Images of progress and woodfired pots...

I set up a photo area in the building that I've been working on turning into a studio space. Over the last couple of days I shot some of the work that came out of the winter 2010 firing of the anagama at Juniata college. Normally I'd post all the pictures here but in lieu of having to share info and such with my .com I am going to tell you that they live there. I shot some 9 pieces so far and did multiple views of each. There are some really quality works that came from the firing. The pots are made from stoneware and porcelain, some were coil built and some thrown. I really enjoy making larger pots with coils. It allows for a different feel; more architectural in nature I guess.

I picked up a new camera as well. A Nikon S8100 coolpix (I think that is what is called). Seems to be a pretty good little number. Takes some high quality images. I want you all to see what I've been up to so I started taking images of the space that is to be the studio, gallery, and whatnot. The photos are of the last day or two as well and, to be honest, don't give a great indication as to where we started about 8 years ago. To a new viewer the spaces and places seem quite messy when in actuality they are quite empty. Still to cluttered to get down to the utmost serious business they are beginning to take shape. I came across an AMACO No. 4 treadle wheel over the new year and have just begun to throw on it. (*Remind me to write all about my thoughts on that later... So you will see a few pics of me throwing and that is the unit I am using.) I will continue to document the clearing and retrofitting of the space as we (my dad, a few friends here and there, and I) keep moving along. I hope you joy the photos as it has also taken much to become comfortable enough to want to share photos with you. I was going to omit all of the process here but it seems a shame to let it go as it has been quite an endeavor and a true labour of love.

Busy In Boiling Springs

Its cold in Pennsylvania.
And I just spent the last few days at Kurt's studio prepping and firing some collaborative work (collaborative? I know its definately a new concept in clay for me).
I started slip decorating my own pots last year around April and Kurt saw some pieces and asked if I would do some decorating on his pots. I said I would and so we set out to do this a few weeks before the new year. We fired in his wood salt kiln (the one that I posted pictures of from this last summer) for two and a half days. Candled with propane on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning and added some larger burners, as we started with his weed burner, and did turn ups over the lunch time hours. The real deal started around 4 in the afternoon. We had help and visitors through out the firing as Kurt's home and studio tend to be a very active place (people are always popping by to see what he is up to, to lend a hand, or just to share conversation). Apparently he also had a visit from the cranky neighbor lady from last time (remember her, she needs to find a hobby other than terrorizing Mr. Brantner and his pottery) who didn't have anything nice to say, she even went as far to say she wanted to have him fined! Which we all know is nonsense... Kurt fired the kiln solo from about 3am to 11am Thursday morning. It reached a temperature of cone 11 (about 2400 degrees F). We also set up the door with a port so hikidashi could be performed. Unfortunately I wasn't there to help but from what I heard Kurt pulled 4 pots out of the port.

We are unloading this Sunday, the 23rd of January and I will try to document then. We did get some folks to take pictures while they were there and Kurt had some video footage taken at the end. There is a small preliminary trailer that is about 1 minute 45 seconds (actual footage is over a half hour). It was filmed by Nate, a friend of Kurt's. This video will most likely be replaced by another one but for reference its pretty interesting.

*Edit

Well here is a new video by Nate of the unloading that happened the 23rd. Its a pretty good little film. Gives you an idea of what kinds of things came out and shows a little bit of Kurt and I in the flesh.

Kurt Brantner Winter Sale Film from Cinemoxie on Vimeo.

Post Unloading Juniata's Anagama Thoughts

As I said before the images below were taken mainly by my dad over the course of a week-ish. He used a point-and-shoot digital camera so there are more than a few "motion action shots." Overall the firing was a complete success. There were very few "bad" pots but we did/ I did manage to stack the front of the kiln using only one brick to support two very heavy 32"x24" shelves. Needless to say there were some weight + heat-over-time happenings.


We did get the kiln to temperature and developed a solid holding pattern that allowed us to reach cone 13 (2400 F or 1310 C). We also had the front of the kiln open for just about the entire firing which let radiant heat from our front ember mass (coals that are used to maintain temp. in the firebox of the anagama) help to get our desired temperature in the back of the kiln.
For the record Jared and Nick came on shift as I was fading around 10am Monday morning and they stoked the middle and back of the kiln till a little after Simon Leach's Youtube video was shot at 3pm in the afternoon. The cones in the middle door section had cone 12 (2350 F) down and in the back Jared managed to flatten cone 13 (no easy task).

Our goal was to get it hot and melt the ash on our pots (as the firing before this one there were many crusty grey pots) and we did just that. Many beautiful things came out of this firing and I think everyone got at least one great piece. Expect to see examples of my pots as soon as I get my home photo set-up set up. Maybe I'll even post images of some of the other peoples work i.e. Nick, Jared, and my Dad. Who knows.

Juniata College Fall Anagama Firing 2010 (2)

Post Kurt's kiln info

To sum up the firing in Boiling Springs PA with Kurt. We fired the kiln with hard wood to 2400 degrees Fahrenheit over a Three day period in August. All in all the kiln fires very well (this firing was pretty much the first firing that we were able to fire the way we did) for a maiden voyage. There were some hiccups as illustrated in the text below. At the height in temp and the end of the firing we performed a 'hikidashi' style removal of wares from a central shelf through an opening in the middle of the door I prepared ahead of time with this in mind. Hikidashi involves removing wares to check the clay and glazing at different points during the firing. Sort of a elaborate set of draw rings. We also salted heavily after each piece was pulled. There were about 9 pieces removed.

You can see parts of this process documented in the set of pictures below this entry.

On a current affairs note. Jared, Kurt, Nick, myself, and the vast majority of the students partaking in the Fall 2010 Juniata College Ceramics program fired the anagama on campus just a few days ago. We loaded on the 15th of this month. Unloading should be sometime at the beginning of this week... It seemed to have gone very smoothly. I will try and document the unloading and I have a few images of the firing taken by myself and my Dad, there may be others. Expect these to be posted as soon as I possibly can.

Simon Leach has a tiny youtube video of the very end of the firing. I left at 10am that morning after working two shifts and hanging out kiln side since 3pm the previous day. He showed up in the afternoon the final day. Jared and Nick have cameos in the video. They are finishing up sidestoking the very back of the kiln. I'll give specifics on how we fired and how it finished up later. Anyway check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/user/sleachpots#p/a/u/0/OuljfkjU6nc

Kurt's firing August 2010... more images continued again.