First Wood Firing

My first wood firing. Many Thanks to Tony Ferguson for his invitation. It is a firing that will no doubt be one of my most memorable.

Early Friday morning began by cleaning out the Anagama kiln. There was some old ash and a bunch of wads that had to be chipped out. Then the brick floor needed a little bit of clean-up with a grinder to remove any fused wads. Once I got the kiln cleaned out we unloaded all the pottery and arranged the pots in an order/priority of how they would be loaded into the kiln. I had about 18 tea bowls that needed to be glazed, so while Tony was doing some other chores I glazed my bowls with some glazes he had brought down from Duluth--A couple of Shinos and a Tea Dust Temmoku.

The loading process began about 1 pm in the afternoon and basically consisted of me handing Tony, who was inside the kiln, the pots as they had been previously arranged. It took a lot longer than we thought.