Wood firing #1

This post is a little overdue...just pretend that we posted it about 3 weeks ago :)

First wood firing of the residency! I have been making pots for 3 weeks now and preping for the firing by splitting and stacking wood. We started loading the kiln at 7:00 am Friday morning. After finishing the load we lit the fire outside the air ports. This went on for 6 hours allowing the fire to slowly wick into the firebox. The firing went on for 36 hours with various potters and people stopping by to help stoke the kiln. After the kiln was at peak temperature for 12 hours I began to reduction cool the kiln. This is a process of putting the kiln into a reducing atmosphere and adding small amounts of wood into the spy ports to cool the kiln to 700 degrees C. The kiln was then sealed up with mud and left to cool naturally. The reasoning behind reduction cooling is to take away the oxygen molecules and chemically change the iron in the clay from red iron oxide (Fe2O3) to black iron oxide (FeO). This results in a surface that has deep rich reds oranges and purples.



Me inside the Tube Kiln ready to load some pots





Michael the property manager getting the inital fire for the kiln going.

Strange its seems like just a hole

I have had this idea to make a vessel by digging a hole and filling it up with plaster then making a mold from the plaster form. Then pressing clay into the surface to create a vessel. Not the easiest way to create a clay object but the process was a lot of fun. The reasoning behind making this piece was inspired by the Australian landscape and being in this country. I wanted to have a connection to the land, with both the process of forming the object in the earth in which I am a part of, to the firing of the kiln with local Gum trees.

Nice reducing flame on yet another beautiful Australian night!

This is the Tube Kiln from a distance, also it was a little chilly so we started a fire in a barrel to keep warm during the night.

Checking the kiln to see if the cones were getting soft. The first cone that is bent over a bit is the 08 cone. This cone lets me know that the pots are hot enough to put the kiln into body reduction. A process of increasing fuel and closing off the flue to the chimney. This makes a dark red flame come out the chimney and thick black smoke due to the excess of unburnt fuel.

Found a local Skink on a piece of wood during the firing. Good thing I saw this little bugga cause he would have been crsipy.

Not so cute, a Huntsmen spider on the side of a log. eek!!!!!

Doing a little high fire Raku at 1300 degrees C.

Pulled out a small jar from the kiln to set into some unburnt wood chips in our fire.

The main wood port to the firebox of the kiln. at 1300 degrees C!!!!

The plaster mold that I excavated from the ground

Cleaning the plaster off and prepping it for the next step in the mold process.

 Stay tuned for more pots and firing pics!!!!!