Kiln construction

I haven't blogged in a while because I've been away from the internet at our farm/studio in SE Minnesota. There's lots going on there right now. Donovan Palmquist and his crew (Al & Judah) are building a wood fired kiln for me. Very exciting!

I've been watching the progress for several days, photographing every few minutes and today decided it would be good to get out of the way for a while so I'm attending the Lanesboro Iron Pour. Very cool. Photos of both the kiln and the iron pour to follow when I'm able to upload photos from the camera.

Colleen & Donovan's Kiln Opening

Kevin and I had a great time last night at Colleen Riley and Donovan Palmquist's kiln opening. After a 54 hour firing last weekend, they opened the kiln to unload hundreds of great pieces by several fantastic artists.

There was a lot of ooohhing and aaahhing as still too hot to touch pieces were unloaded, inspected and admired.

In this photo Donovan is admiring a piece he just unloaded from the first chamber of the kiln.

Their kiln has two ware chambers. In the first chamber, the flames passing through the chamber on their way through the kiln deposit wood ash on the pottery creating wonderful patterns, surfaces and toasty colors. The second chamber is a soda chamber where a combination of soda ingredients are placed in the chamber at peak temperature. These ingredients vaporize and interact with the clay and glazes to create gorgeous flashing, blushes and glassy surfaces. Here's a peek at the soda chamber before unloading.

It sounds like Donovan is planning to start construction on my kiln in the near future. I've done some wood firing in the past, but fairly infrequently and on a small scale. I'm looking forward to construction of a wood fired kiln at the farm/studio and creating a body of work that is very different from what I've been doing recently. I'm sure I'll still do plenty of Cone 6 oxidation work yet, but it will be wonderful to have this additional resource for a different earthy feeling pot. So... another opportunity to practice my patience. Yah!!

Out with the Old

Happy New Year everybody!

It’s a time of hope for what the New Year could bring and also a time of reflection. How did last year go? What went really well? What made it work? What could be improved? It’s time to close the books (literally and metaphorically) on 2008 and determine our course of action for the promising New Year.

In 2008, I worked harder at being a potter than I ever have in the past. In spite of poor economic conditions, my sales increased and I’ve added several new and valued customers. I started this blog and have found it and my Etsy shop to be valuable and enjoyable communication and sales tools. Some of my sales venues were better than others and I’ve decided I need to evaluate them on an effort vs. reward level for the upcoming year. For the most part, the goals I’d set for 2008 have been met and exceeded and I feel great about that.

My goals for 2009 have been formulating in my head for months. They include fairly typical goals for any small business. Stuff like, continued sales growth both in numbers and dollars, additional sales venues, attending an educational workshop, use of available technologies to make my job easier – the usual stuff. But one of my most anticipated goals is to get a shed and wood-fire kiln built at Old Crow Studio in the bluff country of SE Minnesota. I’ve been planning and saving for a long time and this summer I hope to accomplish this goal with the help of Master Kiln Builder, Donovan Palmquist.

Until construction season arrives here in the frozen north, I’ll pass my time writing blogs, applying to sales venues, updating my Etsy store and keeping my drying shelves well stock with just thrown pottery.

I hope you check back again to see what’s new here and how I’m doing on my 2009 goals.

Happy New Year to you.