April 2012 Juniata College anagama part 7

Thanksgiving and kiln firing. November Juniata Anagama anticipation.

Here we are. Its almost time to unload. Take a look at my photobucket for some loading pictures and a few firing pictures. I am waiting for more documentation from other folks with cameras that were at/participating in the firing. We fired for 5 days (or 4.5 days if you count hours)managing to keep it at cone 10 for about 3 days. That is a far more impressive soak (holding at a particular temperature) than any firing thus far. There was a hick-up around quartz inversion and there was definately damage done to some of the green (raw) pots. Next time we have to be more careful and make sure everyone knows whats going on. Other than that it seems like things went very well. I wont really know till this coming Tuesday I guess.


Been pretty busy overall lately. The weather has been fantastic so I was working outside on the anagama behind my studio. I had a sale at my place too. It went ok. I need to advertise better. Next one I will absolutely advertise on the interwebs.

Working hard. Hardly working.

life is what you make.

now we are walking.

After some time I have come upon fired test pieces. I used two clay bodies and three glazes. There are more pots to be fired but I need more white glaze. I think its going to come to mixing my own recipe but I need to have materials sent in or I need to go out into the wilderness and forage for bags of feldspar...

Probably best going to someone who already found some.

Must make more mugs. Also work for the April anagama firing is underway, I think we will have enough work for a good firing.

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

Wood-Salt Firing in Boiling Springs with Kurt

Friend, colleague, and Juniata College student Nick Brown and I joined Kurt to fire his updraft woodkiln in August. It went quite well dis-spite a disgruntled and completely uninformed neighbor who just picked us to take all her environmental woes at about 9:00 am at around 2000 degrees. What a problem! People really need to learn about what they are fighting against before they raise their voice. If she knew what kind of footprint the wood we were burning actually was as opposed to the propane she forcefully suggested we use or the gas she uses to 'drive to her real job' over an hour everyday she would never have left her house to even think about doing anything but thanking us for enriching her town both in spirit and in culture. We went from stoking rather large pieces of slab wood to spending about 12 to 14 hours firing with nothing but 3 or 4 pieces of 9"x3"x1" hardwood and were able to continue to rise in temperature. It was insane. The pictures I promised will be uploaded shortly as there are many.

Mid Summer's End

I have just come back from a 'weekend' in Carlisle PA in which I spent time working with Kurt in his studio preparing for a salt/wood/propane firing in his kiln. This firing is going to happen next weekend and I plan on documenting so there will be another post to follow this one with images of the whole deal. Just before that though my dad and I set up a small barrel that he lined with a refractory castable material and attempted to run a saltku (high temp, like cone 9-14, gas firing using charcoal and rock salt) firing. Because of the lack of a proper flue system we were only able to reach 1250 degrees F but it was still a worthwhile venture. We fired from about 6pm till midnight when the kiln basically stopped gaining temp for good. We are casting a real lid with a better opening for a flue so there will be another firing soon.

We had a camera so here is kind of how it went.

Summer Living.

The beat goes on... the summer in Mount Union has proven to be hot, humid, and without rain. I am volunteering at the Juniata College Ceramics Studio over the summer months and we are preparing to break ground (lay cinder block) for a new smaller downdraft gas kiln. I have been decorating feverishly and am working on a cup design to make a slipcasting mold from. I have been thinking about print a lot lately and have begun some drawings and layouts for print ideas, maybe more on that later. If anyone has any entrepreneurial ideas for money making other than exotic dancing (believe me, there is a market just not with me in it) let me know because I am poo or. Go economy, Go!

At the end of June I returned to Erie Pennsylvania for the Erie Summer Arts Festival for the second year in a row. I set up shop with a colleague of mine from Edinboro University and we made an attempt to peddle our wares to the attendees of said fest. Unfortunately the coordinators of the arts fest cut funding to the advertisements and entertainment so to say the least we didn't fair well. I didn't make gas money to get me back and fourth. Yet, we had a great time with our friends and each other. I plan on being there next year again in hopes that the Erie Summer Fest people get their act together and with my continued support I hope that the festival is able to carry on and improve with age.

The last day of the festival, Sunday, ended just as the year before with a thunderstorm off the lake. Only apparently this time there were tornado cones dropping down over the lake and a few moved inland and one may have touched down, allegedly. During this time Todd and I went swimming in the lake. :) Good times.

I am scheduled to head back up at the end of this month for 'Discover Presque Isle' and I hope the coordinators of that have things tied down a little tighter. It should still be a good time. If you are reading this and are in the Erie area come check it out. July 23, 24, and 25. Come and visit. More miraculous than just reading this and showing up mention my blog and I might give you a discount. Maybe. (what times are tough) :)


I've got many pictures to post and am working on a real website so check back soon for more info, I swear I'll post sooner than later.

November 2009 JC Anagama Firing Images