Week 15, Fall 2024

Wood Kiln Post

 ~even tho we unloaded and cleaned up the kiln after this post is due I’m just going to put all my thoughts on it, here~ 

Looking through the old logs I discovered that this was the 6th time I’ve fired that wood kiln. Insane. The false back wall went up for my first firing and hopefully will be taken down before the next. Before IUS I fired a few wood kilns at Morris and understood the basics of the process but truly began to understand and apply my understanding to wood firing with this kiln. I kinda fell into spearheading the process this semester. I’ve always had someone around during the firing who I looked to for direction. (I mean, obviously if we needed  to lean on Brian more we could have) I very quickly realized everyone was looking to me for direction and answers. 

It was a good experience to run the show I guess. Definitely helped that we had a good crew who were familiar with the kiln, wood firing and asked really great questions. But all of a sudden I felt extremely responsible for every piece in that kiln and every direction and every adjustment. It was a pleasure I've never felt before running a kiln, even having fired many students' works (bisque & glaze) and a way less experienced points of my career. And it's not like there was high stakes on this kiln either, like it wasn’t full of some graduating seniors' thesis work, just our work, just to learn. I put all the pressure on myself and I’m not completely sure why. 

There were no major setbacks in the firing itself, sure I could have done some things here or there but compared to other wood fires I’ve been a part of this was fairly straight forward and smooth. And I'm trying this new thing to not dwell on the negative so I don't want to undervalue the joy we had during this firing and the bonding that took place. That's the reason I got the itch to always pursue wood firing if I had the opportunity. Being able to teach folks how it works, while still learning and adjusting my understanding, while actively being on the adrenaline high, and watching the folks I’m guiding actually getting it, was pretty incredible. Having an all fem shut down crew was freaking awesome too. 

The act of unloading was and is always like Christmas morning. Once everything was out of the kiln I just had a sinking feeling that it could have been better. I wanted everything to be bangers and for everyone to be ecstatic. But there's an adjustment period to be had, and hopefully in time folks will love the work or decide to refire them. Most of the work was either class stoneware, or an iron rich clay body so I agree that we could experiment with some lighter bodies and flashing slips next semester. 

I’m excited for some distance from this kiln, excited for the wall to come down, and excited to learn more about this process next semester.