What's going on?

Well, after a successful Rufford. The van is unpacked again and I've been preparing the stand for Potfest in the Park at Hutton in the Forest, Cumbira. Due to a bit of rain at Rufford I've had to repaint the whole stand and it's now ready to go. I also sent out some fresh work to the SCA gallery in Shrewsbury. Last week I spent a couple of days (aided by Jo Bird and Steve Parry), getting a firings worth of fuel down to the kiln at Wysing Arts Centre. I'm still aiming to fire this kiln in November some time but haven't fixed a date yet. The priority was to get the wood down there, cross stack and cover it all so that it dries. Steve also gave the inside of the kiln a good clean out. Suprisingly the undergrowth wasn't too rampant and the walnut tree that has been growing behin the kiln (from a sapling when we started), is now huge and covered with what promises to be a bumper crop of nuts. We'll have to come up with some recipes for a bit of kiln cooking in the autumn.

We cheated slightly with the hard wood slats. As it was getting late in the day and we didn't fancy hand balling it all round to the other side of the kiln, we constructed a rather ingenious track out of ladders which allowed us to slide the bundles out of the van and stack them on top of each other. These were then covered with tin. The hard wood slats that I use are so dense that even if a bit of rain gets in it won't make a great deal of difference. So onwards to Potfest in the Park followed the following week by Art in Clay at Hatfield House.

Preparation, preparation.

Only a week to go now until the first show of the summer. Earth and Fire at Rufford country park. I always enjoy showing at Rufford, great atmosphere and beautiful surroundings. I've selected the work and the stand has all been painted and made ready. I'm showing predominantly new work over the summer, that which has come out of the last two firings; using my course clay with shino and titanium ash glaze. I've spent the last couple of days stacking  kiln bricks onto palletts ready to move to the new kiln site. I'll start taking down the old kiln at the end of September and hopefully will have the new kiln built and ready to fire by late Spring. In the mean time I've started planning a firing in the Wysing anagama for November. I'll be getting the wood down there for that firing in July some time.

And they all come to life when we're not looking

So, I think the firing went very well. I was able to unbrick the door on Tuesday evening and we unpacked on Wednesday afternoon. Really good, plenty of heat and reduction (even down the side stoke side of the kiln which can be slightly more oxidised). We had very few losses. A couple of pieces which had moved a little and stuck to others but in the grand scheme of things not much really. I've now had a chance to live with the pots for a while and I'm very pleased with the results. The very course clay which I mixed, flashes wonderfully in all parts of the kiln and receives the fly ash well. The shino glaze which had its first anagama testing on a few pieces in the last firing is great beautiful ice whites with pinks and oranges burning through in places. Works really well with the clay body as well. I still have a bit of grinding left to do just to remove the last traces of wadding and then I shall start to put together my stand for Earth and fire at the end of june. My exhibition at the Galanthus gallery ends this weekend so I'll be off down there soon to collect any unsold work. I'll keep updating as my exhibition stand for the summer takes shape. Whooop! Some pics.

Job done!

Well that's it, another firing done. I've got home and had a great hot bath, washed off the grime of 4 days in the yard, all the nervousness and anxiety from the preparation for the firing is gone and it's time to reflect a little on the firing. It went very well I think, and apart from the appearance of a random 29th birthday party at 2am Sunday morning complete with chocolate cake (which was very good), and Steve and I inadvertantly getting involved in a fashion photo shoot this morning, went very smoothly. We had cone 12 (1300 C (ish), over at the back early on Saturday morning with all the front cones over, bar the cone 15 (1420 C (ish). We ended today with just a  bend on the cone 15. The kiln was pretty relentless and didn't leave us much time for rests between stokes but, looking through the door before we clammed it up this afternoon the contents inside looked very glassy with plenty of runs visible. The kiln responded really well throughout the firing to small adjustments that we made. I still have a slight sadness that this was the last firing, as it has been a great litttle kiln, having said this, after we had clammed the kiln up we went to have a look at the new kiln site. I'm looking forward to buiding and firing it.
A big thanks go out to James for his help with stacking the last of the wood stacks, and Deb for a good days side stoking hardwood slats yesterday. We will be opening the kiln on Wednesday afternoon so now three days of speculation and antisipation.

The team:

Steve resting his back and explaining to James how the barrow should be filled

The kiln reducing just after a large stoke:

and a tantilising view of one of my large vases through the flames

Will post the results after the opening.

The firing is underway!

Well after a 10hr pack yesterday, followed by pizza and wine we bricked up the wicket and lit the fire this morning at about 9am. It has been kept small at the front of the grate until about 3 this afternoon feeding through the lower firemouth, and we are now starting to feed through the upper firemouth as well. The pyrometer which I've stuck in the top blow hole is now reading about 400 C

Fire is building well still have the lower stoke hole open, but filling it with wood to burn down and form a cross hatch with the wood being dropped through the top firemouth. Soon time for supper and heads down for the first night shift. I'll be stoking till 3.30 when Steve will get up to take over. All good so far.

Nearly ready for firing!

It's been pretty hectic over the last couple of weeks. I've delivered all work to galleries and the Ceramics in Charnwood event held in Loughborough town centre on Sunday was a great success with plenty of interested visitors looking over the diverse ceramics on show.
I spent Monday and Tuesday chain sawing wood in the wind. How does so much saw dust end up in my socks??? The yard is now full with another pallet of wood to be cut up on Saturday when there is room. The kiln has been cleaned out and the grate fitted ready for the start of packing. Steve Parry is coming up tomorrow to help with the packing and firing and we will light the kiln on Friday morning and fire through to Sunday evening. This will probably be the last firing of this kiln as I am dismanteling it in the Autmun and rebuilding a slightly larger one. So, a bit sweet and sour, it's a good kiln but I'm striving for more diverse zones in a firing and the new kiln should give me those.

All my work to go into this firing has been glazed. I am using more shino in this firing than I have for a while. I have a couple of large bowls which I am particularly excited about seeing. The new bulbous bottles have my titanium ash glaze applied and I'm looking forward to seeing haow they come out.

I'll be updating this blog through the firing to keep a track of how it's going.

It's been a while but.....................

It's roughly a month now until my next firing. Pretty much all the work has been made and is now bisc and stacked on tables ready for glazing. Just a few more mugs and shot cups to make as well as as some setters for the larger pieces which will be side fired. Most of these pieces will have a shino glaze applied to the interiors. The exteriors will be left naked for the flame and ash to decorate. With all the good weather we have had recently the wood stacks are nice and dry. I'm just hoping that there arn't too  many wasps in there as I've seen quite alot of dozey ones coming out of hibernation looking for a good spot to start a nest. I've been travelling around delivering work to several galleries over the past couple of weeks. The Galanthus Gallery near Hereford have a show on soon and also the SCA gallery in Shrewsbury. I also have to take work to the Beetroot Tree gallery in Derbyshire next week. The following week I am taking part in a local ceramic event in Loughborough town centre, so will need to select the work for that and also dust down my display units. The week after that will be wood cutting in preparation for the firing. I've taken a few pictures of the bisc work stacked high and have also made another "making" video of how I make one of my small course clay jars. Hope you enjoy them.

And the video. This will also be uploaded to the wesite in the near future.