.
We went to visit Pan Krajek (with translating friend) who explained about the kiln and apologised for not having one available as he thought he had sold as many as he could to all the potters in Bohemia. It took two more visits to collect all the parts due to the weight of bricks and the state of some of the roads and drive them back to where we stayed in Krumlov. Half of them came home with us and spent 6 months in the garden shed before we could collect the rest in May 2009.

Maintenance Man got to work and built a shelter in the garden for the kiln which in any other climate would have been a pergola but we’re on the Isle of Skye, on a hill, facing south west, the first to greet every weather system which comes across the Atlantic. The shelter is open to the north and east but protected by the hill which rises behind it, the south and west protected by a construction of corrugated plastic and plywood doors and the garden shed. It is roofed with corrugated iron, a hole cut for the chimney with an old barbeque hood to collect the smoke (some of it anyway, depending on wind direction).

The pictures here are of the kiln we saw in Cesky Krumlov. I’ll post images of the one we built in the next blog.