No Risk - No Fun!

As part of the Woodfiring Marathon, we had guest artists arrive: Markus Bohm from Germany, Gregory Miller (US/DK), Steve Harrison and Janine King from Australia – how nice it was to hear my native tongue in the Guldagergaard house!
Markus took a lead role in packing the kiln, along with Richard the studio manager and Josh, a visiting assistant from the U.S. The space inside the Olsen kiln was ‘cosy’ so it suited to have one big man – and then me! Below you can see Josh and I puzzling pieces together in our igloo.
Although I had wadded all my wall pieces so they would sit flat in the kiln, Markus suggested that we should stack them vertically to capture as much ash as possible drawing through from the fire box. Along with Nina Hole’s sculptures, my pieces would be right in the firing line for stoking and I was unsure whether they were stable on their edges – but I was open to Markus’s philosophy of ‘NO RISK- NO FUN’ so we went vertical!

Markus Bohm (Germany) packing my wall pieces against props with wadding

While the larger work was being lifted into the kiln, I prepared the cones – a sea of colour! With such a large space, a triple chimney, rear chimney, front and side stoking doors, we had 7 sets of cones altogether. They ranged from cone 05 (1040 C) to cone 13 (1350 C). Unlike the Bourry Box firing, the Olsen will be fired for much longer, reach much greater temperatures and carry more ash so all the props were dipped in kiln wash and every prop had wadding.

(Above) Sneak peek of the kiln finally packed – you can see quite a lot of Nina Hole’s work and my large windmill pieces from this side stoking entrance. One of my works was placed directly onto the kiln floor which I was a little uncomfortable with – since it had a flat base and the kiln floor had not been re-cemented. This also made it tricky for us in levelling the props and shelves.

Again...no risk – no fun!