A few years back, I worked through some of Andy’s paid courses. I really respect that he’s trying to preserve both the pottery culture and the techniques that have been in continuous use for thousands of years.
He’s run a newsletter for years, and he’ll occasionally talk about hosting workshops, or traveling to meet up with various academics.
He’s a very specific kind of nerd, and I love that he has found his niche.
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In terms of my own pottery, turns out I’m more of a slip caster. Much more in line with Kent’s channel[1] than Andy’s.
I agree that the title is click-baity, but the spirit of the video is about showing no-budget solutions exist, without the need for any specialized equipment. The cheapest tiny electric kiln I could find with a bit of quick searching is still over 1000 dollars[0]. Which is a much higher up-front cost than [checks video] 21 bricks, some sand, a small metal bucket and a bag of charcoal.
Also, if your apartment has a big enough balcony where you're allowed to put a barbecue, then this approach is just as viable as an electric kiln.
Imagine how upset you'd be if you ordered a kiln on Amazon, and you got two dozen bricks and a bucket in the mail. You might be tempted to say, "this is not a kiln".
Pit firing pottery isn't with a kiln, they fire pottery to much lower temperatures.
And yes, not every solution is for everybody... For people that don't live in a city, doing this in their backyard is more accessible than buying equipment.
A life time ago I was a ceramicist among other art things. And one thing I love todo was a Seaweed firing. I would say its easier than his method, but i can see his to be more convenient.
All you need for a seaweed firing is a beach with a good amount of seaweed.
You start by building your fire with your ceramics in the center.
Placing some kindling, paper, small sticks, a standard camp fire type of thing.
Then some dry seaweed on top to make a mound.
Once everything has taken light you can add wet seaweed on top, covering the mound.
The idea being, that as the fire goes it drys out the fresh seaweed then combusts it. And you keep that cycle going for as long as needed.
You can add air tunnels if needed. Windy days are much better as you can really get a inferno going in there.
I've managed to get temp's over 1300 degrees.
Firings can last days for very large ones (size of a truck), my longest it about 8 hours or so (size of a office desk).
His method of firing is substantially different enough from a standard electric or gas kiln that it's more in tune with pit firing, which is what ceramicists call it when you just build a hole in the ground and make a fire in it and toss the pots in.
This is, of course, slightly abstruse if you aren't into the nitty gritty of it, but suffice to say, if you said his stack of bricks on the ground was a kiln, many people would be confused.
I Have not used one, but I have a friend who has used a microwave kiln with success. This is a small specially made container that can be placed inside a regular microwave to fire low range clay ( cone 04 ) or to slump glass. Here is an article that gives a few pointers: https://www.soulceramics.com/pages/microwave-kiln-things-to-...
For those in a city / apartment / burn ban / etc, there are publicly accessible kilns in most major (and some minor) cities. Look for places that offer pottery lessons. Depending on the kiln, you can rent a specific fraction of it for a firing or pay by the piece. Local pottery supply stores will know what kilns are available as well.
If you’re near a university with an archeology or anthropology program, they may offer a partial semester “primitive” pottery course. These are a blast and teach interesting techniques for building and decorating pottery objects.
If you have access to a park with bonfire pits, you can do your low firings there. The primitive pottery class I took ended with a combined cookout and firing at a public park a few weeks after the end of the class. The prof rented a shelter with a bonfire pit.
Pottery is a lot of fun. I made a variety of small pieces before I got to fire anything. You don’t need a wheel or any specialized equipment, just some basic clay and patience. Depending on where you live, you can dig your own.
Check out the Great Pottery Throwdown to see mostly modern methods of making pottery in a fun, friendly reality show format. (Think Bake Off.)
[1] Edited to add "friendly" and Bake Off reference.
The raw clay wouldn't be vitrified, so it would be porous and would seep or leak. A glaze is a glass, more or less, and to get the silica to melt you need a flux. There are different fluxes for different temperature firings, but suddenly things are getting a little more precise. Without substantially levelling up the kiln tech and design you'll be at best low-fired and probably using lead as a flux. E.g. terracotta and earthernware.
Early peoples would have used wax or fats to seal pots like these, to make them functional. People do that with modern pit-fired pots too, or use other sealants.
I designed and built my own high-fire kiln, but it uses industrially made light-weight insulating and refractory brick, and gas burners, and I use Orton cones to know when I've hit the right amount of heat-work, and a pyrometer to take temperature readings. But some brave souls make their own bricks, and look at the colour inside the kiln to know when they're at temperature.
I used to use an electric kiln to do firings for my partner. It was fun working on the process. Our house had a lowish supply voltage so I ran 10mm2 cable back to the consumer unit, and experimented with the impedance of the elements, as we did a lot of quite high firings. I used an electronic kiln controller mostly but occasionally verified it against an Orton cone. Gas would have been more economical but a bit more scary, for me anyway.
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He’s run a newsletter for years, and he’ll occasionally talk about hosting workshops, or traveling to meet up with various academics.
He’s a very specific kind of nerd, and I love that he has found his niche.
—-
In terms of my own pottery, turns out I’m more of a slip caster. Much more in line with Kent’s channel[1] than Andy’s.
[1]: https://youtu.be/BEVAidKCbUg?feature=shared
Boo. It is not a solution if you live in multi-store house in the center of big city (and small electric kiln IS a solution in this case).
Also, if your apartment has a big enough balcony where you're allowed to put a barbecue, then this approach is just as viable as an electric kiln.
https://www.soulceramics.com/products/jen-ken-af3p-15-6-glas...
And yes, not every solution is for everybody... For people that don't live in a city, doing this in their backyard is more accessible than buying equipment.
You start by building your fire with your ceramics in the center.
Placing some kindling, paper, small sticks, a standard camp fire type of thing.
Then some dry seaweed on top to make a mound.
Once everything has taken light you can add wet seaweed on top, covering the mound.
The idea being, that as the fire goes it drys out the fresh seaweed then combusts it. And you keep that cycle going for as long as needed.
You can add air tunnels if needed. Windy days are much better as you can really get a inferno going in there. I've managed to get temp's over 1300 degrees.
Firings can last days for very large ones (size of a truck), my longest it about 8 hours or so (size of a office desk).
I watched the video without sound, did I get that wrong?
This is, of course, slightly abstruse if you aren't into the nitty gritty of it, but suffice to say, if you said his stack of bricks on the ground was a kiln, many people would be confused.
Dead Comment
If you’re near a university with an archeology or anthropology program, they may offer a partial semester “primitive” pottery course. These are a blast and teach interesting techniques for building and decorating pottery objects.
If you have access to a park with bonfire pits, you can do your low firings there. The primitive pottery class I took ended with a combined cookout and firing at a public park a few weeks after the end of the class. The prof rented a shelter with a bonfire pit.
Pottery is a lot of fun. I made a variety of small pieces before I got to fire anything. You don’t need a wheel or any specialized equipment, just some basic clay and patience. Depending on where you live, you can dig your own.
Check out the Great Pottery Throwdown to see mostly modern methods of making pottery in a fun, friendly reality show format. (Think Bake Off.)
[1] Edited to add "friendly" and Bake Off reference.
Early peoples would have used wax or fats to seal pots like these, to make them functional. People do that with modern pit-fired pots too, or use other sealants.
I designed and built my own high-fire kiln, but it uses industrially made light-weight insulating and refractory brick, and gas burners, and I use Orton cones to know when I've hit the right amount of heat-work, and a pyrometer to take temperature readings. But some brave souls make their own bricks, and look at the colour inside the kiln to know when they're at temperature.