mel jacobson on thu 11 nov 99
one of the great thrills of the wood fired kiln conference was seeing
the new kilns that fred olson has built and is planning on building.
in so many ways he has turned to sculpture as his building style...
the kilns are so nice to look at, and we assume they fire well.
the slides showed a kiln that he built in, i think, denmark...it is in a city,
urban area....and it looks like a frank geary building...domes, and arches
all covered with castable....so the final kiln looks like a series of eskimo
igloo's. they a have a common stack. very interesting....very.
looking at some of his drawings leads me to believethat he is not stuck
on old concepts....we are so lucky to have fred, nils and people like
john neeley...working on ideas, then sharing them with the world.
it was also very fun to be with nils and fred, and listen to those two guys
share information and ideas. they are such good friends.
one of the things that i truly believe, is that we are just at the early stages
of developing new and wonderful kilns, that really are fuel efficient, make
better pots, and are easy to use. the concept of multi fuel kilns, combining
the best resources, such as electric heat up, and light reduction with gas
near the end is very exciting.
potters have to be able to use the new technology of industry and not sit
on years, perhaps even centuries of old information, and think, `hey martha,
i don't want to get involved with any of those `new fangled contraption kilns`,
just going to keep firing that old arch hard brick kiln forever, who cares
if it takes
three days and uses 500 gallons of propane, it sorta works.`
it always amazes me how people can work for years on glaze research, look and
scour the net, books, anyplace, just to get a new glaze idea.
then fire in an awful, inconsistent, poorly insulated kiln.
glazes are most often changed most by firing...so why fire all of those
experiments in a bad kiln?...does not make sense. what information has
one gathered? none.
the complete pot is that wonderful combination of fire, glass and clay.
look at all of them, research all of them, then the product will be yours,
and yours alone. one to be proud of.
mel/mn
http://www.pclink.com/melpots
written from the farm in wisconsin
clennell on fri 12 nov 99
.
>
>in so many ways he has turned to sculpture as his building style...
>the kilns are so nice to look at, and we assume they fire well.
>
>the slides showed a kiln that he built in, i think, denmark...it is in a city,
>urban area....and it looks like a frank geary building...domes, and arches
>all covered with castable....so the final kiln looks like a series of eskimo
>igloo's. they a have a common stack. very interesting....very.
>
dear Mel: wouldn't you know it. I have to coutnter what you say. the kiln
of which you speak is yes in the land of the Canucks. Fred built it at the
Alberta Potters Conference in Edmonton, Alberta. CehNehDeh spells Canada.
For inovation look to the north pole. I think he called it a Hog agama.
Richard Selfridge will fill us in.
cheers,
Tony
Tony and Sheila Clennell
Sour Cherry Pottery
4545 King St.
Beamsville, On. L0R 1B1
http://WWW.SOURCHERRYPOTTERY.COM
e-mail:clennell@bestnet.org
905-563-9362
fax 905-563-9383
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