A camping potter's diary.
Friday
morning: Home. Sunshine. Pack soda. Pack wadding. Pack tent. Pack raku
gloves. Pack food. Spill food over kitchen floor. Burn out vacuum cleaner on
kitchen floor. Curse. Grit teeth. Load car. 8.30 am hit road. 9am blow head
gasket. Car and occupants overheat, physically and metaphorically. 9.10 am
phone break down service. 11 am return home in tow truck. More
curses.
Friday afternoon: Get lift to Bedford (wrong
direction). Pick up hire car. Drive to Jerry's for Potters' Camp. More
sunshine. Get declared expert in salt and soda firing. Previous experience
zero, so restrain ego and snigger under breath. Glaze and slip pots. Promise to
help Susan make alumina wadding pellets to prevent pots sticking in salt and
soda kilns. Break promise. Transport zillions of pots to kilns. Pack new large
oil-fired salt kiln. Marshal torches. Brick up kiln in dark. Warm through
overnight with gas burner. 10.30 pm, eat (thanks, Emma). Relax. Sleep bordering
on coma.
Saturday morning: Sunshine. Get up at 6 am.
The joys of camping. Load soda kiln. Light diesel burners on salt kiln, noting
more reliable vacuum cleaners than at home to provide air flow. Light propane
burners on soda kiln. Wander fruitlessly between kilns tapping pyrometers as
temperature slowly rises. Watch stokers of wood-fired kiln from healthy
distance. Entirely miss Frank's 'creature of the pit' impression. Praise the
gods of propane and diesel that no-one suggested wood-fired salt and soda
firings.
Saturday afternoon: Start salting. 4 kg in
then remove first test ring. Pretty! Drop second test ring in kiln probably to
ruin best pot. Add 1 kg salt and remove third test ring. Stop salting. Soak for
30 minutes. Cool kiln for 30 minutes. Clamp up salt kiln and return to soda
kiln. Spray 2 kg soda in solution in over 45 minutes. Temperature remains
constant, unlike salt which drops with each loading. Remove first soda test
ring. Prettier than the salt! Spray an extra 500 g soda in over next 15
minutes. Struggle to find mysteriously shrinking and hiding test ring. Find
rings two and three stuck together. Still pretty! Soak kiln at 1300 C for 30
minutes. Cool to 1200 C and clamp kiln for night. Meanwhile wood kiln reaches
1300 C in little over four hours. Elsewhere, raku firings ensue.
Saturday evening: Rabble - sorry, esteemed members of EAPA and
guests - arrive for slap-up meal. Hurrah! Burnt out by 11 pm. Sleep like baby -
albeit smoky, hard-hipped, mildly drunk and - shock - sunburnt baby.
Sunday morning: More sunshine. Tap pyrometer gauges to see fall
in temperature - all morning. Pace between one kiln and another in need of
cooling. Watch loading and firing of shard-covered Roman kiln. Resist
exhortations to open salt and soda kilns early. Watch Frank return to unload
pit firing and melt his soles. Excellent results from pit firing with good
pinks and blacks and very little breakage. Admire unloaded wood kiln results.
Good mix of colours and healthy reduction. Lots of smiling faces. Watch
assembly and final throwing of massive pot by Frank. A mere 27 inches tall.
Rein in envy.
Sunday afternoon: Finally open salt
kiln. A few collapses - predictable with more experience. Generally a good
firing, with a range of colours from the slips and proper orange-peel effects.
Open soda kiln. Curses. Two shelves in tatters. Pots stuck to pots. More
curses. Pots stuck to shelves. Pots stuck to kiln. Curse thrice over. Pick out
best pots. Many survived. Colours and firing best of the lot.
Relax.
Lurk indoors watching over overheated Beryl, suffering from
Roman-kiln-induced heat stress. Browse on left overs from slap-up meal. Fail to
fit new super-dooper Jerry-built wheel into tiny shiny new hire car. Curse
again. Victor volunteers to deliver wheel on way home. This despite Victor's
mug being recipient of dropped test ring. Top man. Rains on way home.
Monday: Return hire car. Test new potters' wheel. Interesting.
Better than old one. Advertise old wheel on EAPA web site.
Tuesday-Saturday: Work. Yawn. Play with new wheel. Terrific!
Now realise limitations of old wheel - and small kiln.
Sunday: More sunshine. Return to Jerry's in fixed car. Unpack
Roman kiln. Fascinating colour range from Valentines' red earthenware - from
red through cream to dark grey. Chew the fat. Return home through rain. Await
Potters' Camp 2001 and wonder what I'll be declared an expert in next
year.
Mark Boyd.
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Preparing the Kiln
Ahh.. Fresh air!
Firing Up
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