Treasures at the Scotish Museum,

The Scottish Potters Association arranged a visit to the  National Museums Collection Centre ceramics department of the Museum of Scotland. Stored at two sites in Edinburgh, I was in the group visiting the English, continental and contemporary department in Granton. We were lead upstairs and downstairs, along corridors and through great hangar like rooms full of vast machinery awaiting conservation. Finally reaching one of the rooms which houses the ware. Cupboards lining the walls and in a central block of back to back cupboards which were unlocked as requested and left open for us to handle pieces the like of which I have only ever seen before in books and behind glass. 

 

 

I felt just like the little pot below.

English Medieval lead glazed cup, 4 inches high - I'm in love.

Some of this medieval work is so fine and lightweight. It looks crude and coarsely potted but it's not. It is beautiful in the hand and absolutely fit for purpose. I'm astonished by it.

Watering can, about 18 inches high

Detail of the handle

English 13th -14th century, buff earthenware, lead glaze

 This, above, was the most finely thrown of the pieces which grabbed my attention, with a slightly swollen base.

ditto, with impressed panels of deer, 20 inches high

We tried to work out how this one was constructed. The upper half has fine throwing rings visible, the lower half is distorted, possibly from the impression of the carved panels. There was a difference in texture inside the pot.
It was such a treat to handle these pots. The collections are public and the curators were very insistent that we come back again, that's what they are there for.

Back to Anagama in Cumbria

  Back to Cumbria before I forget too many details.

After 60 hours I had the feeling to stop. Already 20 hours more than the previous firing with cone 10 down at the front after 30 Hours. So we are certain we have achieved much higher and more consistent heat  than before. I would have liked to have seen the results from this point of the firing but we are on a roll. There's still half a ton of wood left (good and dry to start the next firing I argued) but pyromania takes hold and we keep going.

 The wind picks up. Not so good for pizza on the flue, the top won't cook despite the covering kiln shelf.  Two seconds at the open fire mouth sorts that, five seconds and it's carbonised. The wind is in the trees blowing crazily. Little oblongs of light between the bricks at the top of the chimney become bigger, squarer, lower down too. The chimney is listing away from the kiln. Loud harsh cracks from a tree as it starts, in slow motion to snap. It's not offering itself to the firing but seems to want to get away from it. It's the only thing to pull our attention away from the kiln.

The wood is running low, the rain sets in, the chimney looks dangerous. The kiln is as happy as Larry, I have the impression it would continue for another 6 tons and reach higher temperature.   We call time, I'm really a bit scared that the chimney might go, like a giant red hot Jenga.  As we load up the fire box to finish off, the tree finally snaps and twists as it falls across the drive.
72 hours.

Philadelphia Museum of Art craft show.
Where to begin? and how long have we got?
Not a kiln blog this one but the culmination of 6 months of making and firing. I found out in March that I had been selected as one of 25 makers to represent Scotland as the guest country at PMA Craft show in November. Serious stuff when put like that but no matter how insignificant I feel at times this was an opportunity I wasn't going to turn down.
So I worked my socks off in a very unsystematic, head in the sand kind of way. Trying new things with new clay and new techniques, 'throwing' old stuff into the mix and hoping to goodness  that there would be something decent at the end of it. I fired the wood kiln 6 or 7 times in 6 months (too much for one middle aged woman)  in all weathers (mostly wet this year), rakuing whenever panic loomed. With only half my mind focused on it, the raku work grew, thrived and blossomed. The hands know what they are doing. 

The wood firing was a struggle. I loved doing it but wasn't yet loving the results. One or two pieces from each firing would shine and keep me motivated until the next firing. And I had to keep making, not give up, keep optimistic with all those warnings from wood firers ringing in my ears - ' you learn to love brown'   'don't expect the public to to love it'  'you'll smash more on the spoil heap than you'll keep', blah blah blah but how true.
And then from the ashes of the final firing, 2 days before taking the work to Edinburgh for shipping, a piece which rings all my bells and ticks all my boxes and sent a shiver up my spine......

(haven't even got on the plane yet, we'll get there eventually)


 

Firings 16 & 17

I'm writing this in the middle of the 3rd firing since the rebuild.
The first, no. 17 zoomed up to 900 in 7 hours (weather not a factor, overcast and light breeze) then stalled around 1100 for about 4 hours. After 13 hours I managed to coax it up to 1200. Where it stuck for another 2 hours reaching 1240 tops but acheiving cone 9 down.
The results included some lovely carbon trapping in a soda ash glaze I was testing.
For firing 18 I attempted to follow the previous cycle to get the carbon trapping effects again. The weather was breezy from the south west so not too different.
I reduced for an hour at 900 but not a heavy reduction, as the breeze was blowing directly into the firebox. The kiln stalled again between 1120 and 1170 for about 5 hours. Reaching 1218 tops but with cone 9 only just starting to go after16 hours, by which time I was completely gone, so clammed up and headed for a hot bath.
I then had to wait 2 whole weeks on an annoying holiday before I could unpack this kiln. That's the trouble with non potting partners they don't really understand what's the priority. Actually I did prize open the lid for a quick peek just to reassure myself it wasn't a disaster, that would have really spoiled the holiday.


I should mention here the benefits of non-potting partners - coffee, breakfast, lunch, dinner, cups of tea, that magnificent cold, cold beer at 6 o'clock with the kiln at 1200 Centigrade after 13 hours of continuous firing, all brought to me with barely a hint required.

Pots from firing 10

Detail of standing stone

small pebbles and standing stone, dia 10cm

cutlery drainer and dish, ht 11cm

textured dish, dia 31cm

selection of mugs, ht 10cm

Pots from firing no.9

Interior of the kiln from the side

You can see the build up of glaze from the soda on the bricks. The first firing gave them the most beautiful orange blush. I realised that I should protect them with a wash of alumina. I've no idea how long they will last or how viable it is to do this kind of firing in a kiln which has to be unbuilt to unpack.

I used about 500g of soda for this firing which went into the kiln at about 1170 C over half an hour giving the work a light soda glazing on their exterior surfaces.

These are the best pieces from this firing. Each of the pots has a transparent liner glaze on the interior.

Lidded terrine

ht 13cm

width 21cm

Casserole, makes a good coq au vin.

Slightly ovoid,

ht 10cm

width 23cm

Deep oval vessel

soda glazed

ht 15cm

width 20cm

Deep oval vessel

ht 15cm

width 17cm

Jug with no handle

ht 13cm

width 18cm

building the wood fired kiln

A few pictures of the kiln build. May 2009

The base of the kiln. A bed of sand under a layer of common house bricks.

Complete layer of high temperature insulation brick (HTI 26)

First course of HTI’s. Firebox mouth at front. (firebars lying to the right)

Fire bars in place, front and rear bricks cut to form ledges, small pieces of HTI as spacers.

Next 3 courses showing firebox mouth. Extruded hollow kiln shelves forming roof of firebox and floor of ware chamber.

Rear of kiln showing kiln floor, inner wall of chimney supported by cut bricks to form flue.

Position for bag wall (formed from cut kiln shelf balanced on edge).

View from above of chimney being constructed, one brick in depth.

Completed kiln chamber. Pyrometer hole can just be seen in the middle of the penultimate course on the long side.


Kiln shelves forming roof with 2 layers of fibre. End wall has been rebuilt to include loose half brick as spy hole.

I’d just like to point out that all the sunny pictures are from Skye in June!

The next step is to fire it, or read a few more books about it first.