Peter and Sam Tomich on sun 16 mar 97
Hello, Eric, and all you clayarters,
I am building a kiln sometime next week using plans in Leon Nigrosh's
book Low-Fire-Other Ways in Clay. This kiln has the shape of an
upside-down T with the two side chambers on the bottom as fire boxes and
a beehive type center. I am using a mixture of gold art fire clay 100
lbs, xxsaggar 20 lbs, red imco grog 50 lbs, vermiculite 24 dry gallons,
very course sand 5 gallon bucket full, coarse sand 5 gallon bucket full,
and dried grass clippings and crushed dry leaves, & maybe I'll throw in
some paper clay. Got this mixture slaked and drying on cloth covered
boards downstairs.
My questions are:
Eric, could you also fax me the design of the kilns they are building
there?
For clayarters in general: what purpose would the shards have in
firing? Where do you put them? I have access to a lot of small
unglazed terracotta flower pots. I would like to use this kiln to fire
pit-fire/ sawdust type of firings. I would place the pots in the center
chamber and surround with sawdust and lay shards to hold the stuff (and
heat) in place. What do you think? too much fire, right? so if I just
use the center part for that type of firing and then pile sticks and
like that on top of the pile, would that be the ticket or still too
much fire?
Does a sawdust firing need less air and fire so that it smothers along?
Can I achieve this by covering with shards?
And, if I sawdust fire, do smoke marks cover designs painted on with
slip? I want some totally black, and I was going to do the terra sig
stuff Vince posted, and other pieces with some color and smoke effects
by wrapping with seaweed and banana peels and throwing on some chems. I
can just throw all this stuff in together? Do I need to make saggars to
put pots in for different effects?
I would also use this as a raku kiln in which I would place a larger
piece in the center and then fire up the side chambers, slowly at first
(I plan to bisque all the pieces first) until it's jammin'. How do I
tell when it's done? What does the glaze surface need to look like when
it's ready for you to pull it out?
The book says they've fired up to ^02.
Eric, do the potters there have any sort of a chimney, or do the sides
go straight up?
Clayarters: Do I need a chimney, or can the sides go straight up (much
better for me to raku)? Can I make a cover with the same clay mixture I
am using for the kiln? The book mentions to keep the fire steady or you
lose the draw... Am I going to make something unfireable because of the
"draw" aspect if I change the kiln shape, size, height, etc? The shape
used in the book is a beehive with the top in a sort of short open
chimney shape with no cover. I want straight sides with a removable
cover, with some hole (size?) as a damper that I can cover, partly
cover, or leave open by covering with more of the same material I am
building the kiln out of.... Will this work? Any better Ideas?
Also, since I don't need this mixture to be very plastic (right? because
I'm not throwing it or anything) can I load in more sand? How much
non-shrinking stuff and opening of the clay body would be too much?
I'll be back with more questions soon! Thanks to anyone who takes the
time to read this and reply. I have posted questions about this before
and got one answer on the materials and went for it. If I get anything
on this - wonderful, if not I'm going to go for it and post my
results.... I hope it's good, I am building it with friends for my
birthday. We are going to fire it up and party, and it would be a
bummer if the whole idea sucked and I wasted all that clay.
Thanks, Sam
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