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COLUMBIA
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Experimenting, Continued from Page 7

USU professor John Neely and a catenary arch kiln. It was was hugely
exciting working with the different clay bodies, glazes and slips and
experimenting with different firing techniques in such a short time
frame.

I had a great time and I found what I was looking for! The train kiln
seemed to be exactly what I needed. Needless to say I came home and
started planning and building my own train right away.

My reference for the project was a plan for an early John Neely train
kiln. This was greatly different from the train design we fired at USU,
which had been redesigned and rebuilt several times. Among other
changes, they had added an arched lift-up lid and a very high firebox
with a sliding door for ease of firing. Because I needed my kiln to be
temporary (remember we are moving!) and I was in a hurry, I opted
for the more primitive design of John’s original plan but I did make the
firebox higher and added the sliding door.

My bricks were a mish-mash from my old salt kiln as well as hand-
me-downs saved over the years. I did mix a castable for the throat
arch and the door. The top of the firebox is a silicon carbide kiln
shelf measuring 26 inches by 28 inches and one inch thick, with fibre
blanket and then castable on top.

My husband, Bob, in addition to being a commercial fisherman is
also a welder and fabricator. With these skills he is a very handy partner
for a potter and, thankfully, he is also very supportive of my projects!
Bob helped me with the levelling of the land, (which first required
moving a herring skiff to make room for the kiln site) and casting of
the arches. He also put a sheet of half-inch steel on top of the cement
blocks before I started laying the floor. The kiln itself is covered in
scrap steel and braced with angle iron. This was done to cover the
mishmash of bricks and make the kiln tighter. Bob designed the door
and a rigging system using a come-along (a winching mechanism) to
move the lid in place.

My lid, as John’s original design called for, is made of kiln shelves.
I turned in the top bricks of the kiln’s body to support the silicon
carbide shelves. These are 28 inches across and sit nicely on a strip of
fibre blanket. I have added a couple of layers of blanket and on top
put stainless steel (actually discarded fish freezer trays!) to protect the
blanket. This has been so effective that I still have some of the original
blanket intact some seven years later!

Living as we do on the ‘wet coast’ of Canada I could only hope for
dry day firings. The obvious next step was the construction of a shelter
over the kiln and work area! Now I can fire year round, with at least
some degree of comfort and the expectation of staying somewhat dry.

I am often lucky enough to have trees from our property to fuel the
fire. ] am a bit of a tree hugger, but when trees decide to die or are
blown over I love to take advantage of the situation. Alder, maple, wild
cherry and cottonwood are my trees of choice.

1 like to fire-down or reduction cool using a clay body high in iron
for the Bizen look.

‘The cottonwood is excellent for this. Cottonwood produces a lot of
ash. For this reason I am often given downed trees that my neighbours
don’t want for their fireplaces or wood stoves. The challenge is dealing
with the size of the tree (often up to 36 inches in diameter), cutting it
into rounds, splitting and storing it until it is dry.

I chose the train style kiln for its size, ease to build and fire and the
possibility of results. My kiln is about 13.5 feet overall length. The
inside stackable space is 27.5 inches by 27.5 inches by 81 inches long.

bE

Asuccessful firing.

It takes me about six hours to load using tumble or totem stacking as
much as possible My firings are usually about 36 to 40 hours from
start up to shut down and require about 2.5 cords of wood. After shut
down, it usually takes two full days for the kiln to cool before I can
begin to unload.

As I mentioned, I like to fire down, and even when not firing for the
Bizen look I will still use this technique by varying the length of time
I reduction cool. I have had great fun and equally good results using
Shino type slips and glazes, building up layers of these for a crusty or
ancient look.

Although my work is functional, my goal is not to make pieces that
duplicate one another but rather to give each piece individuality and
a life of its own. This is a perfect meld with the wood kiln. My work
encompasses sake bottles and cups, plates and bowls, serving dishes,
vases and my favorite forms: lanterns.

Often when I look at my simple train kiln I am reminded of a
strange-looking little kiln I saw on the property at Komei Takeuchi’s
anagama site in Tokoname. It was an old commercial electric kiln with
the elements removed, an opening at one end where a firebox had been
added, and a hole at the other end for the chimney addition. I often
wonder: was this John “se inspiration for the train kiln that I have

come to enjoy so much?

Lynne Johnson /ives in Courtenay, B.C. Her exposure to wood-fired kilns
in the USA and Japan was a stimulus, and with the building of her own
kiln she now enjoys the freedom of fire; it has challenged her and fuelled
her great joy in creativity. Her work is available at the Gallery of BC
Ceramics and the Gallery at Mattick’s Farm, Victoria.

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter - September 2011