one step closer!

wow, so yesterday i built the arch form and crammed, slammed and beat the supproting arch under the main anagama arch. this is actually the way the front of an anagama should terminate. i didnt do this with the first version of the kiln and actually had a pretty loose front end after, oh i think four years of firing. i believe i fired the original kiln 9 times? i'd have to look into that. anyway, before we left for a shopping trip to asheville and a tourists baseball game i quickly cast the keystone and a litle bit of filler in and behind the supporting arch. this morning i went out and dropped the arch form to see how she looked. well in typical fashion since i am not paying myself it may not look beautiful but she is rock solid. I am happy with the structural integrity of the front now, plus the whole reason for this change was to shorten the firing, lessen the ash on the pots, and allow the kiln to be fired in a more neutral atmosphere, and finally to take away about two hundred or so pots needed to fire the beast. Our pot counts usually were around 550 for a firing with a fair number of large pieces to close to 700 for a table ware firing or mostly smallish pots. I found i didnt like firing two to three times a year. The current loading plan will take around 350- 500 pots something that me and a couple stokers can do every two to three months. well now i gotta gather some more wood, andmake pots. the kiln stillneeds some finishing touches such as the fiber and mud, and a new door built, plus the cleaning and washing of the thing since it will be salted. but those can wait, pots and wood are more important at this point. i just may be able to pull off a july firing, so those who want to get in should belly up to the bar now. off to the studio shane

going up!!!!!!!

yet another day out in the smelly cat litter box! yhea the local cats have been using the sand as their personal toilet. i guess a permanant wooden door to keep them out would be well worth the time. yesterdays kiln demolition and begining of the rebuild really zapped me out, so luckily i had two able bodies assistants with me. the man in blue basically threw dirt all day and dug large holes, while his counterpart joe cool just sat there behind his shades with a blank look onhis face. really didint know what he was thinking about so i kept to myself. on a serious note i need to build thesupport arch and then do some castable to patch some holes and i will be ready to fire, except another hundred pots and wood, wadding oh god! technically i added a front buttress wall at the termination of the kiln walls, and a firebox that will accept grates and stillallow for some pots down in the coals. i wanted to rebuld the chimney and open up the exit flue a bit but may just blow that off and see how she rolls. well gotta get cleaned up for the fourth of july. take it greasy.

coming down!!!!!

well here i go, started on the redesign of the anagama today, had to stop to eat and finish some pots that were drying out. i have removed the foundation rocks and the front of the foundation wall, unzipped the arch pretty far back. i found the dirt behind the brickwork very interesting and it smelled like fireworks! funny timing for that smell. i will dig out the very front stacking area and put grates there. i believe the hardest thing will be trying to tie in the new front buttress wall with supporting arch under the original arch, whew! hurts just thinking of it. i will also do the same to the back exit flue area, unzipp it and make the exit flue larger. i need to also take down the chimney, i want to taper it, make it shorter, and redo the damper slot. this will require some scaffolding as the current chimney is 15 feet tall. so far i have removed close to 300 straights and 80 arch brick, assume to get about 100-200 brick out of the chimeny, can you say gas salt kiln!? maybe we will see. ok off to get a burger then back at it. shane

potsarrazi spotted!

well well well, here we have caught in the action, our residnet blogomaniac! yes folks that is the ever present michael kline! i spotted him snappin images for his blog (come on it will be there tommorow for sure!) so the potsarazzi has been razzied!??? oh my my. i followed our specimen around and shot a few other pics, but this one of him playin dad was great! really in action here. we were all up at the penland fourth celebration/ ice cream social. god bless penland for there community support and good times. evan ran around like a maniac as did all our kids, our little town is so nice and the space infront of the pines works so well for family gatherings that we just let the kids be kids. Mark peters and i hung for some time and watched the madness and discussed the finer points of pots, people,life and the difference between busch and pabst! sorry mark pabst is the blue ribbon beer! just kiddin. we did get a kick out of the fireworks and i had been waiting to try the fireworks setting on my camera, worked good till it actually got dark and the shutter speed slowed, or maybe to many pabst and bush? got home in time to square some teabowls and add some surface to them. well really really late, kiln waiting on me in the morning, later s

goins on

well another week gone by in this potters life! managed to work on some pots as you can see. the teapots are the first ones to get my new surface treatments and in the group shot of various pots there is a pitcher that has been cheese cut or faceted with a cheese cutter. the other pics are of our river camping trip i only put up the pictures of jessie and nevi maybe i will add one of evan later, i suddenly feel odd putting him up on the internet? guess there is no harm but its weird. i was scheduled to start on the kiln today but our ex neighbors (across the creek) son has abandonded his pack of dogs and the shelter director had to collect the six crazy dogs. its a real shame when people do this,. i called the polica and lodged a formal complaint and am thinking of pressing charges for animal cruelty. in this county nothing is ever done about this so its probably a waste of time. now that the dogs are taken care of maybe we will just let it go. i also needed to take some pictures of gays redneck beaver damn, not that she is a redneck, but the damn is definitly country in its style. the biggest part of that is all the trash it collects, you really see how bad people still are about their trash!! well evan is itching to work in the studio, he as been making caterpillar houses and even a walle sculpture, which by the way we all went to see yesterday in asheville, if your not in the know of kids movies, WALL-E is thenew pixar movie. its about the robot that cleans up the mess left on the abandonded earth and when a newer bot comes down from the distant earth ship he falls in love,etc etc. wont give it all away, but its a great movie with a green message! i give it two thumbs up and evan said he gives it sixty hundred thousand thumbs up! WOW! thats alot of thumbs people. time to go work in clay. shane

updates people

well for those who do check in from time to time, here is a update. i recently fired western piedmonts gas kiln with my students work, we unloaded today, and everyone was happy with there pots, good for me. been makin pots at night, but very slowly. i will drag my sorry ass out again tonight and actally take images of my latest pots. i moved onto gays rock work to combat the evil beaver population that is eroding her driveway, 10 tons of rocks to go peeps! wanna help? other than the usual i am knee deep in my search for the elusive 1991 geo metro convertable, well the convertable part is needed but would assure me spruce pine montessori schools car of the year since the evil klineanators awesome honda has finally passed on. seriously, the 1991 metro was rated at 43 mpg! and every year after that it got lower until it reached somewhere in the low thirties! and some believe the oil tycoons are not evil, HA! so if you know of anyone sitting on a nice 1991 five speed 1.o litre fire red convertable geo metro give them my info! well back to teh web to search

aftermath

well, i posted that the tour was bad on saturday, and it was even worse on sunday, i have never done that poorly on the tour! it left me in a lurch financially and i am back to the grind of early mornig work -teaching-after teaching work, and maybe i can even get into the studio! i have taken the etsy plunge and we will see how it goes. been asking for tips from other sellers, looks like i need alot of items up and alot of relisting to do! we are getting ready to fire the reduction kiln down at western piedmont community college, i am so excited! cant wait to see how it goes. Well gotta get out to the studio and handle some pitchers, trim some pilsners, and maybe throw some pots too. have fun out there. shane

tour day one

well, ran back down to ashvegas to get patio furniture, went fine got back around 11:30/ lunchish hoped for some traffic. It started off ok, but man the sky let loose around 1pm. next thing theres flash flood warnings, man. so no more visitors the rest of the day. glad i wasnt counting on this tour,(wipes tears from eyes) bye bye. bobo

week in a life

well, its funny, i thought i was keepin up but now a week has almost gone by! so what has shane been up to, well as you know teaching is taking up a good chunk of each day and four days days a week, and the gas is killing me! over 300 dollars in two and half weeks! ouch. so a typical day latley has been as follows, up at 6am and out the door by seven to go do some handyman/ construction jobs, leave for western peidmont comm college by 11:30. teach from 1-4:30, then head home, the drive to school or from school to home is averaging around and hour and 20 mins. once home i do some things around the house, dishes, laundry, cut grass, dinner whatever, then if i can scrape myself off the couch i go to the studio to work usually around 8 or 9. i usually work till my eyes feel really tired, you know that feeling? sure you do. so no ohhhs or oh poor him, its a potters life, not a vetern potters life, a potters life, remember i have been making pots for over 15 years, but only six to seven years full time, so when the economy goes to shit and sales slow down i gotta reach down deep into that bag of tricks and find a way to make the benjimans roll in. not ashamed of admiting that one! after i start pulling long days like these i really start to feel better about myself, i believe i was meant to work long and hard, my father (rest in peace pops!) was a millright and let me tell you, those bastards work very hard and long hours too. i actualy wanted to join the local union he was involved in when i graduated high school, but he would have non of that, he wanted his children to go to college, i did so, but the first two years were a joke! when i had to transfer to a real college i landed at frostburg state university in western md. kickaround and eventually found the art dept. when i declard that major (second or third one!) my dad wished he had let me join the union then baby, he was pissed off. its funny though, he worked with his hand in what my opinion was a craft, as they say "engineers design it, millrights build it." think about that for a minute, when you start something out that you design to build it never goes together quite right? no extrapolate that out to a large power house turbin, or other large scale something or other. yep thats about right. lisa is upstairs waking evan up so we can run to asheville and look at patio furniture! so better run, and end this ramble. s

busy,busy busy

sorry its been so long, wheww! fired of the bowls and platters last night, been running like crazy. i think i may be pushing to hard but oh well, gotta keep up with the smiths, or johnsons, whatever. no pics, but i will get some up some time, maybe after i unload the kiln. i am headng to philly buyers market so i need to start getting ready for that even though its in august, pots to make, kiln to rebuild or make fireable whichever is easier. wel just a quick post, more later