Our First Firing In 2016

We unloaded the April 2 firing, watching the sunset on the beautiful pots we laid out on the tables. The kiln fired in 18 hours, a record time, due to the very active wind and to Bruce’s work with the drafts. Over a dozen potters were represented in the soda firing.

At around 2000 degrees, the door started to wheeze in and out, due to Clarence forgetting to secure the clamp, but that was soon resolved. The soda sprayer bit the dust, so we improvised. Katie, Cindy, and Maria watched the sunrise over the farm. Our new friends Corey and Aron also worked under the stars, and our youngest firebug, Tzuriel, who is thirteen, arrived at 2:00 in the morning and stayed till noon. Logan was a great help with wood cutting and wading.  As always, Bruce keeps us moving forward. Katie made some fantastic bread. We’ve had good luck escaping the rain so far, but Friday night and morning were fiercely windy and cold.

We experienced a glaze flaking on a few of the pots and wanted to note that flashing slip needs to be put on particularly thin. Katie got a really interesting result by dipping a cup in an ash glaze, washing it off, and dipping in Oribe. Maria’s boxes turned out wonderfully as you can see from the photo. Even Phillip’s tall pot survived the bag wall!

Here’s a list of the Bobtown potters and fire bugs who attended. The next firing is May 13. We always begin loading around noon on that Friday, so if you have some cone 10 bisque-ware you can come out and experiment with our glaze selection. We start the little campfire in the chimney around 6:00 and continue until late Saturday evening. You can always come to open studio any Saturday and work with cone 10 clay and glazes.

Check out our website at bobtownarts.org

Cindy Cusick

Katy Doherty

Maria Deter

Clarence Hayes

Philip Wiggs

Bruce Hoefer

Kelly Hoefer

James Bonta

Aron Beck

Cory Shultz

Molly Rolin

Noah Broomfield

Tzurial Watson

Logan Davis

Frank Jenkins and friends