Wood Fired Earthenware

[Farm Medic]

greeting

My name is Charles and I'm a potter in Conneaut Ohio (NE tip of the state)

and,new to this forum

kind of new to pottery.

New sort of. I got my BFA at Ohio U back in '91 and only made things a few times until about 3 months ago.

I picked up a couple of old electric kilns ( $300 for a kiln, and a spare kiln too) and fired earthenware a few times, getting my Majolica and clear nailed down. Remembering how to see with my fingers on a potters wheel. So the kiln won't reach bisque anymore. Even took all the element contacts apart, cleaned them and tried again. 

So yesterday I decided to turn the 3 kilns into 1 double barreled wood kiln. 

 

this is what mine looks like. sort of.This is my inspiration.

http://rootedinclay.com/index.php/woodfireing/

 

I'll put up pictures tomorrow. I ran out of light getting things together.

 

I've found blue clay on the beach here. Found it again at the sand and gravel supplier. In the pile were chunks of clean clean clay. forced it through an 1/4" screen and slaked it down. dried it on plaster and voila, it threw like a dream. the plan is to fire this clay once I find a good source of it. goes to maybe 03 or 02 before it gets too soft. makes a warm red. it's been a thing

[Benzine]

Welcome to the forum.

 

That's an interesting kiln set up. If wood fired is your goal, I won't try and dissuade you, but I hope it's not just because of the kilns not reaching temp as there are fixes to that. Also, how are you going to bisque your wares, if you do go the wood fired route? Will you single fire?

 

I will also give you my experience with a similar colored found clay, I've used. I was given some from a creek. I slaked it down and screened it. It threw nicely. However, at Cone 04, it was quite weak. I could snap it by hand. It could be it was underfired, but a classmate of mine in college brought some in to the studio. The instructor let her fire it, during the Cone 6- Cine 8 firing in a waster vessel. It melted. It was completely melted, but slumped a lot.

So I'm not sure what the maturation temp actually is.

 

I wish you the best of luck on your ventures.

 

Also, I find your avatar amusing, both because of the subject matter, and also because a former poster here also used it.

[flowerdry]

Ah, yes, I recognize that picture!  Whatever happened to...?

[Farm Medic]

I don't know just yet what to do long term about bisque.

I'll just have to figure that out as I go.

If possible I'll look for another cheap electric

stupid is as stupid does but I want to fire out once firing. It's something that has always fastenated me.

everyone who makes pots that I know just laughs and says I'm being an idiot, the old timers would have bisque if they could too. Just like cones in a wood kiln. Temperature CAN be determined based upon color alone. but you got be really really good and will most likely be blind before all that long staring into the yellow/white of cone 10

 

as for the clay

the area I live in is layered with a 30+' layer of yellow clay that is brittle at 04. the blue stuff is from lower down. I live on a ridge above Lake Erie (about 3 miles from the lake). I've fired the blue and it seems like taking it just into the 03-02 range vitrifies the clay just a little and it will ring like a bell. The vessels (tumblers and bowls) have held water for days without leak through and they aren't glazed at all. (testing) I think It's about the sand content, like you mentioned. I hope to send this stuff off to OSU and have a friend test it up to 10. just to see what it does. My heart is in it for now. i wanna see what I can do.

 

I did hear back from Shana at Rootedinclay.com. She says she is still firing her electric conversion. not terribly even but still going. Some of that might be fixable and she goes to stoneware temps anyway. I'm hoping for temps within 2 cones, top to bottom. 

 

my kiln still needs the chimneys made. one of the primary differences with the inspiration is that mine is lower. The fire box is on the ground and the kiln floor under the 2 tubes is on a cinder block. it's all lines with hard brick.

 

there are a bunch of little things different. the main one is that I've sealed the entire bottom of the kiln with a high sand earthen plaster. (50/50 bank sand and yellow clay) over the soft brick from the 3rd kiln that was disassembled and used for the firebox.

almost none of the clay will be exposed to direct flame.  we'll see

 

I'm no expert. not at all

I don't even know if this was a good idea.

as for fixing these kilns to fire, I picked the the last 2 up for almost nothing with the intention of doing something like this when they failed. I've been carrying one with me for 20 years. they are basically junk kilns. 

 

who knows?

[bciskepottery]

http://community.ceramicartsdaily.org/topic/12234-qotw-would-you-fire-your-smaller-work-in-a-trash-bin-kiln/?hl=ikea&do=findComment&comment=88192

 

You could bisque in a trash can kiln . . . or even final fire. 

[Farm Medic]

yeah, I guess

I work on more of a production scale though

when I'm throwing full bore, I can fill a regular E-kiln in 3 days. it would take me months of sitting at those little cans. Even bigger ones. Actually, the cans look largely irrelevant. It's simply a place holder for all that silica blanket. 

nice idea though. 

I've come across that stuff as interior chimney wrap in the construction industry (bread and butter work at this point)

it's thin but it adds up. I've only got a little bit of it.

 

anyone ever try recasting crumbled soft brick?

maybe in a kiln wash to hold everything together?

dunno

thanks for the responses 

[Mark C.]

As far as local clay you will need to test it to see its vitrifaction point and to see if it has any strength as mentioned above. Our local blue goo clay from fault lines needs to have additives to make it work better. Many local clays are that way.Depending on what you are making with it it may not matter-say indoor sculpture.

Good luck with the process

[karenkstudio]

 

The following link has some good information on wood firing green ware:

http://www.mudslingerpottery.net/erthkiln.htm

[Farm Medic]

As far as local clay you will need to test it to see its vitrifaction point and to see if it has any strength as mentioned above. Our local blue goo clay from fault lines needs to have additives to make it work better. Many local clays are that way.Depending on what you are making with it it may not matter-say indoor sculpture.

Good luck with the process

 

I have already found, talking to 2 of the local sand and gravel suppliers (as they are the ones with huge piles of blue clay, that the sand content is different. These 2 pits are only 5 or 6 miles apart. I don't figure to really be making everything out of this stuff for a while. Not until I find the perfect pit. 

 

so here is the thing.

living on the banks of Lake Erie, I have had the chance to explore the beach in a section (directly on the Ohio/PA border) where the area is about as undeveloped as anywhere I've really seen east of the Mississippi River. The reason this matters is that the beach backs up to a 30' cliff/bluff of exposed clay layers. My house is about 60' above that clip top (being on the ridge that was the beach 10,000 years ago as the lake subsided). So down there, the transition from the yellow to the blue is obvious. also obvious is the shale content in the blue. I don't really have the science to explain why there is more gravel in one layer and none in other parts. "Glacier did it." But I can tell part of why it works in some rom some pits better than others. At least around here, the exact make-up of the clay really depends upon getting the exact layer with no stuff. I just stand there and look at the high wall of clay. Some spots have streams flowing out the face of the hill in those lava flow of blue goo others have mentioned. But then there are large areas of almost perfect regularity with no major chunks. A smooth(ish) blue wall. It blows my mind trying to imagine how it all got there.

 

here is the thing

back when I was learning to throw, I started looking into this stuff. Not surprisingly I got many of the same concerns from everyone around me about why it was advisable NOT to look for natural sources. I had to do what they said because they were grading my work. I'm the only one grading what I do now. Once upon a time in Montana, I walked 16 miles in the mountains looking for a turn off that I had passed  miles into the walk because I was POSITIVE it was just around the bend. I'm pretty stubborn. and as long as I have the means, commercial clay is easily available. so I have the opportunity to do like the mud daubers in the once ago did when they moved to a new place, I gotta find what works. It's there. I have a few 19th century jugs from the area.

it's here.

somewhere.

and the results I already have are pretty wonderful.

[ohio]

Hi Charles,

  Thanks for sharing.  I'm about 150 miles west of you.  I make my own clay with the yellow stuff found on my property and single fire with wood on a spot dug out of a small hillside.

  Digging the clay and finding many types of rocks led me to study the geology of my area a little.  Love finding the stuff the glaciers brought here!

  Hope to hear more from you.

  Thanks to everyone on this forum.   I have learned so much from reading all the past posts.

[Biglou13]

Ah, yes, I recognize that picture!  Whatever happened to...?

 

yeah i miss jim !!!