I just thought I would share this for any potters out there. I'm building a primitive kiln in the backyard strictly out of found materials... from... the backyard! I understand that cinderblocks are certainly not period for construction... but I'm trying to capture the 'process' moreso than the material.



This is a work in progress. The first stage was building a structure with air intake to feed the fire at the bottom, a shelf to hold a wood/charcoal fire just above the open space, another shelf above the fire to place the pottery on, and a tapered top leading to a narrow chimney. As you can see, I'm smearing mud into the brick cracks to begin sealing them (mortar is a big no-no, as it won't allow bricks to expand with heat) but the next step is to bury the kiln entirely (aside from chimney, access walls, and air intake) to insulate it further and make it more pleasing on the eye. Then I'll grow some grass on my kiln and make it look like a nice smokey-chimneyed hobbit house. ;D

Now to get the kick-wheel together so I can start throwing some pots!

Thats pretty awesome! I have been thinking about building myself a forge from crap too..

Hehe, yeah it's funny. People throw around the words "kiln", "forge", and "furnace" like they're so big and intimidating to make... but really it all just comes down to a heat source... good airflow... and a chamber to hold it all in!

Visigoth and I are going to be building a furnace to melt down aluminum in soon, too. ;]

Yep it's gonna be cool
hopfully copper and brass too.

Yeah, up here a guy uses a 55 gallon drum for his glass blowing furnace.

I meant to say scrap, not crap btw, my fingers have a mind of their own!

I might have to build a furnace for glass next...I have always wanted to work with glass

Yeah its pretty cool. I wonder if you could build a furnace that could be used for all three, just changing the heat source out.

You can definately use a pottery kiln for slumping glass as long as you can alter the heating and cooling rate of the kiln (we do that regularly at our pottery club).

I'm not sure if it would work for blowing glass - I think that requires something that can be opened regularly during the process (more like a forge). Kilns are usually designed to get up to a temperature and then cool slowly - you don't open them and peak during the process. Forges and glory holes (glass) are open so you can place things in and out.

Ah thanks, forgot what it was called.

its actualy called a "glory hole" lol...

Yeah, I remember at a demonstration the guy calling it that and everyone giggling like teenagers

we all need to stay young at heart