Plum Nelly Manabigama Kiln Opening

here are some more photos

Opening The Plum Nelly Manabigama

We had a great firing, finally was able to unload the kiln. There were many happy surprises. Im going to pack a bunch of pots from this firing to be in the Larkin Booth at NCECA. Please come and see the pots my photos dont do then justice

Thanks for looking

Wood Storage

I keep collecting wood so that I can store it and use it a year later. I was able to get metal cages that are more or less 4x4x4 . They come from a friend that reconditions 275 gallon totes. They have a metal cage and a plastic bladder. He ends up with a lot of cages that he used to sell for scrap. I now buy them from him to store wood. I also sell his reconditioned water totes that I use for saving rain water

When I drive up to the Studio/Shop I jump on my tractor and using the forks I lift up a cage and park it behing the truck and just throw the wood in the cage. What I like about this system is that I only handle the wood one time..Horay!!!

Here is a photo of a cage I just loaded and a couple of photos of some of my wood storage set-up

wood haul

Getting wood for my wood kiln and 3 wood stoves is a interesting pastime. I mean I can cut trees that have been hit by lighting or wind damage on my property which I do. But that means hauling out the chain saw , useing the dremel tool to sharpen it , get some gas mixture cut the tree up, get the log splitter , spend the time doing the splitting then moving it and stacking it or find a place that I can get a truck load of hickory cut ready to use after some curing. I actually have 2 places , one makes pallets of popler , hickory and oak and the other place makes handles for logging tools like peavies and cant hooks. I also have a way that I throw the wood into crates that are 4x4x4 and haul them around with my tractor. I get a truck load for $20 and $25. Got another load today of the handle wood,,

The Old Alpine firing

I had 2 firings this last week. My crew and I fired the Plum Nelly Manibigama wood kiln and I also fired my Old Alpine. It was a hot firing where I put cone 10 down top and bottom. I used mostly Ash Glaze 50ash/50 red art and some Shark Skin Shino. I also had a few cups with Purple Haze. It was a very good firing , meaning that most everything turned out fine. My Alpine is a 24 cu ft that came from Florida Keys College years ago . I had to throw away the burner system because of rust from Key West and I put in a High Pressure system and it works fine, Here are a few photos of the firing

Waiting now

We fired the Manabigama today. I started at 4 AM with small chunks of wood using a propane burner. Had the burner off by 4:15 AM.. What a great day to fire , the first day of Spring. We got cone 10 in the middle of the kiln around 2PM and we then pulled 2 passive bricks in the chimney and fired till 4 PM. We got cone 10 down in the back looking through the passive . I put a lot of cuttings from pine trees around the pots as we loaded. We used some really old hickory , some new hickory and some funky pine that had lots of Pine Beetles , That was one way of getting rid of Pine Beetles. All in All is was a great day to fire, Nona made some great food to feed the firing crew .Im planning on taking the embers out Wednesday and we are going to unload Saturday. Im hoping we will have some really nice pots that will be sitting in the Larkin Booth at NCECA in Tampa next week.

Also had a really good gas firing 2 days ago. Lots of nice ash glaze mugs and some Angel pots and a mess of baskets..

New Vases

Just threw 4 vases using Phoenix Clay . I like the way it comes out of the wood kiln. It flashes really nice and the ash drips look great. I have signed up for a 3 day workshop firing the Manabigama at Arrowmont. Its in a week , I hope it fills. Im hoping to see new ways to fire the kiln and maybe see some new slips and glazes .. That way when im ready with my firing crew we will have some new ideas..

I was hoping that winter was over but its 34 degrees here today, Ive had a fire in the studio all day and just lit another fire in the greenhouse

Im back in the Studio

I have been on a few trips, We went to Reno then to Point Arena on the California Coast where we stayed at the Light house. We hiked on beaches and walked the beach where the San Andreas Fault goes back to the sea. I picked up some interesting beach sand and hoping to try it with some ash for a glaze. We bought some tiles at the Point Arena Tile Works, great place. We also found a new Pho Restaurant in Reno, we ate there 2 times , it is perfect Pho..
We went to out to see Paul Herman and also his pal Joe Winter. Nona bought a covered Raku container from Joe. His wife did the decorating and it super
We got back just in time to spend 2 more days on building the salt kiln shed. Then took of to go to Mobile for the Alabama Clay Conference. I threw pots in the Potters Council space and saw lots of old friends and met a bunch more. Also the was my 1st Mardi Gra , WOW !!!!!!!!!!!
Then went stay with Sara and Robert Mason at Gulf Breeze and went on boat ride and he built the boat. Also ate lots of shrimp. Went to Pass Christian and stayed at Lisa Watsons place and ate lots of oysters and beer. Also I got to see Brian Nettles set up. He has a brand new studio . It is well lit and I did a couple of demos , that wa fun. He also has a big wood fired kiln.
On this trip we drove to Fairhope and went to the Kilnstudio.com owned by Susie Bowman , really nice Gallery. Also check out deanmosher.com , we walked to his home and took some photos then we were invited in , What a amazing couple of weeks.