a norfolk firing

on sunday I fired my gas kiln at home – it seemed very easy after all that wood-firing.

a misty and bedewed early morning in the garden. after three days I found the temperature in the kiln down to 57C.

I had glazed four big bottles with the Carlos Versluys dry ash glaze, hoping for the same results as last time. I was a little taken aback on opening the kiln, that they looked more stony and dry than I had hoped for.

but one’s preconceptions are usually wrong;

what one hopes for isn’t necessarily the best outcome;

because the real outcome is something that one didn’t know about before.

and in fact this feels like the best firing in a long time.

the stoniness has warmth and allows the form and the very minimal decoration full strength.

there is that feeling of age and character,

four dominant figures, almost intimidating.

then a half-pint. it shows clearly where there is more reduction, especially of the clay body.

on the next firing I am going to try reducing earlier, to see if the hotter parts of the kiln in the middle are missing out on a below 1000C reduction that will reduce these iron-bearing clays.

the wild card was this clematis-impressed bottle, over which I poured and dribbled black iron oxide, and then glazed with pourings of my green/orange/black dolomite glaze. I’m very pleased with it. it was below the half pint, and the flame and reduction have had varying effects on it

which I think are rather good. the speckled clay has worked well too. it reminds me a little of cave paintings.

so now another firing with three more of the big bottles and a few other pieces, and trying a slightly different firing pattern.

meanwhile, the four bad guys are off to London with Ed Clark, to be shown with William Turnbull, Sandra Blow, and other luminaries of British Abstraction, at Rowntree Clark’s stand at 20/21 British Art Fair, in the Royal College of Art. let’s hope they hold up a few customers and mug them.

here is the dropbox link for formal photos