Firing Log

With this entry, I am inaugurating a wood-fired pottery podcast series with semi-frequent episodes … for definitions of “frequent” where once every 4-6 weeks (or so) is considered “frequent”. Naturally, this series will focus on anagama potters, with a smattering of other types of wood-fired kilns thrown in for good measure.

So without further ado, although you may wish to view the photos of Mike, his kiln, and his pottery below, here is the first (rough around the edges) podcast:

Direct link to file: Kiln Chat — Michael R. Morris (mp3, 36:24, 26mb). Alternatively, you may use this iTunes link to the same file.
Notes:
Michael R. Morris was kind enough to play guinea pig while I figured out how to actually record a podcast, patient while I fumbled about and muttered expletives at my equipment, and a good sport when I informed him that a particularly interesting discussion hadn’t been recorded. Of greater note, although Mike has a Masters in Photography, he has been seriously and irreversibly infected with the pottery bug to such an extent, he built his own anagama in Nescopeck, E. Central Pennsylvania. His work was very recently accepted for display and sale at the Langman Gallery in Willowgrove PA.

Mike is planning to fire again in April of 2007, but he is a bit short handed at present. If you would like to contact him, his email is drippy22ash22pots@yahoo.com (the address is obfuscated to cut back on spam — remove all the numerals “2″ and you’ll have his correct address). This map should help you figure out if you are in his neighborhood. The last thing to note however, is that his computer was recently killed by lightning so it may take him a few days to respond to you.

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I video taped a little during the sixth firing, imported the tape into my laptop, and then let it languish for the last five months. I’ve been wanting to recover the 15gb of hard drive space it took up, and I was finally bored enough to stay up all night, cut it into little bits, and paste together a four minute clip.

You’ll see the anagama being fed, make a tiny steam tornado, and breathe fire. When the fire is pouring out the chimney, it’s like a river of bright water rushing over rapids. I could watch that almost endlessly.

One part may need a little explaining: about midway through the video, and at about the hottest temperature during the firing, I take out a “pull”. A “pull” is a piece specifically made to be pulled from the kiln so that the amount of glaze build-up can be evaluated. Pulls are crucial because the end of the anagama firing is determined by how well the pieces have developed ash glaze. Temperature is obviously a factor, but cones typically flatten out by the end of the first day of the three to four day wood firing period — where cones really fall down, is that they say nothing about the level of glaze build-up. By loading a few pulls, the glaze level can be checked quite thoroughly.

Without further ado, here are links to the video. Note: quicktime format; both are the same content but the 20mb clip is better quality, though a somewhat hefty download. I’d suggest doing a “save as” on the link as it might take five minutes or so even with a broadband connection.

~6mb video clip, really low quality

~20mb video clip, acceptable quality