MARJORIE ROBERT'S KILN IN COURTENAY

- DECISIONS, DECISIONS, or
How to Live Dangerously in the Backyard.

The following is an account of the conception and birth of a

20 cu.ft. 2 burner propane gas downdraft kiln, capable of
reaching cone 10 in 8 hours. Three or four years of potting,
using an electric kiln had gradually sharpened my appreciation
of the fine art of potting as practised by those enviable owners
of kilns producing flame heat.

Avidly I devoured the written words of the master potters,
suffered through their experiments with them, drew pictures
of modest little beehive structures burning wood, which were
described in detail. I even built such a little model, making
clay bricks to shape up the top, with a fire under a grating.
I spent the whole of a happy day squatted beside this adobe
structure in the back yard, poking small sticks in the fire box
and being rewarded with lots of smoke from the vent. The re-
sults of this entertaining pastime were a few tiny pots which
barely reached soft bisk with soot decorations.

The next try was after a very informative summer class. With
the inspired direction of the Instmictor, an 18" brick updraft
kiln was constructed at the beach. The efforts of the class
went into sawing and splitting enough cedar to bring this up to
salt glaze temperature. Relays of firemen cut, split and sto-
ked, and finally salted the fire. Midday lunch was further
enriched with oysters gathered on the spot and roasted in the
excess embers (the pots were successfully glazed too). But
the method left one with great admiration for those hardy
orientals who stoke and fire for three days.

Back home this prompted another backyard effort to do a similar
thing in a downdraft design using cil-soaked wood and a blow-
er from the vacuum cleaner. No go! Too many things against
it, however it did tum out some nice smoked salmon later with
alder wood.

Then along came the BOOK, You know the one [ mean, about
kilns. Then the plotting and planning. Re-read Leach, re-read

a.