burnt.normal church pottery

Friday Day 8: 8:50pm

thunder

lightening

storm rain

white heat

piri piri flame

(post-secondary ingnition of super-hot gases)

and soon at the blow holes

thunder thunderous

thunder

kiln cracks seep flame

liquid light oozing

be brave

I am, We Are

I am Yolande

He is Lee

the little buddha is Horus.

Our life revolves around firing our two kilns. The Little River Kiln is our 27 foot long anagama, the first incarnation of which was designed and built by Lee, in 1998. In the Spring of 2009, we undertook an extensive renovation of the kiln, tearing down the back chamber, and rebuilding the chimney.

We generally fire the anagama twice a year for 6-10 days. Every piece is loaded into the kiln as bare clay, free of chemical glaze. The fire must be stoked every 3-6 minutes for the entire duration of the firing. We only ever use sustainably harvested wood--usually tamarack or pine.

Over the course of the firing, the ash from the wood that we burn is carried by the flame and lands on the pots. When the kiln reaches 1300 degrees celcius, the wood-ash melts to create an entirely natural glaze.

We eschew technological devices like cones and pyrometers, choosing instead to fire by sight, sound, smell and intuition.

Our new Bourrigama was recently completed (Fall 2009) at our new home in South Knowlesville where we live in a strawbale, solar-powered home. South Knowlesville is a remote, rural, co-operative community. The Bourrigama is a Bourry-Box type with two catenary arch sections built on to a sprung arch centre seam. Unlike a conventional bourry box, this kiln has a larger-than-usual firebox, and...it isn't a box. We designed this kiln to accomodate shorter year-round firings, and for the development of natural ash glaze through this slightly different medium. We also wanted a kiln that we could fire just the two (or three) of us, efficiently and relatively painlessly, using sustainably harvested wood and/or scrap wood.

Woodfiring is a spiritual endeavour, a calling, and the result of our process is pottery with rare and beautiful natural ash glaze landscapes of colour and texture.

All blog entry content, including words and images are copyright of the author except where indicated.

burnt.normal church pottery

Monday, June 29, 2009

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burnt.normal church pottery

Monday, June 29, 2009

0 comments:

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I am, We Are

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where are we?

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