RELICS FROM THE FUTURE

Let’s Clay Withe Fire III carries on from where Still Breathing After All These Years – Fresh Mountain Air (LCWF II) left off in 2015. Celebrations of the winter solstice using fire as the main event. This year I achieved to have 14 firings over 3 weeks around the solstice. An east coast low a week earlier meant that we suspended workshops but still maintained the firing schedules.

The kiln is a small cross draft wood fire design that I first used at ESTC back in 1972. It is a simple kiln that is able to achieve temps above 1000ºC (up to 1100ºC)

The kiln initially was wet from being uncovered during the previous heavy rain. This made the going slow. Started with small fire and slowly brought up to a good ash bed. This first firing also saw the kiln in a half finished state with low flue and many gaps in the brickwork. The design of the kiln was tweaked after each firing, building up the chimney,sealing gaps in brickwork and making the chamber slightly larger.

Firing 1

The first firing was all bisque. I tried a little reduction with sawdust etc but reoxidised at temperature. “Relics From the Future “ became the working title for the body of work.

2-15 Firings:

Within a few days the next few firings went back to back. Mixed the first 2 glazes in DeBose’s book, cone 07 and cone 05. The melted well at throat and top. The strategy became bisque in cooler parts and glaze in hot spots. I worked well to keep a flow going. These were the early results.

After about 5 firings the chimney had been built up to about 2.1m high and the chamber had been adjusted to have more shelves. The bisque in cooler areas was working well and a few experiments with sager fired reduced works were working out well. With no pyro I was running blind to a degree and the cone 05 glaze was only working in the hottest areas (throat and top) I mixed up an ash glaze w/ borax and an old stoneware ash glaze. This has a low melt point and meant I could expand the glaze areas of the kiln. I became a series of unpack, repack, fire again. So even though the kiln is very small a fair body of work started to develop.

The Works

Dishes, plates, offering bowls, offering services.