[Not a valid template] Vase 14″ high 2016

It has just turned 2017 and I feel that the website might be in need of some updating.

In the last few years I have been doing more “trying to make them better” and less “I wonder what would happen if…” The differences between what I did then and what I’m doing now are often pretty subtle. But the differences do make a difference!

Also, in between then and now, there was “the fire.” At the end of a firing, 10 p.m., 31 March, 2014, some oil from my burner had seeped into the floor of the kiln and out into the ground around the burner. The kiln was at glaze temperature, 2350 to 2400 degrees F. The vapors from the seepage ignited and were driven quickly to the north wall of the old pole building by 30 mph south winds. In minutes the fire was out of control. In the next hour that old building plus the more recent one attached to it were completely gone. Had it not been for the Brownsville Fire Department arriving so quickly our house, not connected but near, would have been next.

Of course the kiln survived, but it needed much attention and upgrading. For starters, the 50 year old vacuum cleaner I used for a blower and which had partially failed and had actually caused the oil leakage would need to be replaced.

For many years I had been trying to find ways to get things to work while spending as little money as possible. (My pots never sold well enough to cover their own expenses.) It seemed wrong to take money from what the family was living on. But many years of finding cheap solutions eventually caught up to me. (the vacuum cleaner!)

After the fire, the prospect of not being able to make pots anymore seemed real to me. I examined alternatives for many months. I didn’t come up with anything. I considered electric firing. The combination of surface and color that the kiln produces cannot be approached with an electric kiln.

Long story short: new building, new blower system and old burner and much work on the old kiln have turned out to work really well. Better in fact than the kiln has ever worked. My wife has gotten more actively involved with the firings so that it’s not a 24 hour process that I have to do by myself. Things are looking up.

Here are some images to bring the website up to date.

Vase 16″ high 2016

Vase 21″ high 2016

Two Vases
14″ and 8″ high 2015