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Today I have been in Zurich, a train hour from where I live, at the studio of a Swiss ceramist friend of mine: Stefan Jakob.

 

He is the developer of a raku kiln, made out of a trash bin (see pic below). He’s giving workshops all over the world, showing interested people how to build such a kiln from scratch. The kilns are fired with a shoebox full of wood sticks and you can reach bisque- and low fire temps in as less as ¾ hours! We discussed the reaction of ceramists when they see the kiln in action. And we discovered, that ceramists, most of the time, are curious people and open to try something new. I myself own such a trash bin kiln and fire it regularly in my studio in Italy, and I’m very content with the result.

 

How about you? Would you try out firing your smaller work in such a simple “kilnâ€, or are you skeptical and rather stay with your gas or electric kiln?

 

Evelyne 

post-6433-0-75869200-1435680205_thumb.jpg

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I would try one if i lived in a different area,  I would have to get permission from the fire department every time I wanted to use it.  Last year we were in no burning restrictions for 6 months between the drought and wind.  We had rain this spring so no major grass fires but we haven't had rain for a month now and the prairie grass is getting dry. It would be interesting to see one, perhaps he could be at NCECA in Kansas City.     Denice

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Wowie! That's pretty cool! I like that the lid is on a hinge and I'm guessing that the chimney gives just enough draw to keep the fuel burning. Looks like hardwood scraps, no? Is there a firebox hole or is it fed at the bottom? Is the trash can lined with anything? Does he give out instructions or sell the finished products? Nice that it's so portable!

 

I have some old hippie friends who told me their story of firing a raku on the beach at Coney Island. At curfew, they had to pack up the buckets of reducing pots and head home in their VW bus with smoke streaming from their windows, driving fast to outrun it!

 

Sure, I would use one, it would be great for fairs where you could sell right out of the kiln!

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Guest JBaymore

From the looks of that, it is not "open burning".   If you owned one, would you need a permit to light a home wood stove, Denise? 

 

That fire is enclosed.

 

It is important for EVERYONE in ceramics that we keep fires inside kilns from being defined by authorities as "open burning" and requiring permits.  This is a Pandora's Box problem once it is opened. 

 

If we allow the precedents to be set....... eventually everyone will suffer.

 

best,

 

.................john

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Hi everyone

 

I’m Stefan and I have building this kilns for past 20 years and made more then 2000 of this kilns.  First I made it wit a special kind of Swiss rubbish bin. 10 years ago I started to make this kilns out of IKEA trash bins. I’m teaching kiln building workshops and I’m selling kiln kits and complete kilns in Switzerland and Germany.

 

Yu can see some pictures on the following websites. I made this, when I was in Australia in 2012 for 6 months and when I was in Japan in 2014 for 4 weeks. There are a lot of pictures on this websites. But the text is only in German, sorry (My English is not so good and would be to much work to translate al the text in Englisch). But you could use google translate.

 

Kiln building and firing at Sturt art Centre in Mittagong, Australia

(2.bis 8. Juli)

http://stefaninaustralien.jimdo.com/sturt-art-centre/

In this time  I had the workshop in Sydney where Sahana made this pictures

http://sadhanapeterson.blogspot.ch/2012/08/building-little-raku-rocket.html

 

 

On the same site

(30. Juli bis 5. August) You could see my hi fire version of IKEA garbage bin kiln, made out from a stainless steel bin. It’s possible to go up to more than 1300°Celsius in 1 and a half hour.

On the bottom of this site are some bowls witch I fired in this kiln, celadon and jun over tenmoku glaze.

http://stefaninaustralien.jimdo.com/sturt-art-centre/

 

 

Kiln building workshop in Japan

http://stefaninjapan.jimdo.com/workshop-sasama/

 

Firing with friends in Bizen

http://stefaninjapan.jimdo.com/bizen/

 

My facebook site is: https://www.facebook.com/stefan.jakob.395

 

Best regards

Stefan

 

PDF WOOD-FUELED RAKU KILN FROM AN IKEA RUBBISH BIN

http://stefaninjapan.jimdo.com/links/

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The pots fired round the world! Loved this letter to Stefan in the Aussie link:

 

Hi Stefan!

Just came across my notes from the bin kiln building workshop I did with you at Fleur's place (was that really 2006?) in the sw of WA.

Thought I would share with you a little of my experiences with the kiln which has given me so much joy since that time. Thank you so much for your fabulous workshop.

I now live in Sydney and my husband and I regularly sail our cruising yacht up and down the east coast of Australia as far as Cairns and beyond.

A few years ago I discovered that if I jumped on the spinnaker in its locker, I could fit in my little kiln. The kiln has since accompanied us on 3 long journeys on the yacht for many thousands of sea miles and has been set up and fired for both bisque and raku firing on many beautiful deserted islands along the way. I fire it with driftwood collected on the beaches and reduce the raku ware in a pit dug in the sand and lined with rocks, if available. I fill the pit with collected dried leaves, seaweed or whatever is locally available and cover it with a wooden batt or flotsam for a lid. I am about to rebuild a new kiln as the lid has finally rusted through. I intend using the same old fittings for grate, flue etc as they are fine. Just new a bin and lining. My friend made a kiln after the workshop in a bigger Ikea bin. She has not had much success with it - many breakages. I will stick with the small bin as it fits in the boat's locker and is light to transport but I wanted to ask if it would be possible to put in a wider shelf? I have found that any ware that overhangs the shelf often blows up esp. when bisquing. This means that I am limited in the diameter of the pieces I can make. Does the kiln need such a wide space on either side of the shelf to distribute the heat? Even an extra inch or so on either side of the shelf would open up more possibilities of forms that I could make.

Here are a few small pictures of the kiln in action in the Palm Islands north of Townsville.

Thanks again for introducing this wonderful little kiln. It has truly added another dimention to our lives.

Sincerely, Michele

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My post of end of last week is gone. Boo. That shouldn't happen just by switching servers :angry:

 

Hello Stefan. Welcome to the forum  :)  and thank you very much for posting all the info and the pictures! I am sure there is a great interest in the kiln. One of the forum members asked if you are doing (maybe in future) online courses? Enjoy the Lehmhuus course next week! I hope to see you in the forum regularly. You have such great knowledge, you could help a lot!

 

oldlady: the pots are put into the kiln and taken out of it like in other top loader kilns. Taking them out with raku tongues too.

 

Happy Sunday to you all.

 

Evelyne

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Guest JBaymore

My post of end of last week is gone. Boo. That shouldn't happen just by switching servers :angry:

 

Evelyne (and everyone),

 

So here is how that happens.  When the servers change it takes some TIME for the rest of the "net" to get the messages about that change.  So (just making an example) maybe in Ohio and the Midwest.... the other parts of the net THERE know within a few minutes. But on the West coast..... well maybe it takes a day.  And in Poland... it takes 2 days.  And on the East coast it takes 3 days.

 

So it YOU happen to be looking at or posting something to the forums, and you are in a place that has not yet updated the server location information.... your post goes to the OLD server location information and shows up in the OLD forums.  When you look... you see it right there because you are looking at the OLD forums... not the new ones.  Anyone else that happens to be in a place that the info is not updated is also seeing your post in the old forum.  BUT the folks that are in a place that has the NEW forum location info....are looking at the NEW forum.....and they never even see your posting.  Because they can not see the old forum stuff anymore.

 

Then when YOUR part of the world catches up, you no longer see the posts that you thought were there all along.

 

At least that is my understanding of about how this stuff happens.

 

best,

 

.........................john

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Then when YOUR part of the world catches up, you no longer see the posts that you thought were there all along.

 

Falling off my chair laughing, god the brain plays tricks does it not????????

Please don't take offence John, just my sense of humour!!!

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Karen: I've found a picture I made when I fired my trash bin kiln recently. You can see a round shelf with holes in it? I made that shelf myself. Stefan is using shelves with no holes in it (except the one in the middle to take it out again). I want to get as much fire and as much smoke at my pieces as quick as possible. Stefan wants to get as less fire at the glaze as possible. So he uses round shelves without holes, I use round shelves with holes. We both put one shelf just above the fire box, load the shelf with bisque ware, put spacer round the walls and put another shelf on the spacers. In the picture below you see the second shelf.If you have more questions or need more pictures, please say so!

 

Bciske: best you email and ask Stefan directly: info@raku.ch

 

I know he fires the high fire kiln in approx. 3-4 hours to cone 12

 

Evelyne

post-6433-0-31014000-1436542235_thumb.jpg

post-6433-0-31014000-1436542235_thumb.jpg

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