have u seen this man!?

well, he is a wanted man, but only by a certain individual, if you see him, grab him and send him to counter agent aquamarine! seriously folks! anyway the kiln crew is here in virginia, busted out our first day saturday. i am out in the field gathering materials (i.e. ihop breakfast and wifi!) while my assistant is busily working, he he. you can see from the pics we had a good first day, followed by a thunderstorm of the likes i have never seen, crazy! well, gotta run before the crew gets suspicious! see u at ihop or chilis where i can get internet. D-shane

body is fine

ok, so here is what the kiln looks like after the body is fully built, door finished, and irons painted. I am adding the irons painted as standard to all future soda/salt kilns, just a good idea i think. The door and some other parts of the kiln are different colors. Cynthia had a lot of various brick tucked in a variety of places on her property and i used everything that was usable and when those resources ran out i switched to the new soft bricks we had bought. Unfortunately it wasn't until the top part of the door that i got to use these new brick. I much prefer using brand new brick, just use to it i guess. Last night i i tried to work on the burner stands but something told me it wouldn't go well, and it didn't! so now i have to get new materials and start over, sheez! Friday is coming up fast, I still need to get the irons started for the next kiln and what beats all is that my truck is still in the shop. Bessie is on a little health retreat! She better not need another one for a long time, as this is gonna hurt when its all said and done. I may spend more for her spa visit then she is actually worth. oh i shouldn't put that out in public, she may read this and get mad. anyway. i have to get the day started, wish me luck. capt. cone pack, "aka bobo"

attention to detail

ok, so you've been following this kiln so far and as you see i enjoy my job! but yesterday was the part of the build that i love. The detail cuts! I am a nut for cutting brick. Most folks build with whole and half brick. I build with whole, half, 6 3/4 and 2 1/4 cuts. those are the normal cuts, in the last couple of pictures i uploaded you will see one of my more "creative cuts". It is part of the door wall where the brick is normally cut into an L shape. This is how i create the patented door flange on all the Mickey kilns. This particular brick also happens to have the shape of the arch cut into it, and yes this is a super duty hard brick! so those who have cut brick know what went into that. I do use a wet saw, in fact that's about all i use these days. I use to use my old compound miter saw to grind curves into the brick,but between the dust and having an abrasive blade explode on me, i stopped using it. well the body of the kiln is finished, some finishing details such as peep brick, castable in firebox, bagwall and the door are all that are left on the kiln. Next i move onto to plumbing the gas lines and building burner stands. It seems i will get about 2-3 days to clean my tools, pack my truck and head out to culpeper virginia for the next gig! ok, maybe some day soon i will make pots again! This potters life is anything but pottery at the moment but i love kiln building and it does help pay the bills. stay tuned capt cone pack

more progress, some time off

so, i am moving along on cynthia's kiln, got the kiln irons up, arch form built, arch in place as you can see! i was just starting on the complex cuts for the hardbrick that go under the arch when my blade died. I couldnt find one locally so i had to run to asheville thursday night, made a night of it. stayed at kyle carpenters place, got up and went to find a diamond blade, then visited the southern highland show and spent too much money, but got some nice stuff (no pots though). So in essence i took friday off! yippee. My old undergraduate buddy michael lease is assisting a class at penland, so him and the instructor stayed here last night. We had an amazing feast of sirloin from hickory nut gap farms, salad, broccoli, and rice. michael and i stayed up late catching up. i rounded off the night with a midnight chat session with my favorite person (WINK WINK). now its time to try to get this old train rolling again. see u people on the funny farm! D-Shane

bringling away

ok, so today was one of those days that can just drag onnnnnn...... See, it all started with the welder's wire feed motor kicking off every second weld! half an hour later i would be back melting metal. this went on for a very long time. By the time i packed up the tools and materials i would need for the arch form and Kiln irons then drove to cynthia's studio it was at least 3:30! then i was missing a piece of metal, had to run into town. SHEEZ! so i got back after that trip, and raised the irons in place, then proceeded to begin to mock up the arch and build the arch form. Mocking up an arch can be frustrating when the brick are off a little and this is not uncharted territory for me (Penland salt '06) so i silently (probably singing outloud while playing air guitar) worked on laying out different patterns of brick while listening into what was coming out of my earbuds. eventually i noticed the sun had gone from the sky and was pretty happy with the arch i had layed out. I decided it was time to sleep on it and see what i think in the mornign. the pictures i posted are from this afternoon cutting and welding the irons. I felt that spark that is about to hit my head in the cutting picture, truley did. Other injuries today; back (of course, whiney bitch i am), sore toe (brick!), a blood blister on my forarm from carrying brick, this is actually not a common injury and seems like it should be? anyway, i wish all my fellow artists good luck down at the southern highland craft guild show in asheville. If you dont have plans this weekend you should go out and spend some money at this wonderful show. later taters captain cone pak

updates and such

so, i have to admit, that the exciting world of old friends on facebook has held my computer time attention lately, hence, no blogging. sorry to those ofyou who do look in on occasion! anyway, after school let out, evan and i took a trip up to maryland to see some friends and family. it was nice to take about a month off from the studio, my back is feeling better some days, and continuing to do excersices helps alot. the break is over and I am itching, needing to make pots. I am nearly out of pots and what is left is a mish mash of pottery. First things first is what u see in the pictures. I am currently working on cynthia bringles new cross draft salt kiln. Me and Eric destroyed the old kiln and after about four truckloads of old useless brick going to the dump, i had the slab clean and have started to build back the new kiln. I am hoping to wrap this job up soon and prepare for mike campbell's wood kiln construction in virginia the last week of this month. i will (as i always promise) try to get back into the blogosphere especially when i get back in the studio which will hopefully be soon! and inaugust i get to take my sweetie and her daugther to the beach for much needed R@R. then back to the classroom for the fall semester. I am doing five days a week, so if you think your commute is bad, wait to hear my stories this fall. be good out there folks.