I tried very hard not to expect too much as I drove out to Abbotsford for the third time on Saturday. On Tuesday I’d taken my 44 pieces out to Herman Venema’s pottery workshop and together Herman, Dave Dobie and I loaded the big salt kiln. There is no build-up of salt on the inside walls and the shelves and posts were all painted with white refractory coating. I volunteered to make up the salt burritos that evening. Dave and Herman usually use soda, salt and sawdust in their 10 lbs but I persuaded them that for this salt firing we should use just salt. I rolled up 48 x 8 oz (1/2 lb) burritos of road salt and taped them with masking tape. The kiln was lit for an overnight warm-up at 10pm.
On Wednesday saintly Dave drove over to Herman’s (10 mins?) and turned up the burners at 6am. He phoned me before 10am to suggest that I get out very soon as things had heated up quickly. I arrived there at 11am to find that we were approaching cone 8 bending. We decided to start salting right away and as it turned out that was good. At roughly 15 minute intervals we dipped a burrito in water and inserted it into the kiln in 4 spots at a time – 2 lbs. And with removing 12 draw-rings which gradually became more and more glassy we chose to use all the prepared burritos so this firing used 24 lbs of salt. After about fifteen minutes to clear obvious smoking the kiln was turned off at around 2pm. Dave has made careful notes of our procedure. Aaron, he may well get in touch with you to discuss best practices for the damper etc.
We left the kiln to cool until Saturday. That was difficult! I didn’t sleep much those nights for wondering why we didn’t see orange peel on the rings!
10am Saturday I found the kiln open and my kiln buddies anxiously waiting to empty it. Dave and Herman had used a variety of slips on their work and were mainly using this firing as a test. We discovered which ones encourage orange peel and colour and I think they now have lots of ideas – and luckily for me, an interest in firing again soon to put their experience into practice. My pieces were mainly in the middle and back and when they gradually emerged I found myself gratified and pleased with the surfaces. We’ll do some loading differently but on the whole these two experts produced almost completely even heat throughout and almost consistent salting. I think the amount of salt was what I like. Out of all my pieces I may put 6 in for refire to get a bit more melt but otherwise I have an astonishing number of mugs and jugbirds which I consider gallery-worthy. Well worth the wait!
But that teamwork theme.. this sort of firing is something that I know I couldn’t possibly undertake alone. My enthusiasm for the process and results brought me out to this kiln and Herman and Dave, but it is their experience with its loading and firing that completed the project successfully. I really am most grateful for this opportunity and of course hope that you two enjoyed it enough that you’ll want to do it again occasionally, in between all your usual pottery-related obligations. Thank you.
My photos today are of the firing and just a couple of finished work. Al will take some good photos in our photo booth and I’ll post them soon. Dave or Herman, if you have a better photo of all our work as we discussed our results, could you let me have it? Mine is rather blurry.
As we finished the unloading fellow kiln builder Nora Vaillant arrived from Vancouver to see what we’d done. Now I think she will join us when we fire next. She recommends ‘Rod’s Bod’ as a good clay for salt reactions so I’ll get a box to try.
Just as an aside I popped into Vancouver yesterday to deliver some ordered jug birds and other stock to the Gallery of BC Ceramics and Circle Craft. ‘About time Gill!’ was the general thought. I’ll take some of the salty ones in soon but I need to take a little time to note what worked well. While in town I visited the smart craft show ‘Shiny, Fuzzy, Muddy’ at Main street’s Heritage Hall and was happy to have a chance to talk to Liz Burrit and Jenn Demke-Lang from Medicine Hat. They had travelled out for the event and their ceramics fitted well with the demographic of people and work there i.e. young and trendy!
