2 steps forward one step back

Yesterday I realized that my plan for firing this doorway was not going to work as planned. I had loaded the whole kiln with only three posts per shelf. I hind sight this was a bad idea as the corners of the shelves without posts were not sturdy enough. So the whole things was unloaded and reloaded with double the posts. Each shelf now has 6 posts per shelf and is ready to fire. I has been candling since monday morning and will be fired slowly to cone ten tomorrow. If the day is dragging too long then I might only go to cone six. I'll play that by ear.

Last nigh the potters Guild of Hamilton and Region was treated to a presentation by Bruce Cochrane about his career and influences over his tenure as Head of the Ceramics Department at Sheridan College. Bruce is probably one of Canada's best potters. He has been making wonderfully designed and beautifully executed work for over 35 years. He has Retired as of this fall and is now exploring new found time and freedom in a shared studio space in Toronto. Good luck Bruce!

and so it all begins...

After a wonderful summer of friends, family, sun, cottages and not doing a whole lot other than having fun with my wife and son, it is time to work again. It also means time to think and write and grow. This fall I have the pleasure and fear of firing the wonderful doorway which Peter King made with us at the Hamilton Potters Guild workshop in July. It is made on a 1" thick slab of clay and weighed approximately 600 lbs wet! It is all cut into sections and has dried together for the whole summer untouched. It has been lightly sprayed wit a directional coat of rutile and yellow iron. I am now slowly loading it into the gas kiln to fire slowly over several days. I think it might take as many as 4 firings to do the whole thing.

I think my poor shelves will be sighing a big few when this is done. These pieces each weigh about 12 lbs.

This fall also means a busy time at the the new gallery. Allsorts has been coming along really well and we are all looking forward to the fall. The space is looking fantastic and is filling up with wonderful work.

murmers of ideas

I've been struggling with how to talk about the new pots from the last wood firing. I think that it isn't so much that I can't speak about them or don't have an opinion but rather that I have a huge amount to say about them and can't seem to pear it down to a manageable mouthful. Here are a few of the pots and I'll try to be brief. The first is a sweet little tea pot which was one of only a few of my pieces that ended up with a blast of cooling crystals on the fireside face. We crash cooled the kiln for about 20 minutes before starting the reduction cooling cycle. This was probably more an over sight than a mistake as we bunged up the kiln. This produced a crusty crystalline structure on the surface of many of the pots on the fire face of the first shelf.
These are the fireside and leaside of this bottle. Notice how there was lots of bounce back of the flame on the back of the bottle to give the fantastic reduction cooled swirls. These pics don't do the depth of colour in the surface justice. There are reds, yellows greens and blues and mingling together to form a massive amount of surface variation and movement.

old forgotten friends

This weekend melinda, alec and i headed up to the Ottawa valley to see my folks. As all good parents do they keep around the things their children have made. Over the years I have made many things but most proudly displayed seem to be my pots. Many of these I haven't seen or maybe noticed in a long long time. Somehow with the latest wood firing out and all of the pondering I'm doing about surface and direction of my work these pieces spoke to me again. Perhaps it is the full circle I've taken back to wood firing, or maybe just noticing them again but they remind me of why I do this. The simple forms informed by quiet nights of firing with good friends, good wine and good conversation. These all date back ten years to my Sheridan days.

I wonder sometimes about how ideas or notions get into our thinking. I've often wondered how I was drawn so strongly to making pots. Looking around my moms place made me realize that I've always been surrounded by them especially old ones. Here is one of my favorite of her collections, check out the fantastic old Quebec stoneware gallon jug!

unloading

I think this firing will be something that I talk about for a long time. These pots for the first time in a long time make me choose my words carefully. They make me wonder what words to use let a alone use them, and when it come to describing the work solely with words I am left slightly speechless.

Instead of going on about what happened during the opening of the kiln, I think i'll show a few photos and that will speak for itself. The first is the crew unbricking the door and then taking out the remaining ash left in the firebox. The following are in order from front to back stack of the kiln as it came out. I'll post more photo of the pots themselves as I am able to talk about them.


The last is of Cam Fishers large jar which was the top of the last stack. It went in raw and with nothing on the surface.....

and so it ends

well it is suddenly finished! after weeks of prep and a whole week of frantic work and driving, it is all finished. Now we need to wait and contemplate what we have done until friday, when we can see if the labour was worth it.
A quick bit about the firing.
-We started the fire on monday morning at 4:30 am
-small fire for a whole day then a slightly larger one until we were into full on stoking by wed.
-Wed morning we were at about cone 6 in the front and not yet cone 04 in the back
-thurdays' evening / over night we were at cone 11 in the front and 9 in the middle, with six almost down in the back

-by friday at 2 we were at cone eleven in the front and middle and not at 9 yet in the back,so we started side stoking

-friday night we cranked the stoke up a bit and dropped 9 and ten in the back as well as 12 in the front

saturday at 7:30 am we filled the fire box to over full and closed up the kiln and bunged up all the peeps and ports as well as any cracks in the door
we down fired in reduction til I left at 1 pm and were planning on continuing til into the evening

and now we wait.....

who needs sleep...

well the firing has started. Late is better than not happening so life is good!

As I arrived last night at 10 pm for my shift of starting the fire, I noticed that there were people standing in the kiln! My fears were confirmed as I approached through the dark that in fact they were still loading and had two thirds of the front stack still to go. As always I pitched in as much as possible.

By 11, Chris had to go home and Louise went off to sleep as she was to take a shift at 2- 7. They had managed to get one more shelf in by then.

A very tired Cam and I worked hard an had the rest loaded by 3 am. and the fire in the bottom of the chimney going by 3:30.


This left the door to be bricked up which took about another hour.

The fire box was lit by 4:30, I was off to sleep!

I had a lovely wake up call from my son Alec at 7:30 and headed back out to take my shift til 1pm. This morning was breezy and cold, but the farm is looking wonderfully inviting this time of year.

Here's a pic in the door and lets try a video!