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!!

4 Comments

Patricia Griffin on July 11, 2010 at 11:11 am

Beautiful pieces. And your own wood kiln coming soon. How exciting!
Linda Starr on July 11, 2010 at 12:42 pm

that black and green combo below is beautiful, oh a wood kiln, how super. May I ask where you got your pottery shelves for your booth below? I am looking for some.
Sue Pariseau Pottery on July 11, 2010 at 4:17 pm

Linda – Thanks for visiting and commenting. The display shelves are from Ikea. They can be purchased in three different heights, two different widths and two depths, so they are very versatile. But a little difficult if the location is too unlevel. In that situation, we usually have some shims and stakes/zip ties to keep them in place.
Be well.
Joe and Christy on July 12, 2010 at 2:54 am

pottery does give one plenty of chances to practice patience! looking forward to seeing your wood kiln plans as they evolve, too.

**c

Colleen & Donovan’s Kiln Opening

4 Comments

Cart