Monday, October 25, 2010

Kiln Day 7, "Andrew's Day"





The days are getting shorter and the temperature is getting lower. If you're a potter out there, which I'm sure most of you are, you might have a few deadlines looming over your heads.. you might be busy as hell trying to get the last groups of pots made before your own Christmas Sale... especially now that all those galleries you show at have been stuffed with some nice new work. With that said, where can you find the time to work on things like a wood kiln?? In my case, I can't. I had to say "tough doo-doo" to myself and sit at the wheel instead of laying brick. I'm glad I roll with such an awesome crew that really wants to see this kiln done regardless if I'm not there. It's not really a big deal.. these folks are pretty smart. So who took the reigns and got things organized and moving forward?? Andrew Chanania. That's his website..give it a click to see his pots. I've mentioned Andrew before in some previous posts, and he's made quite a few appearances on some of the video, but I never did talk about him. Andrew is a bad ass soccer player. He also makes some damn fine pots too. Not only that... but he's an avid IPA drinker at the local brew house down the street. If there's a number of ways to tell if a guy is alright... just notice what kind of beer he drinks. Other then that Andrew was educated at one of, if not the top school teaching clay (i'm glad he makes pots and not clouds.. yah you know what I'm talkin about!) and then spent a couple of years working with Chris Gustin, who is himself an awesome soccer player- nah just kidding. I don't know if Chris plays soccer..but Chris is a damn good artist and a great mentor. To say the least we're lucky to have Andrew around for sure. Here's what the team accomplished... They layed a few more courses of brick, put down the cement board over the cinder blocks and got the firebox up to the level of the stoking door. yes! Thanks for keeping the ball moving up the field guys.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Kiln Day 6, "The Grates, Blocks and Hole"






We finally made it back up to the kiln site yesterday for the much anticipated Kiln Day 6. What a gorgeous day. Can you believe that the temperature was warm enough to take off the sweatshirt? We’re not going to get many Sunday’s like this anymore…the weather is quickly becoming colder and the possibility of snow looms on us as the days get shorter.

With the added bonus of the sunshine we arrived at the kiln close to 10 am. It had been so long since we all had been up there that it took a bit of time to figure out what the next steps had to be.

We stopped in to see Scott since none of us told him we were planning to work that day. Inside the log house we had a little chat with Scott’s dad who was cozy by the wood stove with his feet up and a cup of coffee in his hands. It was tempting to stay.. but we needed to work on our own wood stove. We gotta get this thing done… Can somebody give me a full week? That’s all I need. There’s just too much stuff happening to really commit the time the kiln needs to get finished by the end of this moth. I think we’re still on schedule to finish up by our prediction of the end of November.

The highlights for this Kiln Day was cutting the bricks for the Grate Bars, which Matt was extremely skilled at, Crista nailed out the cinder blocks perfectly and Scott and Matt started to lay out the site for our soon to be installed outhouse. We’ll be firing in style for sure with a covered place to do our business. No more digging holes for us. We’re livin it up fancy style!

Special thanks and appreciation go out to little Clayton for doing some of the initial wood prep for our first firing!

If I can I’ll post a new video later this week. My sister and I are firing a salt kiln Tuesday and I have some new forms I’m feelin good about.