Loading, firing and unloading.......

Loading and firing took two days - the first 8 hours was just heating - then cranked it up to 1800 degrees for about 8 hours, then cool down for another 5 hours. Salt is added in packets.



This is the whole class before unloading the kiln
Finished work was piled on a table

The blue fire plume above the studio was beautiful!

We could check on the progress through peep holes.

The unbricking of the kiln was incredibly exciting as our completed works were revealed. Of course it was all still very hot!omp

Salt firings are very unpredictable - a lot of the work came out looking charred more than glazed and lovingly fired.... But the whole process from start to finish was extremely exciting and rewarding.

....the rest is up to the powers that be...

All the work is in the kiln, we said some prayers and the firing process goes on. Through the night the kiln was left at about 200 degrees to get any remaining water out of the pieces, and then at about 2:00 the temp was raised a little - 8:00 raised again to about 600 degrees. We unload sometime tomorrow afternoon. Until then, we clean and keep our fingers crossed that the kiln gods smile upon our work.

There are about 200 students here at Penland this session - two clay studios of about 40 students total. The rest is an amazing assortment of glass blowing, glass bead making, metals, iron, fibers. I have taken some time to wander and see the other studios, but last night, our work completed I got to take a more leisurely view of some of the other work going on. This is really a wonderful community of artists doing some really wonderful work. The studios are buzzing with activity late into the night. On Thursday there is a student auction, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the variety of work created here (and maybe even buying some of it!)

One of the great benefits of my work study job was meeting Charles. In his late 60's Charles has many tales to tell. He's been a joy to work with. He's been making an iron gong up in the iron shop. Late the other night as I lay in bed, the sound of a million crickets outside was punctuated by the clanging of Charles hammering his gong up in the iron shop on the hill. It made me smile!

Here Charles is consulting with Brian on the physics of gongs







This is one of the bead makers in the glass studio flaming a bead.

The Lost Clay Weekend!

It's Tuesday - I don't know what happened to the last 4 days! We'e been in a clay frenzy, completing work for today's kiln loading. I got another drive out to the river for a little dip which was refreshing. Yesterday was glazing day. All completely dry pieces were brought up, glazed and put on rolling carts in front of the kiln to be loaded today. The firing is a salt firing, at a fairly low temperature, and a lot of chemical stuff from burning coffee grounds, tea leaves, pine needles - which will create wonderful affects on the finished products

THis type of kiln loading is called "tumble loading" - the smallest pieces are piled up on top of each other with wads of clay coated with a little salt and calcium carbonate and the other materials in between them. The glaze is actually slip - wet colored clay, so the pieces don't stick to each otherr when they're fired like they would with an actual glaze. The loading took about 5 hours, with a second kiln for a few very large pieces.
There's also been lots of time to relax between all of the hard work of creating clay instruments

The most important part is creating kiln gods to protect the firing

I think I've got the hang of this!

These two days (thursday and friday) have been great fun - I haven't wanted to leave the studio - a bunch of us were up working until about 11:00 last night - there was some singing and general silliness as well!

This is the collection of flutes and whistles and things in progress so far -I'm quite proud of my bear whistle - on the right side of the board. . He has a lovely deep sound, befitting such a handsome bear!

The water whistle is the most exciting - I'm constructing it today - it's a two-chambered vessel with water and an aquaduct joining the two chambers. One chamber has a whistle. when you tilt the whistle, the movement of water forces air through the whistle making a whistling and also a haunting "other" sound.

Flutes, flutes, flutes

I'm not used to doing clay for 7 or more hours in a day - I'm trying to pace myself - it's fun, exhasting and very frustrating. The studio is filled with the airy and sometimes beautiful deep and haunting sounds of flutes and whistles in progress. It was somewhat of a relief to go to my work-study job of putting out silverware and dishes - at least I could do it successfully - although I did come within millimeters of overflowing the potwashing sink.....



This is me with a flute that has made sound, not made sound, been fixed by Brian, broken by both of us, beheaded and retooled. It is currently resting until tomorrow when I will once again try to make it into a recorder. My goal is to come home being able to consistently make working flutes and whistles - I keep getting closer



Today Brian finished the body of his drum and showed us a quick way to dry it.

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No need to leave for 2 weeks - it's beautiful

Since I figured out how to download my pictures, I'm including this special photo page - free at no extra cost!

These are the 2 lamas that come to visit the field across the road every night at dinner.


This is the main dining hall. I spend a lot of time here since I'm doing meal setup for my work study job - the 3 of us doing it have agreed that it's the gentlest of the work study jobs. We set up the dishes and prepare beverages and make sure everything stays stocked and clean during the meal. Much easier than washing the pots and pans afterward!


Speaking of which - it's time for dinner - today was my day off - I just get to go and eat!

If it's Tuesday it must be flutes and drums

I spent half the night and much of this morning working on a two-chamber whistle. Finallly got it together and working midday! WHEW!


Today was a whirlwind day of various drums and various flutes. We got a great demo and talk on drum making. Then we moved on to the flutes. I have finally made a flute that can play a western scale - with only 1 missing note. Perhaps Brian (our instructor) will find the missing note tomorrow.

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The class is really working well together, helping each other out and being incredibly supportive - which is sort of remarkable given that we're all making a variety of whistly and windy sounds - not all of which are particularly lovely, and all of which could get downright annoying with the amount of repitition we are subject to. But everyone is genuinely enjoying everyone else's sound "discovery".

The studio is large and we each have an entire table to work on - since the studio is open 24 hours we can leave stuff out and come back to it whenever we want. I didn't think I'd get this into it, but it's been very hard to pull myself away from the studio for meals or to take a break. When I do, however, I realize how tired I am.