Kiln update

I'm slowly starting to change gears, leaving projects in the house behind. To be finished after the firing. I'm always slow to change gears like this. I started today with a little kiln work. The kiln shelves are still propped up against the kiln, uncleaned. Today was a beautiful day, so it seemed like as good a time as any to start getting the kiln ready for the next firing.
I thought I might also take this opportunity to share how the kiln has fared its first two firings. For the most part I'm quite thrilled. The side walls of the second and third chamber don't seem to have moved at all, the stucco is holding steady, we still need some more bagwall adjusting, but the kiln has been very responsive during the firings. Of course this is the first kiln Christy and I can really call our own, so I imagine even if the kiln looked like it was liable to fall over in a year or two we would be pleased just to own our own kiln.
I'm particularly pleased with our dampers:

I had never worked with dampers on pulleys before, and I have to say I really like them. Also as a bonus, the 1/4" steel has not warped at all. I had used 1/2" steel in kilns in NC, and I wasn't sure if the dampers would warp being so thin. They were half the price though, so we gave it a shot. It seems like a good choice so far.
The second iteration of the stoke hole plugs are also doing great. I think that the first time around they simply were too fine grained. This time, they didn't warp at all during drying, so they fit quite nicely, and seemed to stay snug, and draft free. I'm pretty pleased with that.

And just as nice is that they didn't show any signs of cracking due to thermal shock like the first ones did.
Yeah!!


That leaves us with the 'not so good' news:
When we got our bricks we took everything we pulled off of the old kilns. We then sorted it out into near perfect bricks, decent bricks, so on and so forth. We put all the best bricks in the first chamber, the next best in the second chamber, on back, putting the real junkers in the chimney. Unfortunately it looks like some of the bricks in the third chamber might have been better off in the chimney. As you can see they are starting to foam up around the firebox. Not a huge deal though. After another couple of firings we'll grind/chisel them out as best we can. Maybe ram some castable in there if they need it.
The most perplexing problem though is the first chamber entrance. The arch is notched in around the entrance which we thought would keep the entrance arch from moving during the firing. It hasn't really worked though. Quite a good size gap opens up during the firings. I don't think it's leaking much air, but it looks kind of bad while you are firing. Unfortunately though we made the mistake of filling the gap in after we finished firing the first chamber and were moving onto the second chamber. Of course filling this gap stopped everything from shrinking back down to where it was before the firing started...
It's not that easy to see from the picture, as most of the fill is still in there. You can see on the gap on the right hand side of the entrance though. I'm not quite sure what to do about this one...
The chamber arch is still sitting firmly on the door arch though, so it's not a major issue in the immediate future. It certainly seems like it could become an issue over the years though. Obviously I'll refrain in the future from cramming the gap full of clay and sand. Maybe if it looks like it's leaking air during the firing I can try and seal it up with newspaper dipped in slip. We'll see, as always I'm open to suggestions.
Joe

What's Been Troubling the Cats

This fellow. And all of his family and friends, it seems! We have been going through startling amounts of cat food lately, and last week I surprised a rapacious family of raccoons in the barn after dark. They had pried the lid off of the cat food, and were helping themselves. When I was little, I thought it was really cool that raccoons wash their hands before eating, but, as it turns out, that fact is less swell when they are using your cat water bowl as the sink.

So, we turned to our friends Stas' and Jane, who are always a little more prepared, tool-wise, for country life than we are. They are also incredibly warm and generous, and grow wonderful produce on their farm. We borrowed a trap and a gun, and have caught coons each of the last three nights. As you may have guessed, Joe has to do the shooting. Unfortunately, once they have been caught, they drop the menacing act (Miss Priss seems to enjoy marching around the cage in a slightly inappropriate display of pride, given the circumstances!) and put on cute and intelligent faces. Such is the country life.

Winks the Cat has been missing for two weeks. We are hoping that the raccoons intimidated him into leaving, and that he will be back when the coast is clear. That is probably wishful thinking, though. We miss him around the homestead. Such is country life, too.

Christy

gearing up for round three

The clay is already for firing number 3. Christy made the first pots of the cycle this afternoon.

Christy continues her thankless job of earning the money to keep us going, pretty much full time between two different jobs. She is starting to make pots now in her "off" time. I'm going to continue working on the house for at least one more week. After which I'll switch over to making pots full time until our firing in the beginning of July.
We pull our clay up from outside as soon as it's not too sticky. We then bring it in and put it up in arches to let it dry slowly in our humid studio. This seems to give us reasonably consistent clay. Here's what 750lbs of dry material looks like after it becomes workable clay:
Out of curiosity does anybody know a good rule of thumb for how much workable clay you can expect to get out of.... say 750lbs of dry material? I didn't have the gumption to weight it all out.
New for this firing is our clay box:

We had used Rubbermaid containers for the first firings, but they weren't up to handling all the weight. We got this crate from Kohler when we picked up our shelves last year. Seems like a good use for it.
Joe

Open for business

Well we are officially open for business. Our local construction crew came out this week and back filled around our house with special care to back fill around our porch as well! After which we got the nod of approval from our local inspector. We also got the construction guys to bring two loads of gravel in. One load they spread out for a parking lot. The other we used for a walkway.


The walkway was a bit more work than I would have guessed. We ended up digging out about four inches, where the walkway was going to go. I'm pretty pleased with it though. I imagine customers will appreciate not having to tromp through the dirt and mud (though hopefully the dirt will become grass eventually). The path also makes it much more clear which entrance is the gallery.

Now all we have to do is find some shoppers to fill up that parking lot! Memorial Day weekend ... come on out.
Joe

We're back...and a little Gallery Humor

A week doesn't seem long in the "real world," but it is an eternity in blog time! We had a nice visit with Joe's Mom's side of the family in South Dakota, but it feels good to be back on the homestead.

And it feels really good to...wait for it...take a hot shower! and flush! Thanks, plumbers! In Wisconsin, one cannot do one's own plumbing, especially if one is under the careful gaze of a well-meaning township inspector. Why the state feels as though plumbing is dangerous to the amateur, but wiring is not is any one's guess. It's nice, though, to have someone experienced fly through a complicated project and simply reap the rewards (and, of course, shell out some dough!)

In totally unrelated news, we stopped at a gallery across the river in Iowa last week to pick up some of our pots. It's a nice little gallery, well-lit and not too cluttered, and we were initially excited to have some of our work there. The owners, however, snobbed us from the start, criticizing a bowl that got a beautiful firing as having too much of that "wood fired look," and a tea box made from 1/4 inch slabs as "too heavy," among other glaring flaws. In spite of their criticism, though, they wanted a dozen or so of our pots, which we handed over with gritted-teeth smiles, and most of which they sold before letting us know they no longer wanted to carry our work.

We stopped in last week to pick them up, and as we were on our way out, the owner told us to feel free to bring our pots back for inspection when we have "progressed." Zing! This place is not exactly the Freer Gallery--most of the pots they have for sale are underwhelming shapes bedazzled with bedazzling glaze swoops and swirls. I wanted in the WORST WAY to point out to her that what we have going on is a difference in taste (hers being not so great, ours being very good, of course!), and that our lack of fantastical colors and/or fancy glaze effects does not imply a quality problem. If we wanted to make bright blue pots, we would. We just happen to be going for "that wood fired look." But in the interest of civility, I kept my mouth shut. We walked quietly outside with our box of rejects, and got our laughs in on the sidewalk. Yes, we will most certainly be back there just as soon as we have "progressed" beyond using local glaze materials and wood-firing.

In other unrelated news, the Fall Art Tour website has been updated for 2009. We are really looking forward to participating. Check it out here!

Christy

Slow progress

Everything seems to be moving along, slowly but surely. The stairs going into the basement are all finished along with the floor of what will be the mudroom. Thanks to Brandon, for the carpentry advice, although by the time I asked him some of the damage was already done. So any ugly carpenty work... it's mine. Here are a couple of pics:





We're hiring a carpenter to help us with the actual framing of the mudroom. He seems very nice, and said we are welcome to help him, and do some work on our own on the weekends/evening. I'm pretty excited about it, it should go pretty quick and I won't ever have to worry if I doing something I'll regret later.
Christy and I are off now to go to a funeral in South Dakota. We'll be back Monday. Have a good weekend.
Joe

Back to the ol' summer home

We with summer on the way we packed our bags and left our winter home. It's nice to be back on the property, in our summer home. The camper does lack certain amenities, like a hot water heater, but it's pretty cozy for the most part. It's certainly nice to have a kitchen again. When the temperature starts dropping again this fall we hope to be moved into our newly renovated house. I can hardly wait to have a house! The plumbers came yesterday and they are going to start getting everything ready next week. Things are moving along nicely.


Joe

*#$%# code

The entrance to the gallery is all finished:I used all old wood that I pulled off of another old porch to try and keep it all looking uniform-ish. Unfortunately we are not technically supposed to be open until we pass inspection. Which I just found out we don't. However if any of you happen to be in the area and want to check out some pots... who are we to turn you away?
According to code this section of our porch is a real danger to the public:
Apparently with the height that the porch is, our railing should be 2" taller and the vertical pieces need to be 4" on center (ours are around 12" on center). A real death trap. I try not to get annoyed at our code man as he's really a nice guy, and just doing his job, but today was a little bit of a challenge. Luckily we need to back fill around the house a little more, so we'll just back fill around the porch as well, to prevent people from falling from such great heights. According to code, about 10" of dirt should be good... go figure.
Up next:

Stairs in to the basement! Should be fun. I always fluctuate between loving all of this, and kind of wishing we had the money to pay somebody else who knew what they were doing to do all the work so we could just make pots. I love it when the sawdust is flying, and I really wish we had somebody who knew what they were doing when I'm standing there at the hardware store trying to figure out how everything fits together. Definitely a learning experience.
Joe

Open!

Well, but for the technicality of an unfinished set of stairs, which we will finish and have inspected tomorrow. Our first customers today were more than happy to climb the concrete blocks leading towards the porch. It was great to have customers--total stranger customers!--on our first weekend.





We have just enough pots to fill the new shelves, so it looks like another firing will be in order within the next month or two. Joe has been pulling up our home-mixed clay as it dries, so hopefully the next firing will not be a bloating disaster. And for the record, Poached Eggs blew past the other hideous contestants to dominate the Bloat Contest.