Current Events

 Some of the mushrooms we collected this Summer. Dried and pickled lots. Ate them many times! So good. Plus it is really fun to find them....like a treasure hunt.

 This is what happens when a Chun glaze is downwind of lots of copper glazes in a kiln that won't stop reducing. There was a huge green flame coming out of the chimney. From last year's horrible firings. Fixed the problem by cutting out bigger primary air holes in the new door. Refired this guy and wowie! The photo does not due justice to it.

 Another pot that got refired. Love it.

 The copper glaze that sells, sells and sells. It goes blue, green, purple, turquoise and every shade in between. Sometimes a pot will be sea green on one side and purple or turquoise on the other.

 My table before the big sale in Whitehorse. People buy LOTS of handmade objects in the North. Any of my customers that are reading this, THANK YOU! I went home without most of this stuff. Can't see my scarves in this photo. Rack was close to empty too.

If you ever wondered what we do with all those berries we pick......this is how some of them end up. High bush Cranberries and Mossberries. 12 gallons of very fine wine!

Snow Kiln

Snow, snow and more snow. In fact it is still snowing as I write. The past few days I have been spending about an hour each day pulling snow off roofs. Then shoveling it away. Another few inches and it will be waist deep on me. This is about twice what we usually get in a Winter. This is supposed to be the rain-shadow of the Coast Range. Now my poor kiln is also covered in the stuff. Only good part is that the water content is pretty low. Plus the fact that it would be -46 C like it is a bit to the North of us and beyond this storm track.
I was asked about the measurements of this kiln. Inside the chamber is 64 inches by 28 wide and 24 ish high. 9 courses high on the inside. Because it is made of used (very used) hardbrick there is mortar between the courses and that adds to the height. It is 9 inches thick. The Bourry Box has hobs. On top I use kiln shelves, a layer of soft brick then several layers of fiber blanket. The plans for this kiln were in Laid Back Wood-firing by Steve Harrison. I would recommend both the book and the kiln to anyone wanting to build a simple yet easy to fire kiln.Steve is very accessible and helpful. I have seen pots he fired for 16 hours in one of these kilns that are ringers for 4 day anagama fired work. Tons of ash and great flashing. I fire both 'naked' and glazed work and it works well for both.
It was so cold after my last firing that I neglected the usual clean up, thought it could wait until the Spring. As my studio is closed up until March it won't be until at least May before we fire again.
In the planning process for building two new kilns. One will be a gas conversion of an ancient Duncan electric and the other a 14.5 cu. ft.Flat Top. One will be updraft and the other crossdraft fired with propane. Too many days with the fire hazard up in the high and extreme range for wood firing so this will give me some options. Also will be able to do more frequent testing.
Meanwhile it is back to tend the wood stove and watch the snow come down.

Christmas Sales

 Cleaning shelves, got to be the worst job in pottery. This time it was angle grinder all the way.

 Kiln was in super-reduce mode, not good! Lots of refires in the back due to not enough air in the front. Did two back to back firings in the most horrible weather.

 And this is why. When I 'fixed' the top I made the air holes smaller than they were before. They were much bigger because the metal was warped and had opened up really big.....maybe that was why I got to temp hours faster than ever before??? Duh, and the fix was a f.....up.Off to my welder friend to open them up. Wish I still had all the wood I wasted. Oh well, live and learn!

 Don't have very much of this stuff left. I had left some home for the following sales and it's all gone too. Had lots of orders plus the sales. Really happy about it all. This was the first, over 4,000 people came. Considering the entire Yukon population is 33,000 I'd say that was good attendance!

Scarves, pots and dog fur hats. Ready for a rest. My next project is either buying or building a small propane fired kiln. I have 150 soft brick. Getting the bricks is the hard part. Sure I could make something that would work. Anyhow, now is the time to think and plan, building would be in the Spring. Tonight is supposed to get to -25 and colder the next few days. Last day of school is the 20 th.Time for a holiday!!

Back to Silk Painting

Top photo is my already painted scarves curing. They have to cure for at least 24 hours before they are steamed. Also some other ones that are outlined waiting for the dye. All those pails below them are my glazes. I am in my Winter quarters now. Or I should say, crammed into my Winter quarters. All the pottery stuff and the silk stuff and the wool/dog fur stuff. A wood stove and an old cook stove that I use as a work table. All I can say is that it is a heck of a lot better than having to try and work in the house!! I have to haul water in but at least it goes out on its own. I have electricity....a very long extension cord. So there are lights and I can run one tool at a time. Luckily I throw my pots on a kick wheel. It is warm though.
Couldn't resist the temptation to do some tropical fish. Outside it is -12 and SNOWING. Tomorrow is pricing and packing pots for Sunday's sale in Tagish. I usually get really good support from my friends and neighbors. This time I have the cream of the crop for them!!

Another Visit to the Slab Pile

I spent the day glazing pots, getting ready for another firing. Actually it looks like two firings back to back...... It takes a while to recover.Be nice to have some help.....guess I am lucky to have some in getting the wood.

This pile used to be lots bigger. I thought I had a lifetime supply if no forest fire got to it first. However it now seems like some of my neighbors have discovered it as a handy source of firewood. We need someone to do some saw-milling, too bad the government makes it so difficult!!

Snow has come and gone a few times. It probably won't be long before we get some that stays put. More later!!

Beating the Cold and Snow

It was supposed to snow today and then get -30 by the end of the week. No snow today and a very manageable -1. This evening I see that they are only calling for -22. Not that bad either.
Had a pretty pleasant firing. That is if you think staying up until midnight and getting back up at 4 am is pleasant. Being out in the dark was a bit of a bummer, did have a trouble light on with a VERY long extension cord. Usually I am firing in the Spring and Summer when it is daylight all the time. Anyhow it is all over now but the waiting....
Ken cut the ends off some pieces of wood I had cut about an inch too long. Don't know how that happened. Much bad language when I found out they wouldn't fit...flames coming up etc. etc. then trying to get the wood out. yuck.
Okay. I hope I'm not the only one who likes to see the flames coming out of the chimney. All wood firers are pyros, it is a given. You know who you are!!
Will post some photos of the results later in the week. At least three days before we can open up. If it gets -30 maybe sooner. Total time of firing 8:30 Saturday evening to 6 pm Sunday. Left the mouseholes open for another hour while I made dinner to cut down the coal bed. Worked well.
I had some human guests and two avian guests. A very large Hairy Woodpecker landed on the chimney for a second before he took off. A Northern Three-toed woodpecker did a very through investigation of my wood looking for bugs. He was about two feet away and I got a really good look.

The Wait Begins

Finished up at around 8 pm. last night. Started the campfire in the bottom of the kiln at 9 pm. the night before and filled it up with wood every half hour until 11:30. Shut the damper and went inside for a couple of hours of sleep...big joke, too excited about the firing too have much shut-eye! Alarm rang at 4:15. There were some coals still burning so filled her up and off we went. The bottom opening is covered with an old door I got off a wood stove until I change to firing on the hobs.Then I put in 6 bricks and clam it up so no air can enter. Hobs are brick shelves inside the firebox that hold the wood above the coal bed. You have to have a really good hot coal bed before the wood ignites on the hobs. Once you do it is pretty cool to hear the wood explode and the flames get sucked into the kiln and then out through the chinmey!
When it is still dark there isn't much I can do between stokes except stare into space and think about what other jobs I should be getting done in the garden. Once it gets light I can read, drink tea and yesterday, work on a sweater order that is very late.....the hardest part of the firing is just waiting for the kiln to cool. Three days and I get to look at my work! Sure hope I didn't knock any pots over this time.....last time I lost the best 5 pots. They ended up all glued together with melted glaze where they were touching.
Didn't get as hot as the last time, which was grossly over-fired. All wood firers love to brag about how hot they've managed to get their kilns. Yes, getting to cone 12 and holding for 12 hours is really great! No, glaze all over the shelves, slumped pots and wasted wood is NOT! Anyways, let the waiting begin.......

It's a Dirty Job, but Somebody has to Do It

Finally we have had some rain and the ground is now damp again. That means getting my kiln cleaned up and ready to fire. First on the list of undesirable jobs was cleaning the shelves. In an electric kiln you only have to do it if you have a runny glaze. At school I make sure that NEVER happens. Anything questionable goes onto clay 'cookies' that catch any drips. However..when you are firing with wood the ash becomes an airborne glaze that lands on everything. Of course that is why your pots turn out so great, but it also makes a huge mess of the shelves. Last time I got the brilliant idea to use some Aspen wood, a noted ash maker. Pots were outstanding, even got a dragon's eye pot ! The shelves were another story. Of course going to cone 12 instead of the usual 10 didn't help.
Enter my trusty angle grinder and a sharp chisel and a rock hammer. Safety glasses and the respirator for the dust. It only took about an hour and a half, but couldn't do it before because the grinding causes sparks and there is lots of dry grass around that could have caught fire. After the shelves are clean of glaze drips they have to have a good coat of kiln wash. This is a really refractory mix of kaolin and alumina that sort of helps protect them. Now we are good to go.
Next task was taking all the ash out. Did that. Then taking out the old silica sand on the floor. It also gets hard from all the melted ash, but does a really good job of protecting the kiln floor.
Brought out a bunch of pots and washed them. The glaze will 'crawl' if there is any dust on the pots. Tomorrow is glazing and loading. But before I can load I
have to make wadding.
Wads are used to separate everything, otherwise it would all get stuck together from the melted ash. You use kaolin, some alumina and sawdust dampened with enough water to hold them together without crumbling. You make little balls for the pots and big ones for the shelf props.
This really sounds like a lot of work just to get some pots fired! Wood firing is more work, but more fun too!
The last photo is of the cone packs drying out on top of my wood cookstove. For a treat I put up the spoonholder made for me by one of my best students. Actually he didn't make it for me....a leg fell off and he was going to ditch it in the trash but decided to give it to me instead. It is of a road kill crocodile with the visible tire tracks on the stomach!! That kid has a cool sense of humour.

Four Bears!!/Kiln Firing

On our Friday trip to Skagway we were lucky enough to see this sow black bear and THREE cubs! We watched them playing on the road for quite a while before they went off into the bush. The mother seemed to be having a bit of a time getting them all in line! Ken said that we will probably see them again soon. Yep, while we are back up here picking blueberries!
Some nice photos of the last firing of the wood kiln. The fire hazard had gone to moderate from extreme so took the chance to fire her up. The firing starts at around 9 pm at night and goes until midnight. I fill up the firebox and shut all the dampers and go for a 'nap'. Alarm rings at 3:30 am and all hell breaks loose. This kiln gallops off like a racehorse. Then it is stoke away every 10 to 15 minutes until 8 pm. Side stoking commences after noon. All the black smoke is from that.
This firing got a little bit hotter than planned.....I was reading the cones from the middle, which turned out to be the coolest place, something that has never happened before. Cone 11 was melted in the front and the back. Usually the back is the coolest place with cone 9. Not this time!! I got to spend some quality time cleaning shelves, my least favorite task.
Only lost five pieces to my over enthusiastic side stoking. A chalice got knocked over into a teapot, which fell into a pitcher, which fell into the top of a butter dish. I zapped this four piece sculpture with my angle grinder and saved the teapot for myself. It has a bit of a scar, but is beautiful and serviceable. The rest of the pieces are mosaic material. Also a bowl got knocked into a brick. It now lives in the garden.
By the way, the flame throwing technique really works. Too good! Towards the afternoon the wind came up and starting blowing the flames around a little more than I was comfortable with. Then it really started howling. That was the signal to call it a day. It was still pretty dry out and I didn't want to be the cause of a bush fire.
Good news, almost all the pieces have been sold! Time to get ready for the next firing.

Firing the Wood Kiln

My little kiln is made out of very used hard brick. They are AP Green Ozark and Empite bricks. They came from an old boiler that belonged to the Federal Government housing in Whitehorse. A friend of mine got a contract to tear it down and took the bricks for salvage. He had plans to build his own boiler, piled them in his yard and forgot about them for many years. He wanted to clean up all the accumulated 'stuff' so he had a big auction. Luckily for me I bought 1800 bricks for $200. Getting them back to my place 100 km away was a bit of a challenge. They weigh in at 8 lbs each. Got my neighbor's 3 ton Bobcat trailer and one of my 15 year old students and after three trips got them stcked on pallets at my place.
Thanks to Clayart on line pottery forum I found out about Steve Harrison's Laid Back Wood Firing. Bought it from The Potter's Shop and found the design of my dreams! Only took me a week to build. The first set of cone packs was from the front in the very first experimental firing. The pack was 8-9-10-11. All totally melted! Didn't side stoke so the back was between 6 and 8. For the next firing I plugged up some of the upper flues of the checkered flue. After I switched to the Hobs I started to side stoke and carried it through after every fill of the Bourry box. When cone 10 went down in the middle I called it quits. The most interesting thing about side stoking is how the flame in the kiln behaves when you put in a bundle of wood. It causes major turbalance. Instead of the flame flowing like a thivk river, it roars back towards the FRONT and goes in circles.
I have never used the damper while firing. I tried it, but it really causes it to slow down. I am firing by my self. I start at 4:30 am and seem to be finishing around 7 to 9 pm. Last time I didn't bother with a preheat and it went off faster. Go figure. Before I triend the side stoking it took until midnight to get done. Too long for me!
I can hardly wait for it to rain and the fire weather index to go down. I have some neat new pots to fire made from new and diffrent clay.
By the way. I top off my kiln with shelves, a layer of block insulation, a layer of soft brick and top it all off with fibre.

My Kiln:Naad aagi heen x'ann

This is my woodfired kiln that I built last year. I am madly in love with it. Fires like a dream, uses very little wood and does fantastic things to my pots. The wood piled under cover is enough for two firings. I also have a big box full of small scraps that I 'drop from the top' at the start of the firing. There is also some side stoke wood that is out of the picture.

It is 25 cu ft inside, last firing there were 70 pieces, including lids . I counted them when I made the wadding. So far I have fired it three times, always on the full moon. Last time was in October. That night it got to -10c. Think that is my limit. Since then it hasn't been warm enough to do another firing.

Today when I took these photos it was a high of -30. Last night was -40, and right now at 11pm it is already -42.......so much for Global Warming. My kiln wood pile is in danger of turning into house wood if it doesn't warm up pretty soon. We usually like it to be -15 or above to go get wood. I need two or three days of -10 or above to fire the kiln, guess I'll just have to wait.

By the way, the name I settled on means flowing river of fire in Tlingit.