Anagama 2012

Old kiln yard MWPAI

New kiln yard PrattMWP

We finally fired the anagama after a week delay due to my lack of organizing energy. The firing was a long one, too long for my liking, a sure sign of age. We started on Thursday evening with Amber and Eric (sophomores in my intro Ceramics Sculpture class- the best I have ever had!) taking the night shift. They are quick studies and hit the target temperatures beautifully.  By morning the kiln was ready for the next shift. The firing proceeded through the next 36 hours, firing off Saturday evening. Although the students thought it was a good firing I have different thoughts and will toss them about in the next post.

As a result of the firing, I made some changes to the kiln floor and the stacking scheme for the next firing. My reasoning will be laid out as well.

I just read a piece from the NCECA conference, a panel discussion on soda firing. I am amazed at the differing approaches and technical knowledge sited for various results. Any technical information stated is always helpful. No matter how experienced a potter it is always good to hear this information from others to compare and contrast notions. It would take far too many lifetimes to acquire true expertise alone. Ceramics is too broad and deep a medium.

But the information can sometimes, at quick glance, seem contradictory. The reason lies in the many, many variables found in each technique or process; variables that are too often, for brevity, left out, something of which we all need to be mindful.

Any technique passed on to another is just show and tell, regardless of who is showing and telling. All techniques need to be understood intrinsically, and as a result, applicable under various conditions. One needs to understand process in a broad manner. Firing a kiln is the best example. Simple put, all techniques need to become yours, no matter how traditional or modern they appear. This takes time and attention. In the end, the technique will become yours for your needs and materials. That is the goal.

Spring 2012 Anagama Firing

Soy bottle and tray; wood fired by Bryan McGrath

We are planning the spring wood firing for the week of April 16th. We will prep and load the 17th - 19th and begin the firing sometime on the 19th. We are looking for a good 48 hour firing (+ or -) to be fired off on the evening of the 21st. It will be a combination of sophomore work (sculpture/design class) and continuing education student work.

Our anagama is one of only four operating wood burning kilns in central New York State. There may be a total of 12 in the entire state, so we are in exclusive company. Our design is unique for its hidden chamber between the main chamber and the stack. We are planning to experiment with a mid temperature clay in that chamber with the possible addition of some salt.

No, this image isn't from this winter!

If you are in the area the best day to stop by is the evening of April 21st as we fire the kiln off.  Quite a site!

Fall 2011

For those new to this post and especially those just starting to throw (my sophomores and Cont. Ed. students, I would suggest you go to the earlier posts on centering, and throwing a cylinder. I will be posting some videos this semester as we get them produced. Looking forward to the year.

You might want to visit the Everson Museum in Syracuse very soon to see the David MacDonald exhibition. It comes down mid September. Seeing his pottery is worth the trip! While you are there go downstairs to view the permanent ceramic collection.

The once preeminent museum for American ceramics, I hope the recent clay exhibits (Ah Leon's "School Room" last spring and now David's) portend a return to the Everson's focus and support of the ceramic arts.

Rethinking the future

We will be looking at our offerings and possible workshop topics for the new year.  Stay tuned...

Turn, Turn, Turn

Most of us have a keen sense of the "present" and it's surroundings. We are programmed or taught to respond to the needs of the moment. In the present, we make adjustments in order to reach some predetermined goal or recall some unpleasant experience to avoid impending disaster.

We (anointed "leaders" excluded herein- their blinders a spoil of rank, so it seems) are also innately geared to grow stuff, the default setting for survival. The present in its full context (modern physics aside here, please) is a bridge from the past to the future. Without this sufficient (but not always necessary) structure for reasoning we are on a treadmill, not a path, with history too often repeated, progress stifled, and a pace toward entropy ramped.

the circle

We also have the mental tools to soften the rough edges of history, to help maintain our heading toward the future and progress. We acknowledge that growth and decline is the essence of life. It also gives it value and meaning.

Every season, every idea, every mark is infused with and defined by ineluctable movement. In some cases that movement, if drawn as a line, may well follow a "straight" course, a beginning to an end. Or it may return to meet itself in the gentlest way realizing the archetypical circle, the best of possibilities. Unfortunately, in the long run, the latter is hostage to the former.

The notion of a team- a complimentary, non-hierarchical concept is the most efficient, healthy path to growth. A team, however, is the most difficult model to "manage" as each member must choose a time to lead, a time to follow, a time to teach, a time to learn. It requires that the whole be greater than the parts, with each part remaining essential to the whole. It has many leaders, not one.

In our given time, we can at best hope to describe and move in a line that returns to itself, creating a shape that is a whole; a space that has a center. And though the edges of that shape may not always be fair, the space within is forever defined.

anagama update

9:47 pm- things are going smoothly.  Nearing 1500˚ F in the back. Pizza and wings just arrived.  Very hungry after the long day and a trip to the gym.  We have split most of the "new" wood to smaller sticks.  The midnight shift will have some markers to make; it is a good crew, so I am not worried...

Follow up:

We finished the firing around 6:00 pm the following evening.  Actually, we fired it off twice.  We reached ∆ 9 in the back of the chamber around 1:00 pm Saturday.  Since the school was having a reception for new students, we kept a light stoking pattern to "show off" the firing, but lost considerable heat in the process.  At 3:00 pm we decided to go for it again.  With steady work and damper adjustments, we were able to regain the lost heat to bring the firing to an end.  We completed the evening by firing off the salt kiln.

Then to the beer, chips and laughs "around the camp fire." A great week and a great finish to a harried, sometimes very frustrating semester, and a physically and mentally exhausting year.

It has been a great run...

Firing the Anagama

After a long winter's wait, we have finally loaded the wood kiln. We started the firing this am at 6:00 am.  Vincent was the man. The word is that he couldn't find matches so he carried a flaming piece of wood through the studio that he ignited from one of the burners on the car kiln.  We decided this Olympic style run to ignition was something only Vincent could pull off.  Wish we had video.

It is 1:30 pm and we are at about 950˚ F in the rear of the chamber.  Will keep posting and set up some images.