Beautiful captures of our time spent with our kiln, Woodrow. Taken by local talent, Joel Smith.
It was wonderful to see our labour through someone else's eyes.
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process - painting our pots with fire and soda
The wood-firing process is a labour of love. Our turnaround time is slow due to the long production cycles, but if we have a “successful” firing the treasures are plenty.
Ryan and I chose a manabigama style wood kiln. It is a medium sized wood kiln which allows the two of us to fire it independently. Once we reach our peak temperature (approx. 1300°C) we introduce soda ash and sodium bicarbonate into our firebox. The soda vaporizes and reacts with the silica in the clay creating a glazed surface. The fly ash from the burning wood settles on our wares as it moves through the chamber. The ash melts and crystallizes creating a natural ash glaze. The flames pass around our pots as they try to escape out the chimney, as they dance around our wares they flash their mark onto the surface of the clay leaving beautiful oranges, reds and browns, depending on the clay body.
The surface results of wood-fired wares is authentic and unique. We take great care in sanding and testing our wares after the firing process. We smooth areas that can be softened and sometimes areas remain rough to the touch. This is the charm and influence of the atmosphere in the kiln. It's what is romantic about our process and as potters we celebrate the birth of each ware in the kiln like a brand new discovery. The beauty and uniqueness to each ware is unparalleled with other firing methods, in our humble opinions.
Each firing yields different success rates and different results. The wood soda fire process is a finely tuned balance between art and science. There are no kiln gods bearing protection or influence over our work. Research into the dynamics of clay bodies, slips, firing techniques and their relationship with one another is how we achieve our results and hone our methods. We fail and we succeed, we fail and succeed. We follow in the foot steps of many before us, we learn from our peers and one day we hope to be able to contribute new knowledge and methods to our clay community.
Ryan and I chose a manabigama style wood kiln. It is a medium sized wood kiln which allows the two of us to fire it independently. Once we reach our peak temperature (approx. 1300°C) we introduce soda ash and sodium bicarbonate into our firebox. The soda vaporizes and reacts with the silica in the clay creating a glazed surface. The fly ash from the burning wood settles on our wares as it moves through the chamber. The ash melts and crystallizes creating a natural ash glaze. The flames pass around our pots as they try to escape out the chimney, as they dance around our wares they flash their mark onto the surface of the clay leaving beautiful oranges, reds and browns, depending on the clay body.
The surface results of wood-fired wares is authentic and unique. We take great care in sanding and testing our wares after the firing process. We smooth areas that can be softened and sometimes areas remain rough to the touch. This is the charm and influence of the atmosphere in the kiln. It's what is romantic about our process and as potters we celebrate the birth of each ware in the kiln like a brand new discovery. The beauty and uniqueness to each ware is unparalleled with other firing methods, in our humble opinions.
Each firing yields different success rates and different results. The wood soda fire process is a finely tuned balance between art and science. There are no kiln gods bearing protection or influence over our work. Research into the dynamics of clay bodies, slips, firing techniques and their relationship with one another is how we achieve our results and hone our methods. We fail and we succeed, we fail and succeed. We follow in the foot steps of many before us, we learn from our peers and one day we hope to be able to contribute new knowledge and methods to our clay community.
PRODUCTION TIME : 5-6 weeks
LOAD-IN: full day.
FIRING DURATION: average 24+ hours.
FUEL: wood.
AMOUNT OF WARES: average 350.
COOL-DOWN: average 5 days.
POST FIRING: average 7 days to sand, test and photograph.
LOAD-IN: full day.
FIRING DURATION: average 24+ hours.
FUEL: wood.
AMOUNT OF WARES: average 350.
COOL-DOWN: average 5 days.
POST FIRING: average 7 days to sand, test and photograph.
from clay to vessel
images by johann munro
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