bonnie staffel on wed 24 aug 05
Dear Clayarters,
I just sent a photo of my kiln shed for the Alpine gas kiln we purchased.
Check out Clayart Flickr http://www.flickr.com/. My apologies for the
poor quality of this photo, but it was taken in 1952. We purchased an
Alpine updraft gas kiln but since we lived in a rented house, decided to
build the shed so it could be unbolted and taken apart for when we moved.
We built it in the living room in anticipation for its arrival. Went
together like a dream and when we later moved to Maumee, poured a new slab
and put the shed up, Voila, a usable kiln shed. We had natural gas
available in each place. Actually, we moved for the third time for its
final home as we purchased a house on the other end of town, poured another
slab.
We constructed the shed from 2X4's covered with corrugated galvanized
sheeting. The hood over the kiln kept the wood from overheating or starting
a fire. The shed has a large door on the side which you can barely see in
the photograph. It was built to standard metal sheet sizes. Part of the
roof slanted to meet the edge of the hood roof which was all metal. For
winter loading, Bill installed a wooden pallet so I could be above the cold
cement floor. Also installed a baseboard electric heater. We also had a
larger meter installed at the house and had the piping size diameter to fit
the number of bends to get it to the kiln. We attached the kiln shed to the
two car garage where I used part of it to glaze so I could go back and forth
under cover at that point. Otherwise I had to carry my bisque pots up from
the basement at the house to the back of the property to the garage.
Funny story about the garage, we had it built soon after we purchased the
house and parked our car in it once. After that, it became my husband's art
studio as he was working in graphic arts making serigraphs. Then I eased
myself into part of his studio for the glazing. Never used as a garage
again, unless the people who bought our house did. We moved to Charlevoix
in 1969 and fired with electric kilns. I have better photos but where they
are is still a mystery to me as I have thousands. If I come across another,
I will post if there is any interest.
Regards,
Bonnie Staffel
http://webpages.charter.net/bstaffel/
http://vasefinder.com/bstaffelgallery1.html
Charter Member Potters Council
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