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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!!