Woodfire Scribblings

Hudson River Gallery Show:

About the December firing and show at Hudson River Gallery, work includes egg jars, cone jars, bowls, vases, tiles, platters, reliquaries and sarcophagus

As you will recall, the December firing was originally planned for late October or November, but things conspired to keep it from happening. Finally the fire was lit in mid December. The weather was cool but nice for firing. It does take a little more wood to get the kiln to 2300 °F, but the key factor is that it allows the person firing to cool off between stokes. Keep in mind that by the end of the firing the radiant heat coming from the open fire door (where the wood is thrown into the kiln) will light your clothes on fire in about 10 seconds. In a summer firing it is impossible to stay cool and is both hard on the body and can lead to poor decisions if things are not going well in the firing.

For years in this part of the country it always seems to be the case that it will rain sometime during a firing. In the winter one counts on snow. About 2/3 of the way through this firing we had freezing rain. About an inch of it. Actually, the freezing rain fell at least 50 feet from the kiln. The heat near the kiln at that point left me standing in the rain for 8 hours. In the distance I could hear trees and limbs falling from the weight of the ice. But I didn't really believe the rain was freezing until the sun came up and I could see it.

Despite being soggy all the way through my clothes, the firing went well and on schedule. The behavior was very much like the previous firing and so I think I now understand the kiln pretty well and can count on getting the front to Cone 12 and the back to Cone 10 (in other words, just right).

The kiln was unloaded a few days before Christmas and then the weather turned gray for a couple of weeks. Since I now use diffused daylight and a digital camera for pictures this meant a delay in getting photos for the web site. As you will observe it was only marginally okay when I finally did get out to take the photos! But I needed to get the work out of the garage and get images on-line for the Hudson River show and so I had to forgo better lighting and the black backdrop.

I will be in the shop working again—soon I hope but I still have bad tendonitis in my elbows :)

I leave you with the statement from the show at Hudson River Gallery and best wishes for 2008!

jek
January 2008

2007 Woodfire Scribblings
2006 Woodfire Scribblings
2005 Woodfire Scribblings