| The Quad War Salt Kiln | ||||
| . | So after the pit kiln was such a success I found myself the next January saying to Dragoslava (one of the Avacalian potters) "We should build a salt kiln - how hard can it be?". Dragoslava, being much wiser then I just smiled and said "I think that would be a great idea why don't you do that." Then she handed me a book on kilns....So in May I found myself buying bricks and reading. The site didn't dry enough until mid June for us to get in there, but eventually the day came and Dragoslava and I went out in a rented truck with a load of bricks and my notes. We built the kiln but realized my plans for the roof involved having to cut the bricks. We managed to get the roof up as a trial using wedges of small stones and such, but decided that it wouldn't do for firing. So I took the bricks for the roof home and spent the next week before Quad War cutting them to size so that the roof would fit. I got them done and to the site the first day of quad.... and promptly realized that the roof pushed the walls of the kiln out to much to be stable. So..... scratch the plans to fire the kiln that weekend - luckily the group that fired the pit kiln helped out. Especially a couple of ladies from BC who's trailer had broken down - they let us use pieces of the trailer to build a brace for the walls. We managed to get the roof up and then the rain came down - and down... and we never managed to fire the kiln. The last year we were supposed to fire and were washed out... I can't wait until this year. Hopefully I'll manage to fire the thing and it will hold. | |||
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Medieval Spanish Luster Kiln. Image from Kilns by Daniel Rhodes |
Rennaisance Italian Kiln. Image from Kilns by Daniel Rhodes |
Open Top Updraft Kiln. Image from Kilns by Daniel Rhodes |
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The Quad War Castle from the Salt Kiln |
Building materials for the kiln |
Dragoslava digging a site for the salt kiln |
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Leveling the first bricks |
The first layers of bricks |
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Me standing in the site of the salt kiln |
First layers |
Setting up the stand for the shelf that separates the fire box from the pottery |
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Measuring the height of the shelf |
Starting to look like a kiln |
The stand for the shelf |
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From the front |
Placing the shelf |
Wooden braces for the roof |
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About the 10th try to make the roof stay |
Using pebbles to wedge the roof so it stays up |
Brick used as center pin |
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Pictures of wood fired salt glazed pottery to come.... | |||
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Pebble Wedge |
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