Experimental Wood Kiln Version 01

This post is a documentation of the building of and the dry run firing of my very first wood kiln. This kiln design is not a copy of a design from any book, website, or video as I don’t have enough bricks or the exact materials for the many many examples that I’ve seen.

Instead what I attempted to do was to take what I know and understand at this moment and the materials I currently have on hand and build something that works. I define working at this moment to be that I can build and maintain a fire and that there is a ‘draw’ that brings flames and heat into the ware box.

First dry run of this very small experimental wood kiln fired on November 10, 2020.

What I have on hand are some kiln shelves from the electric kiln that I am converting and a few hundred fire bricks that I picked up from Craigslist during lockdown. The bricks that I have were fired to and rated to withstand 2000 degrees. While these bricks will not withstand the higher temperatures of Cone 10 firings I’m hoping that I can reach at or near Cone 6 temperatures with them. Of course the kiln design will need modifications and insulation to reach those temps.

Whenever I take on a project like this I always try to involve the boys - and take advantage of their energy and muscles.

Joseph helping to make a smoothe but not necessarily level spot to build on.

I do not plan on building any permanent structures in our current location therefore I am not taking the time to dig and level a foundation for now. I plan to take my knowledge to our property in Appalachia where it makes more sense to make that investment. I’ll be able to take up the bricks and rake up evidence of our work before our house goes on the market.

Below is the foundation level of my design.

In my research one issue many first time kiln builders had was that they made their fire box too small.

As you can see here the fire box is fairly generous compared to the size of the ware box. I made the fire box large enough to slide in the wood grate from our stove but narrow enough to be covered by my kiln shelves. I will have room and bricks to make it even larger at a later date. Another issue that many people had in their first kiln designs is that there was not enough draw to bring heat into the ware box and and not enough air in the firebox to keep it burning.

Another issue I’ve seen especially in very small kilns is that things heat too quickly and there’s no way to control the ramp up of heat. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to do that with my design either but I’ve taken a stab at it. From this side view you can see that I left two small gaps in the sides of the firebox to increase airflow. Because of the wider base I can easily place bricks on the sides to cover or partially close these gaps. My hope is that I can control the size of my flames and speed of the burn with these slots.

You can see from this side view that I left two small gaps on each side of the firebox.

I did not take the time to build a chimney on this kiln. My ware box is small and I made it only tall enough for the small pieces that I’ll be test firing in it. Instead I placed bricks at a 90 degree angle. These bricks can be removed to add trash or soda or to open up like a damper. I left this one gap open - this is the main source of air for the draw in my kiln. I have the ability to stand or lay a brick on these steps to completely close or partially cover this opening. In effect it’s a very simple damper.

You can see from the back design of my kiln how I tried to use my lack of half bricks to my advantage.

Because I built without a plan I had to respond to design problems on the fly. There was a gap between the top of my firebox and my ware box. I decided rather than tearing down and redesigning to instead turn two bricks on their sides to cover the hole. I’ll keep this issue in mind when I do the next build and think ahead about how to approach this flaw in my design.

I’m including this photo to show how my kiln was designed ‘on the fly’ so to speak.

Closing the gap.

I was surprised by how easy this kiln was to stay lit and draw. The ware box heated up nicely. I have a new pyrometer that I’ll be figuring out how to put together and use today. When I fire I’ll also be placing cones in my ware box to help me know just how high of a temperature I can achieve with this simple design.

Here you can see the flames moving into the ware box.

There are a three simple things that I know will improve even this simple design. The first is adding insulation. If I elevate the kiln off the ground on cinderblocks that will provide some help with loss of heat to the ground. Even better would be to put a layer of soft brick between the hard brick and the cinderblock. I think I have enough soft brick to insulate the bottom of a small ware box.

The second is sealing the cracks between the bricks on the ware box. I could add a layer of ceramic insulation to the lid and or sides or just use some waste clay.

The last is to choose my fuel carefully. Using a dry wood with a high heat value would work better than just burning what limbs and such are laying on the ground. I’ve saved a few scraps from our wood shop but a visit to a saw mill would be better.

Today I am going to learn to use my pyrometer and make an experimental wadding using waste clay, coarse sand and fine sawdust. I’ll update here with my results when I’m able to do a complete firing.

Beginning Anew

There is no way to begin again except to write the first word and post a new picture.

First, I’m just going to show you a picture of something that I worked on today and then in some later post I’ll try and explain more about what has happened in between the freelance graphic design and illustration work you see on my website and the work in this photograph:

Small Story Jugs – Rattlesnake Series 01

The decorations on these jugs were drawn from a previous sketch piece:

A sketch cylinder depicting a cobalt decoration and matte glaze in the style of early American crockery.

I really like the repetition in this cylinder between the fruit tree and the evergreen tree and how they fill the space on the cylinder. I am also trying to be conscious of my studies of Walter Anderson and his design work as I paint. When I first saw his ink sketches in his museum in Ocean Springs, Mississippi I was so drawn to his use of near symmetry.

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To the right are some close up pictures of the snakes in this series. I like that they are connected but not tied together – the jugs can be rearranged and the story shifts slightly:

I purchased new brushes after completing my sketches but I still need a lot of practice painting on a curved surface. These are all done freehand with no sketching but I also I need more practice controlling the movement of my brush right to left.

In the jugs I focused solely on the evergreen form. As I paint I am trying to communicate the shape and feeling of our native hemlocks whos majesty we have have almost entirely lost in the last decade.

As for the jug forms themselves I really like the shapes that I achieved and am especially happy with the necks and rims. I trimmed the feet on the wheel and rolled the foot to create just a slight shadow as the jug sits on the surface.

I still have much practice to perfect handle pulling. These handles were first attached to the jug and then pulled. A couple I redid – one more than once. I like leaving finger marks.

I will be exploring these little vignettes further in work to come.

Applying for BFA In Ceramics

In January I decided to return to university to complete my degree. The boys are older, we are planning a move back to the mountains, I really didn’t have that much course work left to complete, and I decided that if I was going to finish I should just do it.

Yeah, 2020 was the perfect year to turn my life and our homeschool upside down to try and finish my degree…

I eased myself in during Spring semester with only two classes - a Liberal Studies general ed requirement and a Digital Media Design class. Maybe I’ll share more about my coursework and experience with those classes some other time. Enter in the worldwide pandemic and all classes moved online. We had to rearrange the entire household to give my husband an office with the door and get everyone online for school, music lessons, etc. Turmoil…

I had hope that we would be back on campus for the summer. I had planned an independent study in Ceramics to help me get my bearings again with clay before beginning projects classes– it had been almost 20 years! Like most of our plans for this year they were just washed away. There was a smaller class offered remotely this summer called Topics in Ceramics. It was a lovely little class with several fun projects. Also during the summer the boys and I dug and processed clay from our creek and drove to Virginia to buy a kick wheel. I’ll tell you all about each of them in turn some other time.

This Fall Semester I have been attempting to carry out the Independent Study that I had planned for the summer. Enter a huge tree falling on our house knocking a hole in the boys bedroom during Jae Emerling’s lecture on Surrealism. Just when I was getting the insurance stuff sorted out with that disaster I was rear-ended on the way home from a photography workshop sponsored by Atkins Library. It totaled my car, gave me whiplash and gave me a second baptism of insurance paperwork, phone calls and emails. And of course this happened during the two weeks I had set aside to put together my portfolio slideshow for my BFA review. I pulled it together but just barely! You can take a look at the slideshow here:

BFA in Ceramics Presentation

I’m now digging deep and pressing forward to complete as much work as I can for my Independent Study. I set up a smorgasbord of things to play around with during this semester. In some ways it is very much akin to a sampler quilt. I’m gathering together as many techniques and ideas as I can to give me things to pull from in upcoming projects and thesis classes.