FINIS

Well folks,
It's been a long month, full of hard, dirty work but we are glad to say this baby is finished and ready to be fired! There she stands in all her glory...

and the proud parents.

The dirty work is over (well most of it anyways).

The kiln has been dismantled and the bricks have been packed and transported back to the studio! We will begin construction for the new kiln on Monday! Renata's mini kiln replica.
Renata drawing up plans.

Down to the last few!

Alas, all the bricks are packed up and ready to be transported!

(We are happy and hot...can you tell?

Project is underway!!!!

The current incarnation of 'Radical Mugs' was developed to raise $ to build a new, small fast-fire wood kiln. For $30 folks pre-purchase a radical mug and every dollar raised is going towards materials and the mugs will be fired in the new kiln once complete! (We're pretty excited about radical mugs..so we'll keep making and selling them after the kiln is complete)

We secured a source for used bricks (in the form of a friend's old gas kiln). After a couple of weeks tearing down the old kiln...and moving TONS of bricks...it feels good to finally have our materials on-site. Ground is prepped, form is built for the slab and concrete will be delivered on Thursday.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we will start laying out bricks on Monday.

The kiln 'footprint' is about 54"x54" with 9" walls. Stacking space (this is where we 'stack' the pots) will be two side by side 12x24 kiln shelves to make a 24"x24" by about 36" high stack. We're going with Fred Olsen's fast-fire design with a few changes. It's been redesigned for front stoking to make it easier for one person to fire. This meant a slight change in the draft/flame pattern, so we'll build in a flue channel under the floor of the kiln running front to back.

We will also build in 'back-up' stoke doors in the back of the kiln on either side of the chimney in case the flame doesn't want to travel that far. : ) Also, we are trying to foresee future wear and tear and make it easy to replace materials in high-risk zones. The firebox grates will be replaceable steel hobs, and the 'ceiling' of the firebox will corbel in to allow a 13.5" x9" refractory brick to span the gap.

Stay tuned.......

Kiln (pre-deconstruction)