swanceramics.com » Firing

Firing of the kiln

swanica — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 23:57:13 +0000

The firing started at 5pm in the evening and was done the next day at 6pm. We stoked a lot of wood.
Here we stoke wood in the firebox from Kusakabe-san’s old house!

Keeping track of the temperature.

No smoke at all from the biggest chimney! Smokeless!!!!

Finally, we add wood through the stoke holes for ash build-up and effects.
Unfortunately, I can not be there when they open the kiln, but I will post results as soon as I get some pictures.

The filling of the kiln

swanica — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:04:43 +0000

Kusakabe-san has 7 kilns on his site. This time we will fire part of an updraft built kiln. The work I threw yesterday is still too wet, but three plates from last year will be fired now.

We put straw on and around the
plate in the back. Straw has a
high silica content which will give a glassy line on the plate.

If you look close you will see the wads underneath the pots.

The closing of the kiln.

The door is pasted with paper clay and the fire starts in the ash box.

10 year Anniversary Celebration of Dancing Fire Wood Kiln

swanica — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:46:47 +0000

The 10-year anniversary of the building of the Dancing Fire Wood Kiln at the Solano Community College was celebrated on September 23rd, 2008. This kiln was built by Masakazu Kusakabe and Marc Lancet and lots of other people. They describe the process of the building of this kiln in their book: “Japanese Wood-Fired Ceramics”. See my blog from Sept. 26, 08 and other Kusakabe-san blogs.

I drove up to the Solano College from my home. There was quite some traffic, especially on the Bay Bridge and around Berkeley, but I got there just in time for the opening speeches and the Taiko drums, which have this wonderful rhythmical deep sound.

The filling of the kiln before the celebration. Also, the firing started before, so that during the celebration the temperature was already around 1800 F. First, it was quite hot, but in the evening it became nice cozy and warm.

Drawing by Kusakabe-san: Angels protecting the Dancing Fire kiln.

The Kiln is closed: “Your redness is me, my yellowness to you”.

And the firing can start! First in the firebox down in front and slowly deeper in the kiln.

The firebox is closed now and the firing through the front door can start.

Marc opens the celebration with Kusakabe-san.

Kusakabe-san talks about the kiln.

A friend reads some poems, especially the Japanese kiln poem.

Then the Taiko drums sound with their celebration songs!

The Lion dances his celebration dance!

Then there was a delicious banquet with all kind of foods and in the Gallery a wonderful exposition with all wood fired art work!

NOLA Fired Up 3

swanica — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:05:36 +0000

The Fire on the Mississippi banks of New Orleans, Louisiana, NOLA Fired-Up!
It was a great success! Beautiful sculptural kilns and great fires all around!

Filling up the paper clay “VASE KILN”.

Closing of the kiln.

Starting the fire.

Fire from within.

Sasukenei Kiln results

swanica — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:49:55 +0000

And now some results from the Sasukenei Smokeless kiln. My little pots were put any where in the kiln for certain fire/yohen effects.

On this little Clover vase you see the fly ash deposits making a glaze on one side and on the other side the vitrification and starting of a glaze, patina by the flames, fly ash and heat, causing the orange and red flashing.

This vase was put in the fire box and was covered with a thick layer of ash of the burned wood.

The foot of this chawan, teabowl, shows the wonderful flashing of the fire and the upside bowl the fly ash and the flashing.

This Shiratori vase shows the drippings of the glaze falling from the ceiling on the clay.

Down Draft Wood kiln results

swanica — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:13:54 +0000

The internet works better,so, I’ll try again some pictures.

Some pots from Euan’s Anagama, actually, down draft wood kiln. Read his essay about his kiln firing; website given underneath.

The inside of this vase is covered with a Tenmoku glaze.
On the outside, you see the flashing and the lines from rice straw full from an old tatami mat marking the vase.
“The glaze making minerals that enter a kiln with the wood flame in the form of ash and gasses can turn the simplest of pots into expressions of natural beauty by simple virtue of the process itself. The fly ash will cause a coating of glass where it settles on the pots, and the gaseous salts etc will cause the silica in the surface of the clay to vitrify causing orange and red flashing”. From Euan’s Essays:
http://www.d1.dion.ne.jp/~euan/sub5-2.htm

This vase was partial glazed with a Tenmoku glaze. It was at the fire face so the ash built up on the front of the vase and started to form little runnels down the vertical surface.

This little vase was put on its side on shells from which you see the marks and the flashing around the shells. The fly ash deposited on the top/right side of the vase.

Beautiful vase decorated with a Celadon glaze. The fly ash makes the glaze matt and you see the markings of the rice straw with the flashing.

Small Celadon glazed vase from the anagama firing.

Little chalice with the Celadon glaze, some Tenmoku glaze spatters and rice straw markings.

Flying kiln results

swanica — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 05:29:18 +0000

I have terrible problems with the internet and so I will try just a couple of pictures each time.

This wonderful vase was fired in the Flying kiln from Wali Hawes and was covered with the seaweed and scrub pads in a former blog. A lot of other chemicals were thrown in the kiln. Some beautiful colors developed. The white smog layer is salts coming out of the vase. The vase also got a lot of smoke from the charcoal put in the kiln.
(Please, click on it for enlargement).

Wood Firing Results

swanica — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 03:02:17 +0000

On Sunday morning, 3 kilns had cooled down enough to open them. Then we had them cool down a little more before taking out the pots. They were still very hot!

Kusakabe-san’s kiln. This part of the chamber had lots of ashes on the pots.

Great pots from the Sasukenei kiln.

Cooling down of Euan’s kiln.

The wonderful results from this kiln.

Opening of Steve’s kiln.

Interesting results form the salt kiln.

Opening and taking out pieces of Flying Kiln.

Nice results from Wali’s kiln.

Wood Fire Salt Kiln

swanica — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 01:24:53 +0000

On Friday, the grounds and leveling for Steve’s salt kiln were being prepared and he started laying out and building his kiln in the pouring rain. He doesn’t use any mortar, so, you can easily take down the kiln.

Building the flues.

Steve built the floor on which the wood and ashes will fall through the holes. Air will pass through the flues and the holes to give full combustion.

Explaining his plan to local potters. They are amazed as we build kiln which fire very fast compared to their kilns with about the same fire effects.

Bars in the fire box for the wood to fall criss-cross to get full combustion.

Closing the fire box.

Building of the second level: the pot chamber and the chimney.

Inside of the chamber.

On Saturday morning, we filled up the kiln.

Steve and Rob fitting and putting the pots in with the help of Kate, Steve’s wife.

The kiln is filled and covered with insulation and extra protection for the rain.

Finishing the chimney.

Euan, Steve and Kusakabe-san.

All this is happening while the other 2 kilns are cooling off. Euan’s kiln finished firing at 1.30am and Kusakabe-san’s kiln at 8am in the morning. Wali’s flying kiln is being build at this moment too (in the next blog).

Starting the fire!

The fire starts well!

Protecting the watch/check holes.

Flames shooting out of the chimney! The firing was done around 8pm Saturday night, and had taken around 6 hours!

His website: http://www.mudslinger.me.uk/

Down Draft Wood Kiln

swanica — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 07:09:22 +0000

Next day, we filled Euan’s kiln, but with all the pots we only filled it half way. So, Euan went home to get some more pots. So, this meant that there was not only bisqued ware (already fired one time and changed from clay into stone), but also greenware (clay never fired before):a “raw” firing. So, we had to go much slower. But we still did the firing in 12 hours.

Euan is happy to fill his new built anagama kiln.

Preparing the pots with tatami straw. This will burn beautiful lines into the pot, because of the high silicium content.

Extra tatami straw on the pots.

The kiln is filled.

Closing the kiln.

The fire starts.

Stoking the kiln at night in the rain while a typhoon was passing through. Luckily, it was far away, so, the winds were not strong, but the rain at times very heavy and it was important to keep the wood dry!

The temperature is already quite hot. I guess around 1000 C.
And the wood is put back all the way in the fire box.

The kiln took 12 hours to fire: reached the temperature of 1300 C and soaking for an hour. Then the cooling down will start.