Wood Firing Kiln Project 1998

9/20/98

In 1993, I built a smaller soft brick

version of the kiln as my MFA thesis research.

As expected, the kiln is economical and

efficient to fire.

In researching the project, Paul

Soldner and Phil Cornelius wrote to me

agreeing with Fred Olsen's assertion that

an efficiently designed small scaled fast

firing kiln fires from "dead cold to cone

11 in less than 4 hours."

But why do it? As Soldner said,

fast firing wood kilns are "so fast,

so clean and so lean, they don't leave any

aesthetic qualities...because of short

firing cycle and very little ash build up."

My thinking was that if I could fire

it fast then by adjusting the fuel and

air,I could fire it slowly. By raking the

coals frequently, a good amount of ash is

deposited on the wares and heavily fluxed

woodash glazes are achieved.

The results of the kiln encouraged

me to build the larger hardbrick version.

After two exciting firings of the new kiln,

I am figuring it out and beginning to

explore its potential.