 | Kiln Building at the Island University TAMUCC Soda Kiln Building with Louis Katz and TAMUCC students Documented in stop frame animation. Will use it for recruiting at NCECA. A How to video. Do it yourself. Comments? |
 | Hog Barn Baby This was the first kiln I designed and built as a workshop. It was at Frantic Farms in Ontario, Canada back in 2004. This was the best workshop ever. Go to http://www.franticfarms.com |
 | PNW Kiln Building (1) -- Getting ready to lay the foundation Kiln building class at Pottery Northwest (http://www.potterynorthwest.org/ -- getting ready to lay the foundation for the kiln. In this class taught by PNW director Wally Bivins, we are learning to build kilns by actually building a new soda kiln to replace our dearly beloved but now deceased old soda kiln. As we have to erect the new kiln at an existing site, there are constraints, e.g. natural gas plumbing fixtures are already in place, and there's already a hole for the stack in the roof. So we spend a lot of time during our first work session measuring and remeasuring, putting down chalk lines for the perimeters of the kiln, then check and recheck everything, again, and again. This is a rather tedious but extremely important step. Hopefully we've got them right this time so later we won't find ourselves having to dismantle multiple courses of CMUs and bricks and start all over. |
 | Building Glass Bead Kiln Building Glass Bead Kiln |
 | PNW Kiln Building (4) -- First Header Course Scenes from kiln building class at Pottery Northwest (http://www.potterynorthwest.org/ -- laying a header course every 5 or 6 stretcher courses makes the wall more stable. Note we always start at the four corners, i.e. establish the corners first, then work towards the middle, checking the level and plumb line frequently. The mortar (60% grog, 40% fire clay) is more for keeping the course level than acting as a glue to hold the bricks together. |
 | PNW Kiln Building (7) -- discussion about the flue channel Scenes from kiln building class at Pottery Northwest (http://www.potterynorthwest.org/ -- here we have a discussion about how the flue channel relates to the bottom shelves and the shelf supports. Since we will have a real flue channel, the bottom shelves don't have to be raised as high as in our other kilns. However, as the inside edges of the shelves will be almost directly over the channel, shelf support will have to at least partially extend into the channel itself. Will this kind of obstruction in the channel affect the draft? Guess we'll find out when we fire the kiln. |
 | IN HARMONY WITH NATURE The Sanctuary is an 1,800-acre wildlife refuge, private estate and residence located along the Mississippi Flyway in rural northwest Illinois, dedicated to habitat restoration, conservation, education and research. This unique property, a privately funded Wildlife Foundation, is an Illinois not-for-profit corporation dedicated to the long-term restoration of habitats and the judicious use of our natural resources. The unique granite stonework and landscape boulder walls of the property are extraordinary. The millwork, casework, ceiling and wall paneling was all specially designed and fabricated from kiln dried and milled black cherry wood trees, harvested and selected from the heavily forested property. The Sanctuary's Built Environment is tranquil, enchanting and spiritual. The property is the site of multiple research and educational projects - including Habitat Management and Development; Food Plots and Agriculture Plantings; Vegetation Manipulation; and Nesting Surveys. Additionally, it hosts several educational institutions for field trips and accommodations for a multitude of organizations and universities, including the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Design concepts The primary design goal for the Dirsmith Group was to carefully craft a building and landscape environment that would blend into that marvelous piece of land and respect the natural landscape and existing lakes, ponds and trees. The owner's father had actually bought much of the original property, and during the Depression started a program with the WPA and Boy Scouts to plant over 30,000 trees on the gently rolling Illinois farm land. There were a series of small natural lakes or ponds spread out among the tilled fields. When we first arrived to walk the land, it was a bright, sunny spring day, and we spent 10 hours walking the 1,800 acres and talking to our client as to what were his and his family's dreams and visions. It was very clear that this was sacred ground, traversed by native American Indians only a century or so before us, and now carefully cared for by its new owner, as all of us are, temporary tenants of the universe. He wanted to preserve the land in some fashion for the future. He envisioned some form of a strong structure - wedded to the earth. The land was on the Mississippi Flyway, which was the route of some 300,000 Canadian Geese yearly, coming and going from the Bering Straits South to Crab Orchard Lake in Southern Illinois. It was very clear that he really liked and respected nature and natural stone, and he wanted something organic, sculptural or spiritual in nature to reflect the power of the site. We discussed many kinds of materials and how they could be combined or used in a natural setting. Moreover, we listened to him detail what the land meant to him as a little boy growing up, and what it meant to his family and history of the midwest of America. The owner, in his generous gentle and kind wisdom, has given the entire property in trust to his family Wildlife Foundation. In addition to forever preserving this wonderful land and building complex, he has also endowed a fund to perpetuate forever the running of the research study and conservation programs established and being performed yearly. The entire property is now a research/study/conference center as well. We are honored to have been a part of this uncommon project. |
 | Kiln Building Analyzing Progress This is somewhere along the building of the Hobagama but my time stamp puzzles me. I'm giong to start posting most of the construction I have in video and if you want to see the begining before I got digital search Gary Navarre in fotki.com and there is a bunch more with slideshow options. |
 | Pulling arch form At a kiln building workshop near Mt Pleasant, PA on march 17, 2008 we are pulling the arch form of a new kiln. |
 | Hayes Pond Drain Pool One of the neat features of this Pentax Optio W30 is it can go underwater. That means it is pretty well sealed and probably will not get cloged with dirt like my first digital camera, an Optio 60. I don't plan on a lot of underwater shooting but I just had to take a dip in this pool to see what is there. Not the only camera out there but a pretty good deal for a beginner like me. So I guess this is about how to get started with underwater photography ah? |
| Oceanfrontier Hideaway | |
| Sheraton Suites Philadelphia Airport | |
| The Boulders Resort and Golden Door Spa | |
| Coral Beach Club |
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