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.

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.......

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.

Results from Latest Firing

Here are some not too good photos from my last wood firing. I was being consumed by mosquitoes so didn't take much care/backgrounds etc. Love those flambe and other copper glazes in the wood. The smallest greenish vase was an experiment with cone 6 clay at the back. That is the place that usually produces refires. It is Plainsman M340, my favorite pit-fire clay. It did make it through cone 8 no sweat, no melting etc. Next time will try it with some Ravenscrag glazes. Instead of busting my behind trying to get it up to temp might as well just go with its natural bent. I started the fire at 4:30 am and fired till 7 pm. First time I didn't do a preheat and it got to temp faster!! Don't know what that means....got my normal cone 11 down in the front and 10 in the rest (except the back shelf).
My pottery classes haven't had the greatest attendance since school is out so have the time to make for my next firing and get paid at the same time. Once the summer people arrive will be busy again.
In the gardening department been eating lots of cucumbers, zucchini, Chinese greens and yummy red tomatoes! Had lettece and green onions for months now. Flowers starting to look good too. A few flower buds on the potatoes too. Just need some warmer weather.

Kiln Clean-up

Getting my kiln all cleaned up and ready to fire either tomorrow or next weekend. Been waiting for this for too long. With economic things being how they are I couldn't say no to all the new orders I got. Took up all the time I had reserved for fun. The weather continues to be wonderful and the snow is going fast. I found these two wild crocus blooming by the edge of the kiln shed! Right next to a huge cardboard box I use to keep all the little pieces of wood in. I'll have to be careful not to step on them. Those animals you see the rear ends of are woodland caribou. They were standing in the middle of a curve catching some rays yesterday afternoon. Of course the ones who just stand there in the road are always there when I don't have my camera along! These guys weren't in too much of a hurry. They will be trekking up to the high country to calve at the end of the month. There has been a pack of four wolves spending the winter in the bush behind our place. They cruise out to hunt the area then return. Guess they are looking for easy pickings (loose dogs) around here.

Getting There!

Finally! Sid the electrician and his helper/girlfriend Brianne are almost finished with the wiring of the new shop. Won't be long before I can get my electric kiln in there and can bisque fire at home. No more tender packing and transporting greenware over the bumpy gravel road. It is nice that I can fire for free at the school, but a total pain in the rear to pack them up, drive slowly for the 5 km to the chipped road, then unpack, fire, repack blah, blah, blah.....

Then there is the pugmill I bought last winter. Got a 20 amp circut dedicated for it. Can move it in once I get the place inspected and the power hooked up.

Of course we still don't have the doors up, have to insulate, do the floor, figure out what we are putting on the walls (thats a big one, too many options and I hate drywall). Still it is exciting to see some more progress.